Thread:Why an Open Education System Matters (1)

The internet with its tremendous potential for sharing is an excellent platform to collaborate across traditional borders. While a tendency to preserve what one has developed for one's own use may seem sensible in a competitive world, sharing within an open system offers so much more.

Teachers have often been faced with the daunting task of of creating content within a curriculum that was to be both robust and inspiring, but limits on time, expertise and resources would frustrate those efforts. More often than not educators would take on these challenges in isolation, sometimes drawing on a resource center for ideas. Other teachers in the same jurisdiction might draw on the same resources on different occasions.

Times are rapidly changing. The internet encourages collaboration because the benefits of sharing have become much more obvious. Teacher can much more easily store content for future use and future adaptation. Wikis make it possible to share in the task of developing content and over time such content can become much refined and elaborate. In fact others will probably have begun a similar process offering teachers a menu of choice. Content will have become a commodity, accessible to anyone interested.

Once a commodity it can be pulled off the shelf, so to speak, to suit the purpose of a program planner. A "mix and match" approach becomes possible, where an IELTS instructor may access a unit on the Civil War as a staring point for discussion and writing practice. A cross curricular opportunity for task development becomes an option.