OpenCourseWare Consortium Global Meeting 2011
There’s this thing I have for education: it’s awesome and I love it. Seriously, it makes my Top Ten List of Reasons for Living. I mean, it’s not rated as highly as food or sex or survival of the fittest, but I don’t think anything beats out those three. It’s difficult to override animal instinct, I don’t care how evolved you think you are.
In the name of education being a right, not a privilege, and the idea of mankind’s vast collection of knowledge being accessible to all, MIT started sharing lectures via open courseware several years back.
May marks the 10th anniversary of the OpenCourseWare movement, with the goal being the offering of courseware from legit sources (colleges, universities, etc.) online and free of charge. The OpenCourseWare Consortium Global Meeting 2011 begins May 4th (today) and goes through Friday the 6th in Cambridge Mass.
From OCW:
May marks the 10-year anniversary of the opencourseware movement. From its humble beginnings as an innovative vision for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to share teaching tools to increase knowledge for humanity, to today, where the OpenCourseWare Consortium is a community of more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide committed to advancing opencourseware by sharing more than 14,000 university-level courses to date. A celebration of the past 10 years of achievement will take place at The OpenCourseWare Consortium’s annual “2011 Global Conference[link]“ in Cambridge, Mass.
WHY: Obtaining “free” education online has been the core of the opencourseware movement and changed traditional ways of learning to new forms of self-learning popularizing the opencouseware movement. By offering course content online in varying formats and knowledge beyond the classroom, self-learners from around the world have the opportunity to obtain education and learning materials from leading universities and relevant associations around the globe. For students and self-learners who do not have the luxury or ability to enroll in a formal course, opencourseware represents a viable alternative and direct access to knowledge — making for the perfect opportunity that transcends across cultural and international boundaries.
With top level universities and associations sharing high-quality content that directly impacts society, the opencourseware movement has embraced the social responsibility of providing relevant topics and information to solve societal issues. For example, a Netherlands university uploads water management curriculum onto their opencourseware portal for an Indonesian university to download and translate. The knowledgeable information attained is then implemented to local water treatment plants — thereby increasing the local water quality. The incredible synergies created from collaborative efforts between institutions around the world help contribute to the power of opencourseware. With the infinite amount of materials contributed to the opencourseware movement every day, societies all over the world can reap the benefits of open knowledge.
WHO: The OpenCourseWare Consortium consists of a membership of worldwide universities and associated organizations who collectively seek to advance the process of sharing university materials to help make a significant impact on global learning. Ten years ago when the very first courses were produced for online consumption, the hunger for education worldwide was grossly underestimated and unforeseen. Because of this increasing need, global leaders will unite to celebrate the top milestones of the past 10 years and look ahead as topical subjects will be conferred upon at the “learning summit.”
May marks the 10th anniversary of the Open Courseware movement, with the goal being the offering of courseware from legit sources (colleges, universities, etc.) online and free of charge. The OpenCourseWare Consortium Global Meeting 2011 begins May 4th (today) and goes through Friday the 6th in Cambridge Mass.
If you’ll be in the area, here are the conference details:
Wednesday, May 4 through Friday, May 6, 2011
Boston Marriott Hotel
Two Cambridge Center, 50 Broadway, Cambridge, Mass. 02142
Posted by Alexa Harrington
