At any rate although I am behind the curve in discovering this type of education, I plan to keep my finger of this pulse of learning. These resources will come in handy for me in my personal continual education as well as my professional positions. There is so much promise for many with the advent of these resources.
The flag ship of this whole movement was Massachusetts Institute of Technology so naturally sought information on this higher learning giant. It’s official website name is MIT OpenCourseWare found at http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm. According to About.com MIT is “The forerunner of OpenCourseWare, this college provides dozens of detailed courses, as well as audio and video lectures” (About, 2012); OpenCourseWare (http://distancelearn.about.com/od/isitforyou/a/opencourseware.htm) this site tells all about the latest developments with OpenCourseWare and what universities are involved; Secondly, Tufts University “Provides users with access to material from a number of disciplines including medicine, nutrition, arts, and sciences” (About.com, 2012). The Url it lead me to is (http://distancelearn.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=distancelearn&cdn=education&tm=94&gps=30_6_1120_604&f=00&su=p284.13.342.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//ocw.tufts.edu/) MIT boasts on their website of reaching 100 million persons worldwide while offering 2000 courses free in their first 10 years. Their next goal is to reach one billion lives by 2021 (MITOpenCourseWare, 4Dec12). With this passion behind them I am interested in how they will accomplish such a feat. Mainly, I admire their insight and drive to move education within reach of the world. Tuffs University is no less ambitious with their statement on their website: “A great university constantly expands its reach, working across traditional boundaries to grasp and meet the global community's most critical needs” (About, 2012). Although, like other OpenCourseWare facilities, Tuffs does not offer credits or degrees it does make all of their life sciences (Medical, Veterinary, Dental and Nutrition Schools) available. I admire this simply due to the fact that I can imagine the number of underserved countries that could use this information to better their communities. Bonk touches on this feat by mentioning “With this one innovation called OCW, you can now instantly compare classes and programs offered by institutions in different corners of the world” (2009, p. 169). I imagine using the information in much the same manner, as a secondary resource at least to direct students to for further research. Namely, instead of purchasing books we could have saved some YWCA grant funds by seeking out OCW information relevant for educating our adult learners for a future career in highway construction. The monies saved could have been diverted for assisting with stipends while the students were in all day classes, or used to help them gain commercial licenses needed to be marketable. Similarly, this is how I will direct my future adult learners. I imagine in my goal to reach out to adult learners where they are I may find myself in a position with limited funding. In these situations I will start with the MIT OCW to find curriculum specific to my topic and tailor it to the class needs, if nothing else as supplemental learning tools. I expect to take advantage of their, or another educational facility’s, video or visual aids on course specific topics. Had it not been for what I heard how underprivileged countries are using the free educational materials I would not understood the potential. They say ingenuity is product of necessity.
References:
About.com
(2012). Distance learning. Retrieved December 4, 2012, from http://distancelearn.about.com/od/isitforyou/a/opencourseware.htm
Bonk, C. J. (2009). The world is open: How
web technology is revolutionizing education. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Chris- Thank you for your blog and discussion about open and distance learning. I too have reservations about giving things way. I am an entrepreneurial type person working in an industry that supports independent musicians, authors and filmmakers whose livelihood depends on independent distribution and commercial sales. I look forward to learning more about open learning and ways to make sources accessible and affordable to researchers and learners, but with some remuneration to aspiring or established scholars. Thanks for your ideas on this interesting. Teri
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