Educalibre Tecnología y Conocimiento Libre para una mejor Educación

Fecha: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:34:47 +0200 Descargar [Icommons] Cape Town Open Education Declaration - comment.msg
Remitente: Kim Tucker
Destinatario: Icommons@lists.ibiblio.org
Asunto: [Icommons] Cape Town Open Education Declaration - comment

Hi all,

http://www.capetowndeclaration.org

It is great that this document has been shared.

I offer one comment relating to the "Most importantly ..." sentence, and some "wrong forest" statements.

Suggestion: change the "Most importantly" sentence to take cognisance of these points:

i. Whose opportunity? (recall "enabling people to empower themselves with knowledge" - http://communities.libre.org/)

ii. Quality can only be defined in local terms (by the users).

So, reword the sentence to

"Most importantly, hundreds of millions of people around the world will be able to improve their lives dramatically through the opportunity to participate in this global (libre) knowledge society."

Optionally clarify with something like: "Participants have the freedom to use knowledge resources (or any parts thereof) for any purpose, the freedom to co-create, adapt, enhance and share knowledge for collective benefit."

(the reference to quality becomes implicit - 'adapt' includes localisation)

This apparently minor change is actually highly significant and points to a possible systematic bias in the "open education" movement - see "wrong forest" below.

WRONG FOREST

From the libre knowledge (conocimiento libre) perspective (http://communities.libre.org ):

QUESTION: Does the declaration work towards our higher aims?

* "knowledge for all, freedom to learn, towards collective wisdom"

* "enabling people to empower themselves with knowledge"

[Collective wisdom is an implicit reference to sustainable development incorporating simultaneous consideration of social, economic and environmental concerns. UNESCO's goal of fostering a culture of peace falls under Social].

ANSWER: To some extent (I think the writers of the declaration mean "libre" when they say "open").
But it falls short and might grow one of our biggest challenges: eliminating the misguided "property" and "ownership" mindset.

Suggestions and points to ponder:

1. The word "open" will never capture the essence of what we are really trying to do (ultimately) liberate learning towards knowledge for all for effective participation in the global knowledge society ... in turn towards collective wisdom for sustainability (in the true sense of the word).

The word "free" may be confused with "gratis" (or free of charge). Say "Libre" and take this movement to the next level:
http://communities.libre.org/philosophy/saylibre - discuss:
http://www.wikieducator.org/Say_Libre

2. Tactics 1 - 3 in the declaration are important components of a strategy, but it is unclear towards what goal? - Promoting the OE(R) movement? Improved and appropriate educational practices for a connected world? Motivating fundamental changes to copyright law ... towards a free culture? Or some higher aim around quality of life for millions of people?

3. The most promising tactical note in the declaration is '1 Educators and learners'. This draws attention to the people with passion for their field of interest. Here you will find success stories of sharing and collaboration across institutions independent of the "OER Movement".
Learn from these and grow the energy while serving their needs for specialised collaborative learning resources.

4. As with most "open" movements, the emphasis is on encouraging "owners" to "open" up existing resources for societal benefit. Although this needs to be done, there is something more fundamental that needs to change - a rejection of the notion of "owning" knowledge and liberating learners in the copy-modify-mix-share culture.

5. Funders (see 3 above): support more bottom-up initiatives around needs-driven co-creation of knowledge resources and sharing (to augment the top-down institutional intiatives).

6. Consider renaming the declaration to the "Libre Learning Declaration" and redrafting it to include some of the principles and values of Libre Knowledge. Here is a draft declaration for libre knowledge:

http://www.wikieducator.org/Declaration_on_libre_knowledge

Kim

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PS Alternative venues for continuing this angle of the discussion:

* http://www.wikieducator.org/Say_Libre (the discussion page)

* http://www.wikieducator.org/Libre_knowledge [UTF-8?]– includes links to a draft libre knowledge declaration and some ideas around a libre license.