Josh Catone at Mashable writes an introductory article on open education. Some well-known open education projects are highlighted such as University of the People, OpenCourseWare and Flat World Knowledge. The comments reflect an interesting and multifacted viewpoints regarding open education. From the article:
Without a doubt, the cost of higher ed should decrease but for the US to remain a competitive nation, it should continue to be high quality. If the system were totally free, how would we provide excellent instruction? Give the teachers some love. Teaching requires training, research, experience, and an impetus for improvement. Anyone can go read stuff online, take a test, and think they’ve mastered material, but true understanding of subject matter doesn’t typically happen that way, if only for a lack of different perspectives.
Thanks to Stephen Downes for the link.
