Being an Open Book

Being an open book involves not having any secrets or keeping anything to yourself. In the education world, being an open book involves being willing to share your knowledge with others. In last week's blog post I talked about sharing in PLNs. In a way, openness is similar to sharing in PLNs but with openness educators share their knowledge with the whole world and give educational access to those who otherwise would not receive it.

David Wiley, in his TED talk, explained how in this day and age, law and policy are leading us to believe that what we create should not be used by anyone else. But he makes a good point about how knowledge is not something that can be taken away from you. He says that teachers aren't bumble bees that once they sting someone they die. It is important for educators to share because like I mentioned last week, without sharing education doesn't exist. 

I see in the future a lot more educational resources online available for everyone to use. Especially after the statistics that Wiley mentioned showing that eventually there will not be enough universities and colleges for all of the students that want to be a part of higher education. I also see textbooks being eliminated from the classroom and online resources being used instead. Already in my college classes we are using online resources in addition to books to get more information about certain topics.  

Online educational resources are very helpful for people that do not have easy access to education. I hope that more and more educators will take a part of being more open and give people from all around the world the opportunity to learn and gain more knowledge.