Networked Learning/Finding and reusing learning resources

With so many great resources already out there on the net, why re-invent the wheel. Whatever your subject, whatever your need, chances are there is someone else in the world that has already produced it, and made it available for free and open reuse.

When sourcing such content, be careful to check the copyright statement for all items before you attempt to use it. Creative Commons.org has made this usually painful process quite simple. Yahoo.com indexed over 80 million CC items loaded to the Internet in 2005. Major universities and learning organisation are lisencing their content and resources Creative Commons. These initiatives are generally called open courseware initiatives, and we are free to use and even modify some of the content that is made available this way.

The most significant projects include Wikipedia and Wikiversity, where people are collaborating to produce free and open resources which use GNU licences.

GNU Licenses are based on 4 freedoms or rights.


 * 1) use the work for any purpose
 * 2) study its mechanisms, to be able to modify and adapt it to their own needs
 * 3) make and distribute copies, in whole or in part
 * 4) enhance and/or extend the work and share the result similarly.

Uses for Free and Open Courseware
 * Cost effective way to build learning resources (all the content in these workshops are taken from CC lisences)
 * Marketing of programmes and courses
 * Social acess and equity to learning resources
 * Simplies copy right and Intellectual Property concerns
 * A wider range of inputs to a resource development

More information about Free and Open Courseware
 * http://creativecommons.org
 * http://opencontent.org/ocwfinder/
 * http://blendedlearning.wikispaces.com/Sourcing+Content+to+Teach+and+Learn+With
 * http://community.flexiblelearning.net.au/TechnologiesforLearning/content/article_6885.htm