Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is generally a pretty good discussion of the concept - and complexities - around the term 'open'. I have some issues with it - see my comment at the end of the article. But I like the account quoted near the end: "Perhaps the most commonly used sense of 'open' has been the idea of creating opportunities for study for those debarred from it for whatever reasons, be it lack of formal educational attainments or shortage of vacancies, poverty, remoteness, employment or domestic necessities," from Mackenzie, Postgate and Scupham, 1975. Of course this merely reinforces my own observation that the various definitions of 'open' that have come into currency since then are mainly ways of making something in some way not open and yet still being able to call it 'open'.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 05:10 a.m.

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