Free Knowledge January 26, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Fair Use, Opinion.trackback
One of the issues I advocate for in this blog is free access to information. I’m not advocating that educators disregard copyright laws, but I do believe that those laws currently run counter to the original intent of the founding fathers and framers of the US Constitution. Virtually limitless protection of access to and use of information to the extent now codified is limiting creativity and innovation, not encouraging it.
Steve Borsch (Connecting the Dots) expresses some of what I’m trying to say in a much clearer way than I can. In his post ‘What if all human knowledge was free and accessible?’ he draws a parallel between the current trend of “Internet-centric knowledge repositories” and the distribution of food. What was once complicated and difficult has become (in the case of food) simple. That simplicity allows us to focus on something more important.
NOW imagine a world where “content and knowledge calories” are cheap and you can access baseline knowledge for some given subject or topic while having easy, shrink-wrapped-like access to the high value knowledge, presented in an easy to use and learn way.
I’m not completely sold on the idea that information and calories provide us with a good analogy (at one point Steve points out how we’re all getting fat — what does that look like for information?) but I do agree that Web 2.0 trends are simplifying access and use of information. Mashups and widgets are good examples of early Web 2.0 end-user tool building. I doubt that the person who first started using a wheel envisioned our global system of roads and rails for transportation.
Recognize that the Internet is making the inefficient, efficient and that’s the primary reason an initiative like an open education resource vision will get traction. Supply chains, processes, methods, collaboration, communication and a multitude of other key areas are being poked-n-prodded with new startups or approaches as people try to figure out how to leverage the Internet to get rid of the inefficient and allow us all to jump to the next level of creativity, innovation and human cognition.
What will be the end result of “Internet-centric” tools of today? What are the implications for the classroom?
We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and learning. Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go.
Educating the world’s children is the right thing to do and is key to enabling and assisting them to achieve self sustaining status. But it also ensures that we have a hope the world’s knowledge will achieve equilibrium and thus higher standards of living, creativity and innovation will emerge everywhere.
Connecting the Dots: What if all human knowledge was free and accessible?
Blogged with Flock
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?