Thoughts on Open Education

I have mixed feelings on the discussions I often see in academic circles about open education.  There is often a very strong sentiment from some to put a sort of framework around this content, to put it within a set of categories and topics that fit within academic standards.  I suppose that those that want to do this believe that unless the content is categorized and organized then it isn't of much value.  This way of thinking can suppress the organic and self-motivated intentions of people that would contribute to this type of content.  I am in that group myself.  I feel like the more structure I am required to follow as I create something, the less likely I am to do it.  It's too stringent, not as free-flowing. 

 

If Wikipedia had set out by categorizing and organizing every possible topic, they would probably have stiffled a good number of those that ended up contributing.  The reason being is that there is a sense of "entertainment" that comes with being able to add articles on whatever you want to a publicly available website.  It's fun as long as the writer doesn't have to jump through a bunch of hoops and red tape to categorize, qualify, and organize the content.

 

The majority of open content creators will not be academic folks.  They won't be college professors or public school teachers.  Content creators will be, actually they already are, the citizens of the internet.  They are already creating content.  Evidence of this can be found by looking at the sheer numbers of tutorials and "howto's" that can be found on the internet on virtually any topic.  While some of this content is created by professionals, most is created by people who do it because they like to.  They enjoy being part of the larger community.  These are people that will throw a tutorial together in a few hours and publish it without worrying about getting it approved, qualified, certified, or anything like that.

 

I guess there needs to be a balance between the freewill efforts of the masses who will ultimately create most of the openly available content out there, and academia.