I thoroughly enjoyed our last class and chance to hear Alan Levine share a little bit about the topic of open education (full disclosure – I typed “Adam Levine” at first and thought… wait a minute…).

Prior to hearing him talk about it, I didn’t really know how to define it. I knew very little about it. I suppose I could have taken a good guess at what it was, but it was definitely a weak definition prior to our discussion.

Alan offered the definition of open education as basically the belief that education is a common good, and everyone should have access to it. Open education resources, then are those materials that are created and made available for anyone to use, without barriers of cost or access.

I immediately thought of a resource base that I use frequently – TPT. While many resources are freely available for download with an account on this site, much of the higher-quality materials must be purchased. Some plans, units and resources can be upwards of $30. One thing Alan said, with a bit of a wondering tone, was that sellers on TPT who create and put their resources up for sale don’t really make all that much money. This made me curious; I felt like I’d seen the same creators over and over again when searching for resources. Teaching with a Mountain View is a seller that came to mind. Upon browsing her page, I found that she has 870 products available. I found it hard to believe that someone like this wouldn’t make a notable amount of money with this many quality products for sale. I also read this article that notes that over 300 sellers on TPT have reached the $1 million dollar mark in sales. Of course, as with any sums large as this, the “take home” is far less, based on a variety of factors. However, based on this and a couple of other resources and blogs I stumbled upon, the profits that some sellers on TPT take home are worth mentioning.

 

The article I linked above talked about how money was tight for some people and they turned to TPT as a way to ease some of the financial stress during unpaid summer months. I posed this question in class, but I still have been wondering: if all resources were “open”, would people be less motivated to create quality products?. To my understanding, the belief of open education is that creators of content are driven largely by the love of knowledge and the desire to share it with everyone and anyone. The cynic in me just finds it hard to believe that some of the self-made millionaires, who have created incredible resources for purchase on TPT, would have poured countless hours into creating high-quality products just for the goals of open education. If people could not create and sell resources, how would this change the landscape of a place like TPT or other businesses that sell educational materials? This is absolutely not to say I don’t believe in open education. This is just a conundrum I’ve been reflecting on over the past week and it kind of breaks my brain.

As Alan continued his presentation, the conversation shifted to some of the obvious positive things about open education, such as “open data” and its role in world betterment. Alan also talked about “open access”, explaining that more knowledge fuels more knowledge. He discussed the irony in having publicly-funded academic research journals requiring a payment for members of the public to eventually read and have access to, which is just kind of messed up.

Listening to Alan speak was lovely. One of the last things he said in his presentation was that “it shouldn’t be hard to become educated”. He explained that he learned a lot of what he knows through open education so he’s just passing it on. His casual, easy-going tone helped communicate his message and passion for open education and certainly inspired me to think more about it myself.

Reflecting on this has me thinking about my own learning. I can use my learning project (sewing) as an example. As a result of “open” education, I was able to learn how to set up my machine and practice the basics. Without platforms like YouTube and TikTok providing me with free videos and instructional materials, I’m not sure where I would have been in my progress. A little more broke, I suppose, with all of the other resources I access freely online without thinking about that help me learn and accomplish things (recipes for baking and substitution ideas, gardening tips and tricks, guitar chords and tabs for thousands of songs, etc.)

At risk of contradicting my considerations about open ed. resources demotivating people to create quality products, all of this open education wondering leads me to this: open education is a concept, a collection of beliefs, a worldview, and a set of values about knowledge and how it should be shared. Saying this begs the question: what is the purpose of creating something in the first place? Yes, people create to express themselves or to complete a task, but if these creations have the potential to spread awareness and knowledge about something, should that be limited or restricted? Open education promotes the common good, and maybe that’s enough to keep people motivated to keep doing what they’re doing, regardless of a paycheck.