教育为公 文化共享

A revolution of sorts is sweeping education.

In the past few years, educational material, from handwritten lecture notes to whole courses, has been made available online, free for anyone who wants it. Backed by big-name universities in the U.S., China, Japan and Europe, the Open Education Resources movement is gaining ground, providing access to knowledge so that no one is 'walled in by money, race and other issues,' says Lucifer Chu, a 32-year-old Taiwanese citizen and among the thousands world-wide promoting the effort. He says he has used about half a million dollars from his translation of the 'Lord of the Rings' novels into Chinese to translate engineering, math and other educational material, also from English into Chinese.

The movement started in the late 1990s, inspired in part by the 'open source' software movement, based on the notion computer programs should be free. Open-source software now powers more than half the world's servers and about 18% of its browsers, according to TheCounter.com, a Web-analysis service by Connecticut-based Internet publisher Jupitermedia Corp. Behind its success are copyright licenses that allow users to use, change and then redistribute the software. Another inspiration was the proliferation of Web sites where millions share photos or write encyclopedia entries.

Educators recognized that open-source software, with its emphasis on harnessing the contributions of volunteers to develop and perfect code, was a great model. 'Let's try to build on the momentum of open-source' software, David Wiley, an associate professor of instructional technology at Utah State University, recalls of the thinking among academics in 1998 when he joined up.

The first university to offer course material free online was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2001. Its OpenCourseWare project now offers lecture notes, exams and other resources from more than 1,800 courses spanning the institute's entire curriculum. The material has been accessed by 40 million visitors from nearly every country, with visitors averaging a million a month, according to its Web site. Nearly half -- 49% -- are self-learners; a little more than a third are students; and 16% are educators.

While MIT remains the poster child of the movement, many universities across the U.S. and Europe have similar programs, and in recent years Asia has embraced the initiative. Institutions in Vietnam and Thailand have begun translating MIT and other Western material into local languages, and more than 150 universities are linked in a network in China. In April, the Chinese city of Dalian will host the twice-yearly session of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, which gathers more than 100 higher-education institutions from Australia to Venezuela.

Not all initiatives are institutional. Mr. Chu, the 'Lord of the Rings' translator, says his Opensource OpenCourseWare Prototype System, begun in 2004 and known as OOPS, has translated nearly 200 entire MIT courses and more than 600 partial courses. He reckons 20,000 people have contributed time. Mr. Chu has traveled to China, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, Singapore, Thailand and the U.S. to build what he calls a 'knowledge liberation army' of specialists on subjects including medicine, nuclear-power-plant construction, satellites and heat processes.

The OOPS example of tapping into a motivated group of specialists could be a model for developing countries without a big budget for localizing courseware, Mr. Chu says. 'In the old days, there were very few ways for a white-collar [worker] or a student to use his knowledge to help people,' he says. 'Now they can use their knowledge not only to earn money for themselves but also to really help others.'

At least three Taiwanese institutions now offer courseware online. In Japan, educators established the Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium, which initially translated MIT material but now focuses on Japanese courses, says Yoshimi Fukuhara, secretary-general of the consortium. With 17 member universities, it has translated more than 1,000 courses from Japanese into English and other languages. And in India, a National Knowledge Commission has recommended initiatives that, if implemented, would push India to the forefront of open-source education, says Mr. Wiley, the Utah educator.

Problems remain. Despite comparisons with the open-source movement, there are crucial differences, notes Richard Wyles, whose Flexible Learning Network is working on a national e-learning network in New Zealand. 'With open-source software, quality increases as lines of code get fine-tuned and replaced,' he says. 'With content, that happens far less often. Instead, it increases without any real quality control.' That is, after lecturers and teachers have submitted their notes and other course material so that others can access it, there is no built-in way to ensure this material isn't inaccurate or outdated. He is enthusiastic about wiki-based software, which promotes more-frequent revisions.

Then there are issues with overcoming the traditions and entrenched interests of academia, such as the concerns some lecturers have about their livelihoods if they put all their material online.

Mr. Wiley's response: Adjust to the new reality. He points to the almost 'pop star' popularity of some who have posted lecture videos online. Some have boosted class attendance and have raised interest in their courses, while others have overhauled and improved material in the process of submitting it. 'What it has done is to expose teaching to peer review,' he says.

To keep pushing the cause, a coalition of educators, foundations and Internet pioneers in January signed a declaration urging governments and publishers to make publicly funded educational material available free over the Internet. The Cape Town Open Education Declaration has so far been signed by more than 140 organizations and nearly 1,500 individuals. In another promising development, Elsevier BV, an Amsterdam-based publisher of academic journals and a unit of New York- and Amsterdam-listed Reed Elsevier, agreed to relax control over use of its copyrighted images and text in MIT's project.

一场革命正在席卷教育界。

从手抄课堂笔记到教程的各种教学资料近些年都已亮相互联网，向所有需要的人免费提供。在美国、中国、日本和欧洲各国知名大学的推动下，开放教育资源行动正在逐渐发展壮大。它修建起通往知识大厦的桥梁，为的是不让一个人“因为金钱、种族等问题被拒之门外，”32岁的台湾人朱学恒(Lucifer Chu)如是说。朱学恒是全球数千名这场运动的推动者之一。他已将翻译《指环王》(Lord of the Rings)系列小说赚得的大约50万美元投入到工程学、数学和其他教学材料的英译中翻译中去。

这一行动发端于上世纪90年代末，在一定程度上受到了“开放源代码”软件运动的启发。开放源代码的理念是电脑程序应免费使用。TheCounter.com的数据显示，现在全球一半以上的处理器以及约18%的浏览器靠开放源代码软件驱动。TheCounter.com是康涅狄格州互联网出版商Jupitermedia Corp.旗下的网络分析服务机构。这些成绩的背后是允许用户使用、修改甚至重新发布代码的版权许可协议。另一个灵感来源就是如雨后春笋般涌现的照片共享及开放式百科全书网站。

教育工作者认识到，强调依靠志愿者的力量来开发和完善代码的开放源代码软件运动非常值得借鉴。犹他州立大学(Utah State University)教学技术副教授大卫•威莱(David Wiley)回忆1998年他投身其中时，教育界希望，“借助开放源代码软件运动的力量。”

广告麻省理工学院(MIT) 2001年率先在互联网上免费提供课程资料。现在，MIT的“开放式课程”项目提供覆盖该校全部学科1,800门课程以上的课堂笔记、考试和其他资源。MIT网站发布的数据显示，这些资料已被来自世界各地的4,000万访客查阅，平均每月的访问量达100万人次。其中自学者占到近一半（49%）；在校学生占三分之一多一点；另外有16%是教育界人士。

如今MIT依然是这场运动的代表，而美国和欧洲国家的许多大学都开设了类似项目，而且近几年来亚洲也投身其中。越南和泰国的院校已经开始将MIT和其他西方教学材料翻译成本地语言，另外还有150多所大学加入了中国的一个教育网络。今年4月，中国大连市将主办每年两次的开放式课程联盟会议，届时将有来自澳大利亚、委内瑞拉等全球各地的100多所高等教育机构与会。

并不是所有活动都由教育机构发起。《指环王》的译者朱学恒表示，他的开放式课程计划(Opensource OpenCourseWare Prototype System，OOPS)完成了近200门MIT课程的全部翻译，有600多门课程的翻译已部分完成。该项目是从2004年开始的。他估算有2万人为此付出了劳动。朱学恒前往中国大陆、香港、日本、加拿大、新加坡、泰国和美国创建起他称为“知识解放军”的各学科专家队伍，涉及领域包括医药、核电厂建设、卫星和热处理等。

朱学恒说，OOPS依靠专家队伍的做法可成为发展中国家的榜样。这些国家通常缺少将开放式课程进行本地化的充足资金。他说，“过去，白领或者学生利用自己的知识帮助别人的途径很少，现在，他们不但可以利用知识赚钱，还可以帮助别人。”

如今，至少有三所台湾院校提供网络开放式课程。在日本，教育界人士建立了日本开放式课程联盟。该联盟秘书长Yoshimi Fukuhara表示，他们最初翻译MIT的资料，现在则将重点放在日语课程上。该联盟拥有17所会员院校，已经将1,000多门课程从日语译为英语和其他语言。犹他州立大学的威莱表示，在印度，如果国家知识委员会(National Knowledge Commission)推动的一个项目能够付诸实施，将把印度推向开放式教育的最前沿。

不过问题依然存在。灵活学习网络(Flexible Learning Network)的理查德•韦里斯(Richard Wyles)指出，尽管和开放源代码软件运动相提并论，但两者还是有很大不同。这一机构致力于新西兰全国性数字化学习网络的建设。他说，“随着代码的修改和替代，开放源代码软件的质量不断提高。而针对教学内容而言，就很少出现这种情况。尽管数量不断增加，但真正的质量控制却难以实行。”也就是说，在老师提供笔记和其他教学材料之后，并没有一个能够保证这些材料准确无误、紧跟时代的内在机制。他对维基百科这样的项目更热衷，因为它能促使人们更频繁的对内容进行修改。

此外，还要克服学术界的传统和既得利益。比如，有些教师担心，如果他们将所有教学资料上传到网络，自己的饭碗会保不住。

威莱的回应是：适应新的现实。他指出，有些将课程视频上传到网络的教师几乎成了“明星”。有些老师因此吸引来更多学生听课，提高了学生对课程的兴趣，还有些人在提交过程中修改和完善了教学材料。他说，“这么做就是要公开教学情况，供同行评议。”

为了继续推动这一行动，教育工作者、基金会和互联网在今年1月份签署了一份宣言，敦促政府和出版商将公共资助的教育材料在互联网上免费提供。迄今为止开普敦开放教育宣言(Cape Town Open Education Declaration)已经得到了140多个组织和近1,500名个人的签名支持。另一个喜人的进展是：Elsevier BV同意对使用其拥有版权的MIT图像和文字资料放松监管。这家学术期刊出版商总部设在阿姆斯特丹，是纽约和阿姆斯特丹上市公司Reed Elsevier旗下机构。