The Open Imperative: Do Information and Learning Want to Be Free?

Presenter: Geoff Rubinstein

Presenter: Jerry Perry

Organization: CU Boulder/Denver

Role: Director of Independent Learning

Track: Discussion

Topic: Open Educational Resources

Level: For Mere Mortals

Abstract: The academy is at a point of inflection, with crises in higher

education funding, in confidence in higher education, and, when we

consider the near monopolies in key sectors with which the academy engages, like scholarly communications and integrated library systems, in the marketplace. And yet, institutions keep buying massively expansive, highly inflexible “black box” solutions that were built to solve yesterday’s problems. What we are doing collectively is neither sustainable (the money won’t be here forever), nor equitable (access to solutions and content is inhibited by cost), nor ethical (such inequities are at odds with higher education’s core values). We propose that it is time to consider alternatives, especially open educational resources, or OER. Join us in a discussion about the history, examples, and pros and cons of OER. Consider questions such as: What’s up with Open Access (OA)? What about Open Integrated Library Systems? What do MOOCs have to do with OER? What are the alternatives to business-as-usual—are they economies-of-scale charades, or truly transformative? Title: The Open Imperative: Do Information and Learning Want to Be Free?

Bio: Geoffrey Rubinstein has served as the Director of Online and Independent Learning at the University of Colorado, Boulder since 2004. He serves on several advisory committees focusing on the future of distance and online learning.

His Ph.D. work in media studies at the University of Colorado focused on media technologies, institutions and audiences; and his dissertation research in the mid-90′s focused on how digital media production technologies influence the creative process.

Before returning to academia Geoff worked as an instructional designer in the private sector for a client list that included Adobe, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Postal Service, American Express and NCR. He also directed all educational facets of the internationally-distributed telecourse, Media Waves: An Introduction to Mass Communications.

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