Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
I can see why Martin Weller (in a fun post that I did enjoy) would classify me as the uncompromising Cato to David Wiley's Cicero. He says it himself: "Cato was the purist, unbending and uncompromising." Well sure. But looked at from another perspective, Wiley is unbending and I am the moderate one. For example, I think people should be free to declare their open resources 'non-commercial' (By-NC-SA) (as a majority of them do) if they wish, while Wiley, citing the incompatibility problem, says that they should all be the commercial-friendly By-SA. I say that declarations about open educational resources should contain language inclusive of personal and informal learners, while Wiley defends the Cape Town Declaration, which is written exclusively for the institutional world of teachers and students. I want free learning to be a possibility, and my fear is that he makes commercial learning a necessity. Let us not forget, after all, that it was Cicero who eventually spoke in defense of Caesar, dooming the Republic.

Today: 1054 Total: 1057 [Direct link] [Share]

Image from the website


Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 7:08 p.m.

Canadian Flag Creative Commons License.

Force:yes