OpenCourseWare spreading worldwide, MIT Tech Talk, May 5, 2004. MIT released a survey of their OpenCourseWare (OCW) system users. "Among those using OCW are an educational technology instructor in Bangalore, India, a home-schooling parent in rural Kentucky, a university professor in Lagos, Nigeria, and a student at the University of Mississippi." The survey revealed several other phenomena, including course material translations into Spanish and Portuguese; a Chinese initiative to translate all the MIT courses, China Open Resources for Education (CORE); modules in Vietnam; and increasing interest from American universities to adopt similar models to OCW. The article quotes one user in the UK: " "There can be no greater hope for humankind than the belief that wisdom generated through increased learning will ultimately lead to a better world. With OCW, MIT has taken an ethical stand against the belief that knowledge should only be accessible to those who can pay for it or are in proximity to it." (Source: The Kept-Up Academic Librarian)
Posted by
Garrett at 5/07/2004 08:41:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
