Open_Ed Course Fall 2007

I have liked Dr. Wiley's idea of writing the chapter about the future of the OER movement in an autobiographical form, as if everything had already happened. It has given the narration a more realistic flavour, there is more credibility in what he writes. At a certain point in my reading I was afraid that he was going to give us no hope in a positive development of OERs in the future but, as it happens in all the best novels, everything has been set and the surprising ending has been assured. Wiley discusses the problem of the future of the open education movement in higher education from an essentially U-S centred viewpoint, and that could not be different, it would be too difficult to figure out a worldwide scenario. This is exactly the reason why I will try to figure out what can happen, I hope at least what might happen, in my local reality, old little Italy, in the near future.

It seems to me that three different mainstreams will be important to consider:

As regards the cultural aspect, it will be important to spread the awareness of the importance of openness and cooperation and to encourage the sharing of educational materials in schools and universities for non-profit aims and educational purposes. That would give more prestige and visibility to the institutions involved and would be rewarding in the long term. In Italy there is a group of teachers and university researchers who have attended Dr. Wiley's Open Ed course and are planning to produce a wiki about the topic, to discuss their learning/training experience in seminars and conventions, who want to create awareness and a sensibility towards the OER movement in educational organizations. We could begin from these pioneers, they can start by trying to convince their organizations, schools or universities, to begin participating actively in the open education movement. These pioneers could create learning materials that can be published and shared freely online on a "MetaU-like site" with the help of other volunteers.

As regards the legal aspect, my first and most important hope is that there will be the introduction of the fair use for educational or non-profit purposes in the Italian copyright legislation in a short time. In the Internet era it is impossible for a teacher to rely on our great cultural heritage without piracy; it is a contradiction in terms that must be eliminated as soon as possible even because in our schools the so called "education to legality" is one of the most important pedagogical objectives to attain. As regards the controversy between CC and GFDL licenses, I hope that the better solution can win, but I cannot make up my mind in favour of either one or the other solution, I am not properly informed and qualified to side with any.

As for sustainability, the government might start to consider the importance of OERs when discussing the problem of guaranteeing the right of studying to all Italian citizens and in particular the problem of buying textbooks. In Italian secondary schools all textbooks must be paid by the families, and some laws have been passed to limit the amount of money that each year the students' families have to pay because Italian textbooks in secondary schools are expensive, sometimes new editions of good textbooks are published without any apparent reason but improve the publishers' incomes. There are some contributions granted to the poorest families, but this does not solve the problem, it is like a drop in the ocean. On the contrary, the government could start to consider alternative ways to save money in buying textbooks by giving the opportunity to create and share open courseware  material and other resources on public repositories created for educational purposes and addressed to different kinds of learners. It would be nice to organize competitions among schools for the production of the best course in any subject. As Wiley himself remarked in his chapter about the OpenCourse Wars, motivation can be a great incentive for the students in the production of incredibly valuable educational materials.