Restructuring OER to make it even more open than it is presently

Sir John Daniel of the Commonwealth of Learning recently wrote in a keynote presentation at the Consultative meeting on opening up higher education, hosted by the OER University in Otago, New Zealand, on 23 February 2011, aimed at developing a shared understanding of a logic model for the OER university concept. 

"One hundred and fifty years ago London University launched its external degree programme, for people all over the world, on the radical principle that it didn’t care how you acquired the knowledge provided you could pass the exam. That programme, which has produced five Nobel laureates over the years, demonstrates two key principles ... First, give students every possible element of flexibility in drawing on the rich environment of knowledge in their learning. But, second, make sure that you offer them routes to credible certification so that they and society can have confidence in the robustness of their knowledge and skills."


This, I think, makes absolute sense in situations - Namibia is no exception - where we simply don't have a chance in hell of accelerating the capacity of the locally recruited teachers to be *exceptionally good* teachers in the next two decades.  Let's take advantage of burgeoning (and increasingly) affordable technologies to empower youth (and teachers!) by way of access models which embrace these fundamental principles.