Federal Education Policy: Where do we go after NCLB?

The Promise of Open Educational Resources

AERA MeetingNew York, NY

March 25, 2008

Marshall S. Smith The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Our Global Challenges

• Rapid social and economic change• Great human-made problems

– Global warming– Extensive poverty– Terrorism– Nuclear proliferation

Meeting Challenges Requires Social and Educational Transformation

• Build on common values to strengthen resolve to improve the world while cherishing diversity and its innovative power

• Enable access for all to knowledge and opportunities for learning

• High quality educational content and tools• Free on the Web anytime• Usable and re-usable• Adaptable for all cultures and languages

A Powerful Tool for Systemic Reform and Transformation

Global MovementHigher Education

• 100+ universities around the world published OCWs• 5,000+ courses, 700+ translated into 10 languages

K12 Global Movement

Journals, Books, Videos, Data, Games…

Usage Expanding

Number of Visits Per Month (000)

Open is Powerful for Learning Because…

…Institutions can now reach people that they don’t have the capacity to serve

…Individuals have control over the content -- adapting and perfecting

…Continuous improvement through user and expert feedback and modification

…Act of modifying is an instructive learning process

Re-Mixing

Winston Churchill“If you have knowledge, let others light their candle with it.”

Thomas Jefferson“He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction itself without lessening mine: as he who lights his taper at mine,

receives light without darkening me.”

Movement Will Accelerate

• Changing habits of the new generation

• We all face challenges that require different skills than often taught in schools

• Openly sharing digital content becoming cultural norm

Some of The Obstacles

• Intellectual Property

• Localization and Translation

• Accessibility

• Sustainability

Institutions and Individuals have taken the lead so far…

Governments starting to define their roles…

How might openness change teaching and learning? Five examples.

• Use Open Courseware: builds a global library of teaching materials from leading universities worldwide:

• Open archiving (publishing, data bases and data analysis) to support research: books, journals, video.

• Shared courses located on virtual worlds.

• Open web-based laboratories create lab experiences for those without labs

Open Collaboration Enables Meta Universities

Openness Leads to Fast Feedback Loops That Engage Rapid Cycles of Improvement of Teaching Materials

Open Textbooks

• Facts & skills based• Teacher controlled• Work alone• Avoid failure• Discipline based

• Deeper understanding • Student controlled pace• Creative by creating • Work in groups • Synthesize and analyze• Try, fail and try again

Beyond Systemic Reform – Transform Learning

Accelerated, Personalized Learning Challenges Conventional Wisdom

Dramatically Increase Access to K-12 and Higher Education

• Reach remote areas without qualified teachers with full blown, complete courses: (multi-media, lecture, cognitive tutor.)

• Reach people out of school or lifelong learners

• Using proctored assessments to give credit for open learning.

Photo by mathew ramsey via Flickr

Problem-Based Learning Environments: Virtual and Open

Poverty: Food ForceScience Education:

Immune Attack

Politics: PeaceMaker

Harvard Law Extension School’s Virtual Class in Second Life

Opening The World to Knowledge and Education

http://www.Hewlett.org

http://www.OERCommons.org

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.