This article from the June/July 2006 issue of Innovate puts forth an important vision of world education and provides informative statistics about current conditions. ____JH
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"The most promising innovation in higher education is the concept—and the developing reality—of open educational resources (OERs). The term refers to open course content as well as open source software and tools. Essentially OERs apply to teaching and learning the basic principle that underpins academic research: sharing. Distance educators have talked for years about sharing courseware, but the obstacles to such practice have also prevented its rapid growth in online learning. One obstacle has been the 'not-invented-here' syndrome that still characterizes many academic institutions. Another obstacle has been the challenge of developing consistent standards for open source course management software as well as for the classification and design of digital learning objects for convenient reuse by different parties. Courseware exchange has also been limited by copyright concerns and the sheer difficulty of sharing and adapting learning materials that are not in digital formats."
"In developing countries, the challenge begins with demography. Rapidly growing populations are not being served with adequate educational opportunities. For example, UNESCO (2005) reports that while 40-50% gross enrollment ratios (GERs) in tertiary education have become the norm in the developed countries of North America and Western Europe, tertiary GERs remain below 15% for India and China and below 5% for developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere; UNESCO calculates the median tertiary GER at 55% for developed countries and 11% for developing countries. "
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"From Digital Divide to Digital Dividend: What Will It Take?" by John Daniel and Paul West (Volume 2, Issue 5, June/July 2006). Sir John Daniel and Paul West explore the difficulties inherent in bringing postsecondary education to developing countries. While current research points to online education as the best financial alternative for these impoverished countries, cross-border educational solutions are largely unavailable, making local solutions a necessity. Daniel and West advocate the use of open source educational resources (OERs), now more accessible than ever, in creating online postsecondary programs. They provide considerations to guide the use of OERs in developing nations, address infrastructure and policy issues that must be addressed to support widespread implementation of online learning, and provide suggestions for making good Internet bandwidth affordable to institutions and ensuring that students have access to it. They provide a useful plan for bridging the digital divide and making digital dividends accessible for economically disadvantaged populations worldwide. [Innovate]
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