Why should we use open content?
Posted on | May 10, 2007 | Comments Off
From Iterating toward openness
David Wiley have made some interesting reflections about Open Content. I have noticed the same phenomena a couple of times. For some reason, people sometimes tend to be very uncritical when something is free. Are we actually willing to waive quality, just because it cost less?
"A major publisher publishes a beginning algebra textbook which is not very effectively designed. Most faculty avoid using it; those who do find that their students perform more poorly than the last few semesters’ students. The word gets out on the street about the poor quality of the book, and sales suffer. One day, the publisher has a brilliant idea. The publisher releases the second edition of the book, which changes in only one way: the standard copyright statement in the front of the book is replaced with a Creative Commons Attribution License. Now I ask you: is the second edition of the textbook more educationally effective than the first?" The answer is, obviously, No. So why is it that PhD students looking for dissertation topics keep proposing to gather evidence to establish their hypothesis that “open educational resources are more effective than proprietary resources?” Why is it that very smart people I know from prestigious universities in the OER world keep falling into this same trap in their thinking? AN OPEN LICENSE DOES NOT MAKE A RESOURCE MORE EFFECTIVE!!!
I obviously agree with David Wiley, as he makes a good point. I am also pro Open Content and Open Source, but it has to be done in the right way. We must use it to enhance quality – not to lower it and we must keep our quality standards irrespective of the price. The basic idea of “open” (or free) is to share, enhance and reuse. Not just to “get stuff for free”. Very much like the scientific community work: we use each others results in order to build new knowledge that is shared, and that can be used, reused and enhanced by others.