[Oer-community] Recentering our discussion

[Sabu K C]

Dear Dr. Susan and all colleagues,

I would like to share some of my reflections as follows. 
I am reminded of the Socio-cultural transitions that witnessed the opening up of 
'Education' in our part of the world in the Indian State of Kerala. 
Traditionally in Kerala, 'Education' was confined to the limits of certain 
privileged communities and the large majority of the commons (Common women and 
men) were denied of access to 'learning'. Access to the religious scriptures, 
reading and writing were all closed to those who were 'eligible'. Eligibility 
was defined by Religious background, Caste and such other criteria. 


Over the years due to the exposure and interaction with the international 
communities (by way of trade and commerce, invasion, colonization, forced 
occupation and the like) we saw many changes in society leading to the opening 
of access to 'Education'. Kerala today is considered a Total Literate State in 
India. With Distance Education and now with online opportunities, structured 
learning is becoming convenient for those who are interested and pursuing higher 
education in the State. It may be noted all these inn turn have also increased 
the numbers of a new category of people in the state called 'Educated 
unemployed' which appears to be a side effect of 'Structured Learning'. 



Use of Open Content
While this being the case of Access to Education in general we are also noticing 
another phenomenon in the use of open content especially in the use of chemicals 
and pharmaceutical products. Although companies selling their products are 
'publishing' all information including the side effects of their products/ 
medicines, the end user seems to be not caring for this open content. The 
literature available is printed so small in size or in dull colour that it is 
not readable. As a result indiscriminate use of pesticides and the drastic drugs 
has increased in the state. Victims of Endosulfan application in cashew 
plantations of the state is a latest example. 


Here we need to note that the content is open but access to it is conveniently 
locked by way of smaller letters and dull colors. What is lacking with the users 
is perhaps the critical learning skills that will help them to access relevant 
information and make judicious and positive use of it. 


At this juncture I am of the view that OER/OCW should be studied by the teaching 
community. Ideally OER should become an essential subject of study for Teacher 
Education and Training program mes. This in turn can have a multiplier effect on 
creating awareness on OER/OCW. Therefore we need to address the policy makers 
and decisions makers involved in Education to draw their serious attention 
towards OER/OCW. 


Sabu K C Ph.D.




________________________________
From: Susan D'Antoni <susandantoni at gmail.com>
To: oer-community at athabascau.ca
Sent: Wed, 13 October, 2010 5:57:36 AM
Subject: [Oer-community] Recentering our discussion

Dear Colleagues,

We have had an exchange on the OER Foundation that is important, but
it has taken us away from the topic of this discussion.

We are rapidly coming to the end of our discussion with Mary Lou and
her colleagues on the OpenCourseWare Consortium meeting.

I would like to suggest that we conclude the discussion by returning
our focus to the original framework for the discussion, and making any
last comments on the discussions related to the four areas put forward
that were the organizing principle of the conference:

Building OCW,

Using OCW as a Platform,

Sustaining OCW,

Educational Policy and OCW.

Mary Lou will summarize before she finishes her time with us, but it
would be very interesting to have some last comments from you on what
have been the main issues or concerns raised in the consideration of
the confenernce themes.

Best,

Susan

-- 
Susan D'Antoni

Advisor to the President
Athabasca University
Canada
_______________________________________________
Oer-community mailing list
Oer-community at athabascau.ca
https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/listinfo/oer-community


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/private/oer-community/attachments/20101016/c8b54afa/attachment.html