Wk 6: April 14-20: Examples of Flexible Learning - open, networked, RPL

Write to your blog a response to the following: Do you think open and networked education threatens or enhances formal education generally? Try to use evidence or references to back your statements.

I enjoyed reading and being distracted by the links in the readings this week. My thinking was totally changed from a position of thinking that open networked education would mean the end of intellectual property rights for lectures/institutions. However, the debate around the value of the Open and network education is one which i see as being much about some institutions wanting to maintain their control over the knowledge /expertise and some times kudos that goes with their institution having what we might say are 'bums on seats'. Open Yale which is focused around ' providing free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn." The only catch is that you receive no course credits /results. Now that is food for thought! Some could see this as being simply a marketing ploy to get more students. Conversely it could be seen to give studnets the flexibility to 'try before you buy' option.Equally thought provoking was the link to the Australian based Journal of Instruction Science and Technology (eJist) in which discussion around Open education resouce network further expanded my thinking as to the need to revisit the models and frameworks of teaching that we historically been providing. The establishment of such movement as the OpenCourseWare Consortium got me thinking also about how and if we are utilising anything like this her in NZ. I noted we are not on list of the 200 institutions around the world that contribute to it.Matthias Mehldau's comments around how the individual /institution or company could control /monitor the use of the knoweldge that they post into cyberspace by means of open access networks clearly identifed that the locus of control is with the author. They can choose how much, how often and when it information is access (whilst making money even!!)