We’re getting some coverage in Vietnam on our decision to host OCWC Global 2010 there. This morning, I noticed that the Voice of Vietnam had picked it up.  

It’s a little harder, I suppose, to get coverage of the decision in the U.S., but for any reporter reading this I think the main takeaway is that nations all over the world, many with much fewer resources than ours, are experimenting at a national level with open education. 

There are some people in the public policy arena who still think that OCW is primarily a philanthropic endeavor — a gift from the haves to the have-nots — and in this model the U.S. is often seen as leading the way, with major U.S. universities producing materials used all over the world. What we’re finding in other countries, however, is that open education is increasingly being seen more along the lines of things like national health care — a project whose raison d’etre is to eliminate wasteful redundancies, spread best practices quickly and efficiently, and spur innovation in areas of national priority. The variations in implementation between say, China and the U.K.,  are huge, and certainly could form the grounds of a vigorous debate. But whether the approach involves a full-blown OER organization or a more light-weight block-grant program, countries like these share in common a belief that open educational resources are part of the new national infrastrcuture. 

I guess that is pretty long for a takeaway. The shorter version is this: not long ago, Vietnam and many other countries came to the US to see how we “did OCW”. Increasingly, however, we are turning to these countries to see what happens when the movement is integrated with national educational policy. 

We’re hoping that both the location and the agenda of OCWC Global 2010 will make that a fruitful discussion.