I am in agreement with the ideas behind the initiatives and thus I have signed both. In an ever more globalized world it seems to me to be next step in effective education. Making information freely available will in the long run educate more peolpe around the world and that is the goal right? It sure is, but does these initiatives create more problems than it answers?
Like I said at the begining I am in agreement with the ideas behind these initiatives, but what will be the cost of initiating them? In one of these initiatives they state that they need publishers and corporartions to make their publications freely available. This is a neat idea but will this not mean the end for those publishing houses? Where will the revenue come from to pay the author? Lets face it no one will work for free. The other probhlem is the fact that not all people that this information will be available to will have the academic state of mind and integraty to treat the information as the intelectual property of the author, thus not giving the proper recognition.
The last point that I want to raise is the one of the technological constraints of the initiatives. These initiatives are completely reliant on the availability of appropriate and up to date technology (computers, bandwidth, 3G connections etc). In developed countries this might not be a problem, but in countires like South Africa where less than half the population has an PC in the house much less an connection to the internet, this is a problem. This problem excludes poor / underpriviliged people from the initiatives and these are exactly the people that would benifit most.
These are my initial thoughts after reading week 1 materials. Heres hoping that we can find answers together for these and other issues that might arise during the course.
All the best
Schalk
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Wonder if the need for smaller bandwidth to really distribute educational content with re-energise the people building code? Some of our courses here at Portage are made image intense by the publishers and can't be used by our students off the main and using phone line connections.
ReplyDeletePower Points with exotic backgrounds on each slide are used over the simpler Word presentation alternative as if the course had to win a Best Picture award rather than teach a concept. Cleary, the big suppliers of educational "content" are more interested in the entertainment end of the communication spectrum and aren't even aware of the limitations they've built in. Or maybe they don't see a need to "market" their product to anyone not already well placed in the order of things?
Thanks for your thoughtful posting here.
Scott
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