Thoughts about Public / Private Information on OERs

Our discussions in class about OERs made me think about the authors involved in publishing materials for distance education courses.  Although it is a great asset to any educational community to have an open education resource, what is the incentive for the author to give the information for free? 

When authors spend their own time and money researching, writing and publishing a text, they are invested in how that information is used -- Texts often cost upwards of $100 to purchase a hard copy -- by putting the text online, it saves paper, and usually is available to students at a discount -- thereby still offering the author a modicum of monetary compensation.  But once it is available for free, for everyone, where is the author's incentive. 

Although it doesn't yet seem to be a major issue, I find this to be moderately reminiscent of the Napster issues of the late 90s.  Where do you draw the line as to offering free information for those who need it, and offering free information for anyone who wants it?

 

Questioning how DE Can Reach Those Who Need It Most...

This is my first post on this new blog.  In it, I'd like to consider the one thing that I always question about Distance Education:  Accessibility.

We talk about synchronous and asynchronous Distance Education and how both methods of online learning accessible to those who would not otherwise have access to higher education. This includes those who may live in areas without immediate access to brick and mortar educational institutions; students who work full time; students who have a physical or mental disability that prohibits them from attending a class;

However, all of this ignores what is quite possibly the largest population of people who lack access to education - that is those in developing nations.  People living in developing nations do not have the ability to access the internet nor do they have the resources to own the hardware. So how do we reach them? I'm not certain I know the answer.  I imagine that these nations will continue to work best under the first generation of Distance Education - correspondence study.