Comments on: (Free, libre and) open education needs humanities

By: Tleinone

Tleinone — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:34:05 +0000

Thank you Chris. I think I'll start to use the term "libre knowledge" (again, its been 8 years), too. However, knowledge is not learning, neither education.

To be consistent, we probably should define the terms "libre learning" and "libre education", too.

By: Chris Harvey

Chris Harvey — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:02:48 +0000

I use the term Libre Knowledge.

By: Tleinone

Tleinone — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:42:32 +0000

Leigh wrote: “We surely know that education is about much more than access to content, and that the difficulties that the software development sector has had with understandings of freedom are even more difficult for the education sector.”

Free software is also much more than “access to the source code”. It doesn’t really matter how widely the “software development sector” understands the idea of “free software”, as long as there is a critical mass that do. Today there is. Without it we wouldn’t have linux, google, mini-laptops, … list goes on. With the education sector I am afraid that if we don’t talk about the free/libre according to the free software tradition we will never reach the critical mass.

Stephen wrote: I use the phrase 'free learning'. I mean the word 'free' in both senses: gratis and libre. I also mean it in the sense of 'open' as in 'open learning'.

Now we will end-up to define what is learning and what is education. I agree that there is, and should be more “libre and gratis learning” (that is actually the main motivation behind the free software developers). I also believe that there can be “free” (in the meaning of libre) education that is not gratis. Not being gratis I mean that someone is consciously investing in it and is expecting some return for the investment. I also see that the free/libre/gratis learning is from large part an issue of democracy, equality and “knowledge infrastructure” (public libraries, internet, study circles, networks etc.), than a question of “education”. High level “offering” of opportunities of free/libre/gratis learning will result as “educated” people who will also use the non-gratis libre education where one may “pay” for getting advice/feedback/assessment/criticism (the payment can of course be just barter of services). The high level of free/libre/gratis learning will also result as high level of humanities.

I see that making this kind of difference between the libre and gratis is pretty well according to the ideas of free software, too. See: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html...

By: Stephen Downes

Stephen Downes — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:40:05 +0000

I use the phrase 'free learning'.

I mean the word 'free' in both senses: gratis and libre.

I also mean it in the sense of 'open' as in 'open learning'.

By: leighblackall

leighblackall — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:04:55 +0000

I like what you're asking for regarding a more culturally specific understanding. The word "global" makes me uncomfortable – mainly because it is so rabidly used by English speakers in reference to economic, environmental, and even social and legal topics. I prefer a word and concept that preserves that understanding of cultural diversity and difference.. something like international – or if nationalism is problematic – inter cultural. Its not hard to avoid using the work global I've found, and when I do, I find the conversation avoids the worrying generalization we are seeing close in around us. We really must do more to increase opportunities for learning and practicing languages as you say.. everywhere you look online there is ESL 10 maybe even 100 times any other language!

As for free.. I'm beginning to tire of the effort to align with software. We surely know that education is about much more than access to content, and that the difficulties that the software development sector has had with understandings of freedom are even more difficult for the education sector. In my experience so far, the obsession with freedom has at times become a liability to educational practices, not least of all because it is so difficult to operate effectively in.

By: Tleinone

Tleinone — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:30:09 +0000

Update: In the OpenEd 2009 there is one presentation about language learning. The Interactive Social Learning Environment (ISLE) Platform: Creating Open Gaming for Online Language Learning and Leigh Blackall includes the word "free" in his talk about the Models for Free and Open Education.