Comments

Hi,

On futher reflection, I would like to update some of my earlier comments.

I followed a link someone put up on WikiEducator and edited the discussion page:

http://wikieducator.org/Talk:Open_Education_Declaration

Please read the topics from the bottom up (I entered them in order but they are listed in reverse order - LIFO).

Thanks

Kim

I am an adjunct Associate Professor of Mathematics at Rider University, active as a substitute teacher and mentor in high schools, and a retired professor of physics from Rutgers University. I have taken extensive notes from my experiences and given them to my protégés. Recently I collected them into a book. I suggest that your library purchase the book for the benefit of students, parents, and teachers.

I just wrote a book, "Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better". This is available on amazon.com, ISBN 978-1-4196-7435-8. May I suggest that you order a copy for the library? The readers will be very pleased!

The reviews are superb. Students, teachers, and professors who have looked at the book give it the highest rating.

Typical comments that I hear are things like this: "Hi, Dr. Aranoff!" said a girl, "I got a 100 on the test! I am so happy! Thank you so much!"

I also wrote a paper in Gifted Education Press Quarterly:
http://www.GiftedEdPress.com/GEPQWINTER2008.pdf

Here are some comments:

"We really enjoyed the latest GEPQ and especially liked the article by Sanford Aranoff. He took a very practical approach on an eyeball to eyeball level. A lot of this really needed saying. He showed a keen awareness of the trends towards anti-scientific education that are out there. We made a hard copy of this article and will send it on to the heads of the science and math departments at Loyola Academy with the intention of their distributing it to department chairs in the Jesuit Secondary Education Association."

Dr Aranoff

I am sure that your book would be an excellent resource. In the spirit of the declaration, why don't you consider releasing it under a more open licence and ensure that it is freely available on the internet so that more people can benefit from your knowledge and experience.

Mark Horner

This is a great idea. Hope more people will sign up

Tongue in Cheek Spoiler warning

But why persist in Graeco-Roman alphabetical discrimination by listing signees names from A-Z. Why not randomize. Those in the W's, X's Y's Z's have rights too.

Obviously it makes for easier searching!

I need no convincing as to the stability, and the last few years, the user friendliness of Linux as an alternative to Windows as I am a systems engineer.
But maybe some Universities need some convincing. In February 2007, parliament made a decision to switch over to open source in all state departments. It has been followed up in October, by an announcement that Sita aims to train 10,000 linux students by 2010.
Now Universities, receive subsidy from Government. There are thousands of students who can not afford an expensive operating system and would love to use a free available one, for free.

Are Universities not morally obliged to go for open source themselves, rather than to switch over to Microsoft?
Your comments?

Hi!

I love your idea! Where do other forms of education outside of government jurisdiction (such as home schools and alternate schools) fit into this type of educational access?

AJLM

What a wonderful dream--but not a new one. For quite a while now technology has been capable of reducing the world's great libraries to shoe-box size container, and giving a duplicate free of charge to each human on Earth. We could do this, but we won't, because too many of us want to make money off of the ideas we think we own.

Knowledge is a fundamental need of every human being. I have been trying to explain this in all contexts where I interact with other people as a teacher and as Ph.D. student. The beliefs of the declaration are very deep in my heart. Knowledge today is another market. You can see that everywhere, making great profits of educational needs of people. If you want to access to f.e. a good program in Design, you might have to pay 50.000 usa dollars or more for a year of studies in the United States. This world need to be cured, we have to switch our minds into a more sharing mode. People are extremely egoist and individualist. We think of our individual profit most of the times. But this is changing. I am changing it, we are changing it. One good idea is not to take courses at institutions that ask you lots of money for it. It is about a general BOICOT. Lets not let them fool us. We do have the right to access to general and specific information and education.

Hi all
thank you for your initiative that I have signed.

Just to let you know the SLOOP project, co-funded by the European Community: Sharing Learning Objects in an Open Perspective (http://www.slooproject.eu). We are working just in the direction of this declaration.

If you like you can find here the SLOOP booklet: www.sloopproject.eu/file.php/1/SloopDownload/Booklet/0_Booklet_EN.pdf

pfr@tes.mi.it

It is with great pleasure and pride that I herewith pledge the wholehearted commitment to the Capetown Open Education Declaration of the Brazilian Association of Distance Education--ABED, the not-for-profit learned society uniting 2,600 educators and institutions employing distance learning in the academic, school, corporate and non-formal educational communities of our country.
Fredric M. Litto
President,ABED

Great list ~ however, it is getting so large as to be unwieldy....is there any way to sort it, or alphebetize it?

Thanks!

- Randy Fisher (aka WikiRandy)

I am a postdoc student at the CRI, an interdisciplinary research center in Paris (http://www.cri-paris.org/[…]/).

We are working on web tools that might help Open Education become mainstream and more useful for university teachers and students. If you are interested in what we do, please visit our wiki (http://2.718281828.org/wiki/), blog (http://2.718281828.org/blog/) or just send an email: bastienguerry AT gmail com

Please find my site which is a complete online polytechnic Institute built on open source resources.

url : http://www.omnitechnologies.net

Please notice a new e-mail address which I
rather prefer to the old one(gmukoro@gmail.com).

My new e-mail address is : mathsoft@omnitechnologies.net.

Thanks,

Dr. Gregory I. Umukoro,CCP

Hello!
      I writte with pleasure this declaration because I am a person lucky because I know to learn of school to writte and reed,I have good teachers who learning me very much thinks in many varios domains.We must to do in this way to convince all governaments 214 or more to adoption in theyer constitution an articole were must to specific that each children or citizen of state to be beneficiary to go at school free 8 years and money for theyer education be sent of form of donation in aor site OPEN-EDUCATION because many states not have the best teachers and theyer childrens can be cosideration looser for society.I think that every peoples who mleave on this world have a mission who must fulfilment for his community,society ETc.We must to action with more vigor because the humanity is in the century 21 and I see were is spennt many money for projects inutility for humanity.I want that each member or organization,association who fight for this cause in front withy the president of United State Barack Obama who suport in his country with very much power his campaings in two direction priotity;education and healt.We must to convince all who suport aor program with all aor power of the necesity of education and to remaind in every ocasion that and they who have important function in state or ather agency governamentals because they learning at school recived a education for his mission or job in present.I hope to stay besaide of my and my organization and with aor master in his wise THE GOD will we do samthing usefull for many peoples.
  Sincerly,
   Mr.Marasoiu Marian
    administrator OPEN-EDUCATION

I have been looking for the about us on how to use this site.
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To: Whom it may concern
Subject: www.global-curriculum.de

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Concerning Decade2 education and Education Teaching Tools, please visit :
 www.global-curriculum.de

Thank you very much in advance.

Sincerely.

Tomislav F. Marjanovic
E-Mail: tom.marjanovic@t-online.de
www.global-curriculum.de

I think this declaration is the best thing to happen and would have a long impact in the future.
wikieducator workshops was my starting point today and this is just the thing the world needs.
I wish to contribute in terms of content development and propogation of this wonderful concept.

Ravi Limaye
ravi_limaye@yahoo.com

I signed the declaration because it's the right thing to do for all disenfranchised groups: those with minimal access to technology, low income people AND persons with disabilities. Hopefully the wording in strategy #2 for access to technology will be changed to include this group, not just "when possible", but always. As we have seen with the huge growth in technology and the brilliant people working in that field, anything is possible! Making OER accessible for persons with disabilities is just the challenge to get their creative juices flowing!