I think that the term "openness" is a term that both current educators and future educators need to be familiar with. When it comes to education, openness can be seen as a standard for progression. It's the standard that embraces change. It's the standard that brings down the barriers that are restricting access to education. It's the standard that is empowering not only the learners, but the educators as well.
"He who receives ideas from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine receives light without darkening me." -Thomas Jefferson
Whenever the topic of openness in education is brought up in discussion, I think to myself "Why would anyone be against this?". David Wiley's discussion on open education is proven to be quite insightful. One thing I agree with him saying was as simple as "if there is no sharing, then there is no education". If you are against openness stop and think for one second, what do you have to lose from sharing your ideas? Wiley also mentions in his presentation that the most successful educators share most thoroughly with the most students. This is a statement that I 100% agree with. If you're an educator, and you're paranoid about other people taking your ideas then I think that you may be in the wrong profession.
Technology is also making education more accessible. With the internet, everything we need is almost at an instant and almost free. There's no doubt that the number of people that are attending school at a college level continues to grow. With that in mind the idea of classroom space and access to resources come into mind. Surely we won't be able to rely on physical textbooks and large classrooms forever, right? I personally think that libraries will and should always exist, but with technology, we have the opportunity to get rid of those extremely expensive textbooks (that will probably be outdated shortly after their release). We don't have to fight for the availability of that resource. With technology everyone can have access to a cheap digital book. Online classes also help those access education when they may not normally be able to do so. The lack of social interaction is not at risk in online classes because the internet already does a good job of enabling it.
The gift of technology and being connected does come with its drawbacks. Despite there being so much content available, there is also content that is not safe for our k-12 students. If left unmonitored, children can be exposed to unsafe content such as phishing (a fraudulent practice to gain access of someone's private information), or could be victims of catfishing (using false identities) or other scams. On top of potentially being exposed to unsafe content, due to the ease of anonymity that comes with social interaction, internet harassment (also known as cyber bullying) is common, and it can be awful for someone to experience. Obviously educators cannot monitor their student's activity. Even though educators are not able to monitor their student's activity, we can still provide them with information on some of the dangers that they may encounter; we can still guide them on what's appropriate to share and what should stay private.
Open education combined with technology will help reduce the cost of education, improve the quality of it, and make it more accessible. Being open and sharing allows us to gain a lot while not losing anything. Being able to provide quality education is something that I will strive for as a future educator.
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