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A creative commons image by scott361

On July 14th, 2009 President Barack Obama announced his commitment to the global OER movement.  The proposed ‘Online Skills Laboratory’ will provide freely available open and online courses to the nation and presumably the entire world.

“Online educational software has the potential to help students learn more in less time than they would with traditional classroom instruction alone.  Interactive software can tailor instruction to individual students like human tutors do, while simulations and multimedia software offer experiential learning. Online instruction can also be a powerful tool for extending learning opportunities to rural areas or working adults who need to fit their coursework around families and jobs. New open online courses will create new routes for students to gain knowledge, skills and credentials. They will be developed by teams of experts in content knowledge, pedagogy, and technology and made available for modification, adaptation and sharing.”  (Obama, 2009)

This will create a massive repository of knowledge available to the entire world and freely available to remix and adapt to local contexts.

Read the entire script of Obama’s speech which includes a number of fundamental shifts to the US education system.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Excerpts-of-the-Presidents-remarks-in-Warren-Michigan-and-fact-sheet-on-the-American-Graduation-Initiative/

 

Milestones of the Movement: OER Championed by President Obama
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