[Oer-community] OER in ODT

[Wayne Mackintosh]

Dear Lesley

On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 6:27 PM, Lesley Delaney
<lc-delaney at optusnet.com.au>wrote:
>
>> What is most important is the accessibility and in ODT, it did not want
>> to open in my Windows 7.
>>
>
Accessibility is a significant issue in open education. In this particular
example Susan provided the list with both Microsoft docx and an Open
Document Text versions, so you had the freedom to choose which technology
to use when viewing the document. Your access to the document was *not *
restricted.

However, your freedoms may be restricted, for example, where your employer
does not permit you to download and install free software. From a pragmatic
point of view, text documents may not present a major challenge because
most free software users will be able to convert the document into an open
file format. However, in the case other formats, like video the problem
becomes more complex.

Many free software users will not be able to view flash-based video players
because they don't want to sacrifice their freedoms by using proprietary or
encumbered file formats. Why would we deny access to these users? The free
software browsers provide native playback for open video file formats - -so
in theory no-one should be denied access to viewing the video because they
are free to install a free software browser.

As open educators, we should respect user choice, and this means at the
very least we should ensure that OERs are available in open file formats.

The tragedy in the real world is the too many education institutions do not
respect (or understand) the choices of their learners.

By way of example, I am a free software user and as a result my children do
not have access to non-free software. I've had cases where my children's
homework has been marked as "not-submitted" by the teacher because they did
not know how to open a free-file format version my children submitted on
time. The embarrassing part of this story is that the teacher concerned was
an IT teacher ;-).

Wayne

-- 
Wayne Mackintosh <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg>, Ph.D.
Director OER Foundation <http://www.oerfoundation.org>
Director, International Centre for Open Education, Otago Polytechnic
Commonwealth of Learning Chair in OER, Otago Polytechnic
Founder and elected Community Council Member,
WikiEducator<http://www.wikieducator.org>
Mobile +64 21 2436 380
Skype: WGMNZ1
Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/Mackiwg> |
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