wsj
教育為公 文化共享
一
場革命正在席捲教育界。從 手抄課堂筆記到教程的各種教學資料近些年都已亮相互聯網﹐向所有需要的人免費提供。在美國、中國、日本和歐洲各國知名大學的推動下﹐開放教育資源行動正在 逐漸發展壯大。它修建起通往知識大廈的橋梁﹐為的是不讓一個人“因為金錢、種族等問題被拒之門外﹐”32歲的台灣人朱學恒(Lucifer Chu)如是說。朱學恒是全球數千名這場運動的推動者之一。他已將翻譯《指環王》(Lord of the Rings)系列小說賺得的大約50萬美元投入到工程學、數學和其他教學材料的英譯中翻譯中去。
這一行動發端於上世紀90年代末﹐在一定 程度上受到了“開放源代碼”軟件運動的啟發。開放源代碼的理念是電腦程序應免費使用。TheCounter. com的數據顯示﹐現在全球一半以上的處理器 以及約18%的瀏覽器靠開放源代碼軟件驅動。TheCounter.com是康涅狄格州互聯網出版商Jupitermedia Corp.旗下的網絡分析服務機構。這些成績的背後是允許用戶使用、修改甚至重新發佈代碼的版權許可協議。另一個靈感來源就是如雨後春筍般湧現的照片共享 及開放式百科全書網站。
教育工作者認識到﹐強調依靠志願者的力量來開發和完善代碼的開放源代碼軟件運動非常值得借鑒。猶他州立大學 (Utah State University)教學技術副教授大衛•威萊(David Wiley)回憶1998年他投身其中時﹐教育界希望﹐“借助開放源代碼軟件運動的力量。”
麻省理工學院(MIT) 2001年率先在互聯網上免費提供課程資料。現在﹐MIT的“開放式課程”項目提供覆蓋該校全部學科1,800門課程以上的課堂筆記、考試和其他資源。 MIT網站發佈的數據顯示﹐這些資料已被來自世界各地的4,000萬訪客查閱﹐平均每月的訪問量達100萬人次。其中自學者佔到近一半（49%）﹔在校學 生佔三分之一多一點﹔另外有16%是教育界人士。
如今MIT依然是這場運動的代表﹐而美國和歐洲國家的許多大學都開設了類似項目﹐而且近 幾年來亞洲也投身其中。越南和泰國的院校已經開始將MIT和其他西方教學材料翻譯成本地語言﹐另外還有150多所大學加入了中國的一個教育網絡。今年4月 ﹐中國大連市將主辦每年兩次的開放式課程聯盟會議﹐屆時將有來自澳大利亞、委內瑞拉等全球各地的100多所高等教育機構與會。
並不是所有 活動都由教育機構發起。《指環王》的譯者朱學恒表示﹐他的開放式課程計劃(Opensource OpenCourseWare Prototype System﹐OOPS)完成了近200門MIT課程的全部翻譯﹐有600多門課程的翻譯已部分完成。該項目是從2004年開始的。他估算有2萬人為此付 出了勞動。朱學恒前往中國大陸、香港、日本、加拿大、新加坡、泰國和美國創建起他稱為“知識解放軍”的各學科專家隊伍﹐涉及領域包括醫藥、核電廠建設、衛 星和熱處理等。
朱學恒說﹐OOPS依靠專家隊伍的做法可成為發展中國家的榜樣。這些國家通常缺少將開放式課程進行本地化的充足資金。他說﹐“過去﹐白領或者學生利用自己的知識幫助別人的途徑很少﹐現在﹐他們不但可以利用知識賺錢﹐還可以幫助別人。”
如 今﹐至少有三所台灣院校提供網絡開放式課程。在日本﹐教育界人士建立了日本開放式課程聯盟。該聯盟秘書長Yoshimi Fukuhara表示﹐他們最初翻譯MIT的資料﹐現在則將重點放在日語課程上。該聯盟擁有17所會員院校﹐已經將1,000多門課程從日語譯為英語和其 他語言。猶他州立大學的威萊表示﹐在印度﹐如果國家知識委員會(National Knowledge Commission)推動的一個項目能夠付諸實施﹐將把印度推向開放式教育的最前沿。
不過問題依然存在。靈活學習網絡 (Flexible Learning Network)的理查德•韋里斯(Richard Wyles)指出﹐儘管和開放源代碼軟件運動相提並論﹐但兩者還是有很大不同。這一機構致力於新西蘭全國性數字化學習網絡的建設。他說﹐“隨著代碼的修改 和替代﹐開放源代碼軟件的質量不斷提高。而針對教學內容而言﹐就很少出現這種情況。儘管數量不斷增加﹐但真正的質量控制卻難以實行。”也就是說﹐在老師提 供筆記和其他教學材料之後﹐並沒有一個能夠保證這些材料準確無誤、緊跟時代的內在機制。他對維基百科這樣的項目更熱衷﹐因為它能促使人們更頻繁的對內容進 行修改。
此外﹐還要克服學術界的傳統和既得利益。比如﹐有些教師擔心﹐如果他們將所有教學資料上傳到網絡﹐自己的飯碗會保不住。
威萊的回應是：適應新的現實。他指出﹐有些將課程視頻上傳到網絡的教師幾乎成了“明星”。有些老師因此吸引來更多學生聽課﹐提高了學生對課程的興趣﹐還有些人在提交過程中修改和完善了教學材料。他說﹐“這麼做就是要公開教學情況﹐供同行評議。”
為 了繼續推動這一行動﹐教育工作者、基金會和互聯網在今年1月份簽署了一份宣言﹐敦促政府和出版商將公共資助的教育材料在互聯網上免費提供。迄今為止開普敦 開放教育宣言(Cape Town Open Education Declaration)已經得到了140多個組織和近1,500名個人的簽名支持。另一個喜人的進展是：Elsevier BV同意對使用其擁有版權的MIT圖像和文字資料放鬆監管。這家學術期刊出版商總部設在阿姆斯特丹﹐是紐約和阿姆斯特丹上市公司Reed Elsevier旗下機構。
Jeremy Wagstaff
Free Online College Courses Are Proliferating
A revolution of sorts is sweeping education.
In the past few years, educational material, from handwritten lecture notes to whole courses, has been made available online, free for anyone who wants it. Backed by big-name universities in the U.S., China, Japan and Europe, the Open Education Resources movement is gaining ground, providing access to knowledge so that no one is 'walled in by money, race and other issues,' says Lucifer Chu, a 32-year-old Taiwanese citizen and among the thousands world-wide promoting the effort. He says he has used about half a million dollars from his translation of the 'Lord of the Rings' novels into Chinese to translate engineering, math and other educational material, also from English into Chinese.
The movement started in the late 1990s, inspired in part by the 'open source' software movement, based on the notion computer programs should be free. Open-source software now powers more than half the world's servers and about 18% of its browsers, according to TheCounter.com, a Web-analysis service by Connecticut-based Internet publisher Jupitermedia Corp. Behind its success are copyright licenses that allow users to use, change and then redistribute the software. Another inspiration was the proliferation of Web sites where millions share photos or write encyclopedia entries.
Educators recognized that open-source software, with its emphasis on harnessing the contributions of volunteers to develop and perfect code, was a great model. 'Let's try to build on the momentum of open-source' software, David Wiley, an associate professor of instructional technology at Utah State University, recalls of the thinking among academics in 1998 when he joined up.
The first university to offer course material free online was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2001. Its OpenCourseWare project now offers lecture notes, exams and other resources from more than 1,800 courses spanning the institute's entire curriculum. The material has been accessed by 40 million visitors from nearly every country, with visitors averaging a million a month, according to its Web site. Nearly half -- 49% -- are self-learners; a little more than a third are students; and 16% are educators.
While MIT remains the poster child of the movement, many universities across the U.S. and Europe have similar programs, and in recent years Asia has embraced the initiative. Institutions in Vietnam and Thailand have begun translating MIT and other Western material into local languages, and more than 150 universities are linked in a network in China. In April, the Chinese city of Dalian will host the twice-yearly session of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, which gathers more than 100 higher-education institutions from Australia to Venezuela.
Not all initiatives are institutional. Mr. Chu, the 'Lord of the Rings' translator, says his Opensource OpenCourseWare Prototype System, begun in 2004 and known as OOPS, has translated nearly 200 entire MIT courses and more than 600 partial courses. He reckons 20,000 people have contributed time. Mr. Chu has traveled to China, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, Singapore, Thailand and the U.S. to build what he calls a 'knowledge liberation army' of specialists on subjects including medicine, nuclear-power-plant construction, satellites and heat processes.
The OOPS example of tapping into a motivated group of specialists could be a model for developing countries without a big budget for localizing courseware, Mr. Chu says. 'In the old days, there were very few ways for a white-collar [worker] or a student to use his knowledge to help people,' he says. 'Now they can use their knowledge not only to earn money for themselves but also to really help others.'
At least three Taiwanese institutions now offer courseware online. In Japan, educators established the Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium, which initially translated MIT material but now focuses on Japanese courses, says Yoshimi Fukuhara, secretary-general of the consortium. With 17 member universities, it has translated more than 1,000 courses from Japanese into English and other languages. And in India, a National Knowledge Commission has recommended initiatives that, if implemented, would push India to the forefront of open-source education, says Mr. Wiley, the Utah educator.
Problems remain. Despite comparisons with the open-source movement, there are crucial differences, notes Richard Wyles, whose Flexible Learning Network is working on a national e-learning network in New Zealand. 'With open-source software, quality increases as lines of code get fine-tuned and replaced,' he says. 'With content, that happens far less often. Instead, it increases without any real quality control.' That is, after lecturers and teachers have submitted their notes and other course material so that others can access it, there is no built-in way to ensure this material isn't inaccurate or outdated. He is enthusiastic about wiki-based software, which promotes more-frequent revisions.
Then there are issues with overcoming the traditions and entrenched interests of academia, such as the concerns some lecturers have about their livelihoods if they put all their material online.
Mr. Wiley's response: Adjust to the new reality. He points to the almost 'pop star' popularity of some who have posted lecture videos online. Some have boosted class attendance and have raised interest in their courses, while others have overhauled and improved material in the process of submitting it. 'What it has done is to expose teaching to peer review,' he says.
To keep pushing the cause, a coalition of educators, foundations and Internet pioneers in January signed a declaration urging governments and publishers to make publicly funded educational material available free over the Internet. The Cape Town Open Education Declaration has so far been signed by more than 140 organizations and nearly 1,500 individuals. In another promising development, Elsevier BV, an Amsterdam-based publisher of academic journals and a unit of New York- and Amsterdam-listed Reed Elsevier, agreed to relax control over use of its copyrighted images and text in MIT's project.
Jeremy Wagstaff
In the past few years, educational material, from handwritten lecture notes to whole courses, has been made available online, free for anyone who wants it. Backed by big-name universities in the U.S., China, Japan and Europe, the Open Education Resources movement is gaining ground, providing access to knowledge so that no one is 'walled in by money, race and other issues,' says Lucifer Chu, a 32-year-old Taiwanese citizen and among the thousands world-wide promoting the effort. He says he has used about half a million dollars from his translation of the 'Lord of the Rings' novels into Chinese to translate engineering, math and other educational material, also from English into Chinese.
The movement started in the late 1990s, inspired in part by the 'open source' software movement, based on the notion computer programs should be free. Open-source software now powers more than half the world's servers and about 18% of its browsers, according to TheCounter.com, a Web-analysis service by Connecticut-based Internet publisher Jupitermedia Corp. Behind its success are copyright licenses that allow users to use, change and then redistribute the software. Another inspiration was the proliferation of Web sites where millions share photos or write encyclopedia entries.
Educators recognized that open-source software, with its emphasis on harnessing the contributions of volunteers to develop and perfect code, was a great model. 'Let's try to build on the momentum of open-source' software, David Wiley, an associate professor of instructional technology at Utah State University, recalls of the thinking among academics in 1998 when he joined up.
The first university to offer course material free online was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2001. Its OpenCourseWare project now offers lecture notes, exams and other resources from more than 1,800 courses spanning the institute's entire curriculum. The material has been accessed by 40 million visitors from nearly every country, with visitors averaging a million a month, according to its Web site. Nearly half -- 49% -- are self-learners; a little more than a third are students; and 16% are educators.
While MIT remains the poster child of the movement, many universities across the U.S. and Europe have similar programs, and in recent years Asia has embraced the initiative. Institutions in Vietnam and Thailand have begun translating MIT and other Western material into local languages, and more than 150 universities are linked in a network in China. In April, the Chinese city of Dalian will host the twice-yearly session of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, which gathers more than 100 higher-education institutions from Australia to Venezuela.
Not all initiatives are institutional. Mr. Chu, the 'Lord of the Rings' translator, says his Opensource OpenCourseWare Prototype System, begun in 2004 and known as OOPS, has translated nearly 200 entire MIT courses and more than 600 partial courses. He reckons 20,000 people have contributed time. Mr. Chu has traveled to China, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, Singapore, Thailand and the U.S. to build what he calls a 'knowledge liberation army' of specialists on subjects including medicine, nuclear-power-plant construction, satellites and heat processes.
The OOPS example of tapping into a motivated group of specialists could be a model for developing countries without a big budget for localizing courseware, Mr. Chu says. 'In the old days, there were very few ways for a white-collar [worker] or a student to use his knowledge to help people,' he says. 'Now they can use their knowledge not only to earn money for themselves but also to really help others.'
At least three Taiwanese institutions now offer courseware online. In Japan, educators established the Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium, which initially translated MIT material but now focuses on Japanese courses, says Yoshimi Fukuhara, secretary-general of the consortium. With 17 member universities, it has translated more than 1,000 courses from Japanese into English and other languages. And in India, a National Knowledge Commission has recommended initiatives that, if implemented, would push India to the forefront of open-source education, says Mr. Wiley, the Utah educator.
Problems remain. Despite comparisons with the open-source movement, there are crucial differences, notes Richard Wyles, whose Flexible Learning Network is working on a national e-learning network in New Zealand. 'With open-source software, quality increases as lines of code get fine-tuned and replaced,' he says. 'With content, that happens far less often. Instead, it increases without any real quality control.' That is, after lecturers and teachers have submitted their notes and other course material so that others can access it, there is no built-in way to ensure this material isn't inaccurate or outdated. He is enthusiastic about wiki-based software, which promotes more-frequent revisions.
Then there are issues with overcoming the traditions and entrenched interests of academia, such as the concerns some lecturers have about their livelihoods if they put all their material online.
Mr. Wiley's response: Adjust to the new reality. He points to the almost 'pop star' popularity of some who have posted lecture videos online. Some have boosted class attendance and have raised interest in their courses, while others have overhauled and improved material in the process of submitting it. 'What it has done is to expose teaching to peer review,' he says.
To keep pushing the cause, a coalition of educators, foundations and Internet pioneers in January signed a declaration urging governments and publishers to make publicly funded educational material available free over the Internet. The Cape Town Open Education Declaration has so far been signed by more than 140 organizations and nearly 1,500 individuals. In another promising development, Elsevier BV, an Amsterdam-based publisher of academic journals and a unit of New York- and Amsterdam-listed Reed Elsevier, agreed to relax control over use of its copyrighted images and text in MIT's project.
Jeremy Wagstaff
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