Open-source learning

Open-source learning is an emerging education practice that allows students to capitalize on the scope and power of the Internet to create and manage their own learning experiences and produce interactive material that is available online to everyone. The term was coined for this context in 2009 by David Preston, a teacher who developed the principles, tools, and techniques that are being used in a growing number of K-12 schools and colleges.

In an open-source learning environment, individual students work with the guidance of a teacher-mentor to explore and create concepts, source materials, and research to develop their own learning experiences, primarily with online technology. Students form socially dynamic learning networks online and in the local community, communicating and collaborating by using in-depth online research practices, blogs, social media, and other interactive tools.

As a result, students create and manage interactive learning material that is available online to everyone, generating and sharing value that extends beyond the traditional K-16 curriculum. This deeper and more engaged involvement results in significant improvement in academic achievement; it also creates many opportunities for traditional performance evaluation of objective production, including formative and summative tests, as well as alternative assessment of portfolios, which can include a variety of artifacts, including transmedia presentation of content and the learner’s choices related to platforms, media, and design.

In an early presentation on the value of open-source learning, Preston wrote,

The practice of open-source learning transforms teachers and students into what Preston calls "educational entrepreneurs" – students who not only receive and use information more effectively than in traditional teaching models but also create new knowledge, opportunities, competitive advantage, and value in the community and the marketplace.

Using the tools and training developed by Preston, open-source learning becomes an interactive process that transforms teachers and students into networked partners in creating and sharing knowledge. Teachers become networked facilitators for student innovation. Teachers serve as mentors, guiding students through an exploration of the curriculum, connecting students with information and people that can help extend their work, encouraging expressions of learning for all in the network to experience, and collaboratively evaluating the efforts and achievements of the students throughout the course of study.

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