Elizabeth Harson:
Responding to Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning.
In brief, Richard Baraniuk believes there is a
disconnection between authors of educational books and materials and its
users. He wants to take the ideas used
in the music culture to reinvent the way we use books in the classrooms. Allowing teachers to share, modify, mix, and
manipulate course material freely at no charge to the users (other teachers and
students). His idea is that teachers all
over the world would have access to the material and can customize it to their
needs for their students for spreading knowledge. The purpose would be to eliminate the
textbooks and the high cost of the books.
I would think, as he stated in the video, the problem of
quality control or lack of, would compromise the information. However, I liked the idea of interaction with
the information especially that of math problems related to real life
situations. We already have a technology
world where knowledge is shared, but to have the ability to rip and mix books
as we do music, I am not sure this is a good concept with a history of
knowledge and information.
Hello Liz,
ReplyDeleteI was contemplating the end of his conversation about "peer" review of materials to be sure that the quality issue was addressed and found myself thinking that publishers have been replaced. The function publishers have served of oversight and quality of content will managed in a different forum. Wondering who will be viewed as expert enough to accomplish this and how the purchaser of this information would be able to evaluate this.
I also liked the idea of accessibility, customization of text, and lower costs for students. This would create major restructuring of the textbook industry . . . leads me to wonder how Universities would be able to compare coursework and comparability of credits earned . . . hmmm
Anne