Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Week 3 Assignment

The common theme shared by The Enlightenment with the open source and OER movements is the concept of freedom. freedom of independent thought and advances in scientific inquiry through rationalism and empiricism challenged the repressive oligarchies of religion and the nobility is seen during The Enlightenment,.In a parallel socioeconomic sense, the open source software movement is challenging the proprietary model of software development and its profit-driven hold on most sectors of the global economy. As the open source movement continues to successfully offer consumers greater freedom and choice, similar potential can be imagined for the OER movement. Perhaps the OER movement will continue to gain momentum and become a revolutionary catalyst for intellectual fulfillment and self-determination.

The OSS development model is a distributed peer reviewed system of collaborative social constructivism. Open source software projects are organized as non-discriminatory meritocracies. New members/developers enter projects and work in an apprentice-like telecommuting arrangement under the watch of the project leaders. Developers must demonstrate skill and commitment in order to rise to positions of higher trust within the project community. All contributions are tested before being accepted by the community.

The Wikipedia Popular Education article TARGETS on empowerment through education. The OER movement aims to empower individuals who wish to contribute to or access educational resources without barriers. Self-directed study appeals to many people for a variety of reasons. The accessibility and flexibility of OER are attractive features for global learners. Popular education now must appeal to international as well as local interests. A casual, self-directed learning style similar to non-credit adult education courses and folk high schools is possible through OER study.

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