The Introduction to Brett O’Connor’s book deli.icio.us Mashups contains this super explanation of what can happen to a venue in the open Internet. You need to read what he writes before I can tell you how it illuminates changes challenging the keepers of education resources:
Think of it this way: What would happen if all the great chefs in the world made available to the general public their recipes, kitchens, tools, and techniques, along with a free invitation to adapt, change, mutate, and release their original works into something new and perhaps even better? Obviously, a lot of very bad food would be made, but there’s also the slim chance that there are some aspiring chefs out there who have never had access to such tools and techniques but have always had talent and good ideas and will make something truly great.
Of course, in the real world this would probably never happen. This is because most chefs want to keep their recipes and techniques secret. However, the same metaphor when applied to web services is actually pretty practical . . . .
To understand the challenge of opening educational resources, we can look at the chefs. It is certainly true that the chefs of education have been at best slow to open their knowledge and tools online. We are in a very exciting time when the sorts of mashups that O’Connor writes about are becoming commonplace in creative venues — but not much in education.
Some will say education should remain closed, like a kitchen that produces good cuisine.
Others will say that keeping things closed lets no-so-great learning fare avoid competition.
Some will say mashups in education degrade knowledge; others will say mashups stimulate learning.
I, for one, am convinced that without the openness and mashups learning and teaching decay and disappoint the new generations.
