Stephen Downes

Steve Boots ran an interesting video today on why the right dominates online media. One good reason, of course, is that it is much more difficult to find financial and (especially) corporate support for left wing media, since the left promotes social values in addition to, or instead of, economic values. But another reason is equally relevant: writers on the left are much more likely to criticize each other for (say) not being sufficiently left, or left in just the right way. Much the same could be said of proponents of open learning. Now I don't mean to make an example of Rob Farrow here; this is just the next article I happened to encounter. The premise here is that the reason to support openness is to support "the struggle for equity in education". It's important, in this article, to support openness in the right way: "While open education offers a promising pathway toward greater equity, it too must reckon with its own limitations and biases, leveraging openness as a critical lens on existing and historical practice." I think we can be looser in our requirements. If someone supports openness, I think that's great, and don't feel the need to put them through a values test.