Open Thinking, Learning, and Education

The basic concept of open learning revolves around the principle of providing enhanced or broadened educational practices. This far-reaching concept is by no means new, and provides cultures of learning collaboration based on the needs of the individual. With the inundations of the internet, the continuum of open educational resources is expanding rapidly. The benefits of being able to have cost effective, self-directed, self-paced, comprehensive content, learning materials have lead many larger K-12 schools districts to adopt these resources. It provides an easy mechanism to create new learning materials with the ability to work with most existing technology, with the advantage of districts to be able to select new curriculum which caters to the current state standards.

Some of the difficulties schools face is preparing their students for the world they presently live in. As students become open learners scaffolding from open educational resources, they also need to be provided with the basic survival skills for good decision making. This information is key for them to be successful, active, responsible, and socially conscious for their online learning and digital citizenship. With this comes the added burden of sorting out information based on legitimacies, while having the critical thinking skills to decipher information and ascertain. This can be crucial to learning online. The hardships of staying on task may be difficult for some. Then there are the crucial aspects of students maintaining a stimulating learning experience and a positive digital footprint. Educators need to provide basic prerequisite skills for students as they emerge into the open thinking, sharing, and learning known as open education. But to actively learn, students must be self-motivated and committed.

By being a part of an online participatory culture, educators are able to globally share their content practices and contributions for expanded learning growth. Educators can use their personal experiences with open thinking, learning, and, education; to provide positive connections which enables them to improve upon their knowledge base and pedagogical practices.