“If there is no sharing, there is no teaching.”

“Openness is about being generous.”  – David Wiley

Second topic and new learning. This time I was introduced to a new world of online education that I didn’t know yet. What’s cool is that I’m increasingly identifying with that kind of knowledge.

For starters, if you want to get a general feel for the topic, I strongly recommend watching the video below.

After I got to know more about the topic, I was very delighted and researched about course opportunities. To my surprise, there are countless open courses being offered at various institutions around the world. Everything is within our reach for the power of technology.

With that in mind, I would like to dedicate this reflection on the blog to talk a little about some opportunities and benefits of open learning.

For open course opportunities, you can check out these links below.

OER material at MERLOT , MIT OpenCourseware , Some other courses in OpenLearn.

I would like to highlight three benefits of open learning that are amazing to me.

First: flexible. You can learn or teach from anywhere, like in your office, or at home, or while traveling, or even on the beach. Yes, It’s possible to do this at the beach. I did it during this topic.

Second: Time. Students have the opportunity to learn at any time, at their own pace. They can do it on sunday, holidays, at midnight… They can do it while having fun, e.g.

And lastly, I would say: global learning opportunities. Open Learning is free, sometimes without prerequisites, and you just need a computer with an internet connection. This way more people can be reached with knowledge. It is an opportunity to improve access to education and develop networks because you can meet people from other nationalities. For example, in my ONL group there are six different nationalities, and it is amazing because we know a little about other cultures.

If I could give you some advice, I would say: Take an open course and enjoy this experience.

Finally, I also recommend reading the articles below, they are quite enlightening.

Why Open Learning?

OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF TECHNOLOGY USAGE FOR ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN AFRICA

I hope this post inspired you, as I did, to seek and encourage open learning.

See you in the next post.

Diego