Reflection on Open Resources

There are many ways that Open Resources can cause change in schools, both positive and negative. 

Being "open" and having a variety of openly licensed resources, definitely increases educational equity, allowing more students to have access to the same information that they otherwise would not have. Using technology and the internet versus textbooks insures that information is going to be more updated - for example, some schools still have Geography books that have countries included on maps that don't even exist anymore! For History/Government classes, there are constantly things happening in the world around us that students should be having discussions about in school that won't be included in traditional old textbooks, but can be found on the internet. I really like that these open resources will allow for teachers AND students to be more creative and have access to things that wouldn't have before. There are some negatives about this idea as well. The Office of Educational Technology's website says that "Switching to educational materials that are openly licensed enables schools to repurpose funding spent on static textbooks for other pressing needs, such as investing in the transition to digital learning. In some districts, replacing just one textbook has made tens of thousands of dollars available for other purposes." This is something that I struggle with because I do not believe that this statement is true for a LOT of schools. There is obviously going to be a large upfront cost of purchasing 1:1 devices for students, and some schools don't have textbooks or money for them in the first place to be allocated towards technology. I also worry that teachers are eventually going to rely too heavily on the internet and the open resources that it provides.