Join our WikiEducator mailing list or Register now for free skills training.

We are testing a new collaborative video editing tool — see Help:Collaborative video for more information.

From WikiEducator

Title

Possible titles:

Education as a common good: Juggling the economics of research, freedom and democracy in a digital age.

The reincarnation of humanitarianism in higher education: A conceptual mashup of Web 2.0, free software, and open content.

Abstract

In this article the authors will illustrate some of the critical relationships between the philosophical underpinnings of open and distance education, free content and the free software movement. Open education is viewed within the context of Article 26 as fundamental human right, standing on its own and as an enabler of conditions offering the opportunity for self-determination and critical reflection necessary for the establishment of civil society. Underlying assumptions of Article 26 will be investigated through description of open learning and free content programmes operating internationally.

The philosophy of open learning has been a directing and evolutionary force in the development of open distance learning (ODL), particularly the foundation of the large scale, single-mode distance education providers. However, the conflation of open learning and asynchronous delivery methods into the single descriptor of “open distance learning”, combined with advances in the implementation of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) under the eLearning banner in higher education has contributed to a conceptual vagueness that disguises the humanitarian principles underpinning the philosophy of open learning that has directed much of its practice.

Despite the latent potential of digital technologies to advance the democratization of education, for most of the developing world the realization of these ideals is nothing more than rhetoric. The sustainability of the economic models for higher education in advanced industrial economies can easily be challenged with costs of provision escalating beyond the national inflation index and student fees nearing the affordability thresholds for many families, and student debt continues to increase.

A conceptual "mashup" among the freedom culture, the free software movement and social democratization now possible with Web 2.0 technologies affords us the opportunity to see tomorrow's potential for the reincarnation of humanitarianism in education in the context of present day reality. Beyond the possibilities that ICTs and free content enable for a humane education that supports social democratization, attention must also be paid to the assumptions made within hegemonic societies about the value of globalization as an enabler of capitalistic ideals and education as a conduit for latent pattern transmission of a neo-liberal social and economic agenda. As we craft the conditions, develop the technologies, and manage the programmes intended to deliver the promise of education as a human right promoting humanitarian conditions, we must be mindful of the hidden values wrapped into the gloabalizing potential of ICTs, the assumptions included in free content, and the potential for paternalistic behavior that ultimately reinforces and reproduces current conditions.

Improving access is an important feature of open learning and one of the principal means of addressing traditional constrains and barriers relating to content, time, pace, location, and learning method. In addition to access, the open learning endeavor must embody basic principals of humane action in design, development, and delivery. Open learning programmes have commonly used distance education techniques to provide flexibility and increasingly employ online learning to meet objectives. The philosophical underpinnings of open education are fundamentally humanitarian. Humanitarianism as an ideology is framed in part by human rights. In this article the authors will reconstruct the principles that guide the humanitarian work of international aid organizations to better understand the notion of education as a human right in terms of open education and free and open educational resources. Principles including, humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence voluntary service, unity, and universality will be recast in terms of open learning and free educational resources their philosophical underpinnings and how they support Article 26.

Working ideas

Philosophy of Open Learning: Which way would you like to go with this? That is, do you have a particular source to which you would like to refer? We could try to blend some traditional Open Learning literature/tenants, with the Sloan Pillars or the “7 Principles”?

Humanitarianism & Human Rights: Humanitarianism as an ideology is framed in part by human rights. The Red Cross & Red Crescent has done a lot of work in defining core principles & values of humanitarian action (http://www.ifrc.org/WHAT/values/principles/index.asp). Although these principles focus on relief, it would be easy enough to re-craft them to refer to education as a humane endeavor qualifying as a human right, not only in terms of access, but also in terms of quality. In addition, the Red Cross NGO code identifies some other principles that I think fit into the philosophy of free content (OER/FLOSS). They are as follows:

• Agencies should operate with respect to culture and custom
• Humanitarian response should use local resources and capacities as much as possible
• The participation of the beneficiaries should be encouraged
• Emergency response should strive to reduce future vulnerabilities
• Agencies should be accountability to both donors and beneficiaries
• Humanitarian agencies should use information activities to portray victims as dignified human beings, not hopeless objects

Think about recasting the subject in each sentence above as education providers as opposed to “agencies”, and highlight the potential that free and open education and content can have on access, cultural relevance, self determination, autonomy, expression of human dignity, etc.

is supported with

Education/Article 26: We can relate the basic impact that education has on development, (perhaps citing some violations as in Turkministan) and the appropriateness of Article 26. Now posing questions about how to operationalize Article 26 in economically fragile environments.

with requires

Open Distance Education: We can identify among other qualities, access as a critical basic goal and define “access” quite broadly to include economic, cultural, community, linguistic, time independence, geographic independence, etc. We can then concentrate on the role of “Free Content” to meet these goals, illustrating the philosophical parallels between Open Distance Education and Free Content which will of course neatly tie back into Education as a Human Right.