New #GoOpen campaign in America promotes free open education resources
Late last week the US Department of Education announced the #GoOpen campaign, designed to promote the use of open educational resources (OERs) in schools across the country. The new proposal would require an open license on all copyrightable intellectual property which was developed with the aid of federal funds. The department's open education advisor, Andrew Marcinek, will work with schools, districts, and states to help promote OER resource implementation. Various corporations have offered partnerships and support the initiative, including Amazon.com; by allowing the Department of Education’s Learning Registry to run on their cloud, and providing infrastructure and developer support. Furthermore, Microsoft will create an app that will index content from the Learning Registry.

THE US OPEN: The Department of Education has launched #GoOpen, a campaign to encourage schools to use open educational resources (OER). To add force to the hashtag, the Department proposed new regulation that any tool developed with its federal grant funds will be required to have an open license, would which allow schools to use and modify those resources for free.

The Department also hired an open educational advisor, Andrew Marcinek, to work with schools, districts and states on choosing or adapting these resources through the Office of Educational Technology. Already, 10 districts have agreed to replace one textbook with OER materials within the next year. Companies and organizations including Microsoft and Edmodo have also made commitments to make OER materials from the Learning Registry more easily accessible.

“By requiring an open license, we will ensure that high-quality resources created through our public funds are shared with the public, thereby ensuring equal access for all teachers and students regardless of their location or background,” John King, senior advisor and appointed Secretary of Education, said in a statement.

This week has been busy for the Department, which on Tuesday encouraged states and districts to limit the amount of testing.