Open Content and Ethics

The trend toward increased collaborative work has been present is each of the previous assignments. We explored many new and creative resources to facilitate collaboration as well as ways to manage, store and access information. The ethics of sharing is a crucial issue to consider as we move forward. 

The Horizon K12 Report (2011) discusses Open Content and its relevance to current educational trends. Rather than presenting fixed or traditional content to students, education includes teaching students how to find and evaluate information. To achieve this through the use of Open Content, teachers are sharing not only academic materials; they are sharing their expertise and creative ways to deliver content to students. Access to Open Content accommodates this by permitting materials to be easily distributed and customized to meet local needs. The use of Open Content offers creative and economic advantages. Many resources are available at a lower cost or even no cost and are maintained in the cloud. Sharing or re-purposing existing materials is less time consuming for teachers. The Horizon K12 Report (2011) identifies “the ability to find, evaluate and put new information to use” as a critical skill (p 23). The use of Open Content, with its constantly developing resources, accommodates this.

As electronic books evolve they will further support education. E-books are available via many devices and are moving beyond simply a digital version of printed material (Johnson, Smith, Willis, & Levine, 2011). The potential exists to develop more interactive opportunities, customized by either the teacher or student. The 2011 Horizon Report suggests collaboration and multimedia will provide more “richly visual interfaces” (Johnson et  al., 2011, p 8). A search for e-books indicates that many titles are already available at no cost. Publishers, such as FlatWorld, are pioneering new avenues for writers and scholars to publish and share their knowledge while still being fairly compensated and having their intellectual property rights protected (http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/authors).

While sharing and collaborating may be the wave of the future, the ethics of protecting creative and intellectual property must be considered. Creative Commons addresses this by providing, at no cost, varying levels of copyright protection. The creator of the work of art, photo, film, written work or any original piece can determine to what extent that work can be shared or altered. This allows the property to be credited properly, but also permits commercial or non-commercial uses of the original or re-worked piece. This approach toward protecting rights while encouraging sharing and creativity shows how technology has presented new opportunities (http://creativecommons.org/).

Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Haywood K., (2011). The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition.

                Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Johnson L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report.

                Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.