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The Training World is Wide Open...with Wonderful Wiley in Fast Company! |
| Tuesday, June 09, 2009 |
Some news for the day. I continue to make progress on the free e-book extension of my "The World is Open" book. In the meantime, I have published a prequel called "Sharing..the Journey" which I presented in Korea last month.
In addition, Training Magazine published a short piece yesterday (June 8th) that I wrote last week, "The Training World is Wide Open." The article is based on a story of a visit to Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia for an e-learning forum two years ago that is detailed in my upcoming book, "The World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education." The article focuses on self-directed learning in the business world, among other things. About half of what I originally wrote was cut, but the bulk of my points remain in the Training Magazine article. For a few fleeting moments, it was a top story at the site. Thanks to you, the entire OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources world is in Fast Company!
But word is getting out. In fact, I had three people contact me for interviews about my The World is Open book, including two different organizations with magazines titles "Educational Technology Magazine." I also finished an article for eLearn Magazine on why people share educational contents (as well as use them) which I hope will be published soon.
The first time I gave a keynote talk about all this sharing of online content and the more open learning world was in October 2005 at the E-Learn Conference in Vancouver. While I had been researching e-learning and developing new sharing technologies for many years before that keynote, my friend, Dr. David Wiley, and his colleagues Utah State University (USU) helped me to better understand the ramifications of the open education movement. Now in the summer of 2009, and he has helped me out by endorsing my book (if interested in what he and 24 others have said, see the endorsements). Wiley's life has definitely changed over the past 4 years. He is now Chief Openness Officer (COO) at Flat World Knowledge (perhaps the first COO in the world), the founder of the Utah Virtual School, and has moved his academic housing from USU to Brigham Young University. So innovative is Wiley that, a week or two ago, Fast Company announced that David is #78 is in their list of the Top 100 Most Creative People in Business alongside the likes of Melinda Gates, Lost writer J.J. Abrams, former fashion model Tyra Banks, and Stella McCartney. Way to go David!
Here is a quote from the write-up on David: "Soon after graduating from college, David Wiley had an epiphany that has moved him into the front ranks of education revolutionaries: 'Unlike a real calculator, a calculator embedded in a Web page can be used by 100,000 people at the same time.'" Just think...one quick insight such as this can lead to open education opportunities for millions of people around the planet. What might you think of?
Seems open education is making a huge impression on people around the world a mere decade after it first began to surface, first in Wiley’s mind and then in educational organizations and institutions around the world. With creative talent like Wiley in this space, the next decade or two should prove even more transformative for education. Let's hope! |
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