OER ACHIEVEMENTS, CHALLENGES, AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES
At this point we can only suggest some of the attributes of the OPLI and the models of learning it will support. Part of the challenge for Hewlett will be establishing the sensemaking and iterative design that will define and realize the OPLI—the participants will be crossing the bridge as they are building it. At least three types of activity must be brought into a synergistic relationship: (1) creating and provision infrastructure; (2) meaningful and transformative use of the infrastructure; and (3) discovery and transfer of the fruits of relevant research into future generations of the infrastructure.
We will attempt a preliminary sketch of what we have in mind. Let’s start by mapping out a dream space for participatory learning that enables students anywhere to engage in experimenting, exploring, building, tinkering, and reflecting in a way that makes learning by doing and productive inquiry a seamless process.
According to several websites[1][2] there are about 8,000 universities worldwide. There are many other institutions of higher learning, including training centers and community centers. In addition there are tens of thousands of institutions that support “informal” learning—libraries, museums, archives, etc. Each of these centers of learning are themselves practicums but are they reflective practicums? Are they evaluating what they do and engaging in anything resembling cycles of continuous improvement? Are their reflections being captured and shared? Somehow we need to construct a shared, distributed, reflective practicum—where experiences are being collected, vetted, clustered, commented on, tried out in new contexts, and so on.
One might call this learning about learning, a bootstrapping operation—all made possible by an OPLI—where the teachers and administrators are learning among and between themselves. We want to create a space where the teacher as entrepreneur—whether a certified schoolteacher, a home schooling parent, a librarian, a community center leader, or a retired professional can share and learn—share material, exercises for students, experiments, projects, portfolios of examples, etc.
The imagination starts to run wild when one thinks about a new kind of simulation and visualization—highly instrumented courseware all living in a spiral of continual improvement through use, augmentation and remix because of Web 2.0 techniques. This becomes a living or dynamic infrastructure—itself a reflective practicum.
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