= For the future School of Open /about page =

Purpose

The problem: Open content, tools and processes can vastly improve access to and participation in research, education, technology, and culture, but not enough people know what "open" means or how it applies to their lives.

The solution: Peer learning on what "open" means and how to use open content, tools, and processes powered by peer mentors and learners, self-organized into courses which themselves leverage existing "open" learning materials.

The goal: Encourage everyone, including artists, educators, learners, and researchers, to improve their fields through the use of open content, tools, and processes. Provide opportunities to obtain skills and certification around open practices that result in improved access to and participation in research, education, technology and culture.

Scope

Learning opportunities and certification that focus on promoting open practices of all kinds, especially in research, education, and culture. Open practices include using the content, tools and processes shared with us, enabling others to use, share and adapt what we create, and supporting transparency in our content, tools and processes. If a course involves teaching or learning about any of these practices, either broadly or in a particular field, then it probably fits in the School of Open.

Courses must be built around tools that are accessible to any learner free of cost, free to share, and free to modify to suit their needs. Participants should also be encouraged to openly share their work. Participants are expected to openly license their work under the CC Attribution-ShareAlike, or compatible license, so that they may review, revise, and adapt each others work.

Values

As part of P2PU, the School of Open runs on the same values and principles that make up the foundation of P2PU: openness, community, peer learning.  We are articulating these values in order to guide our actions, but  P2PU has always been about doing, and our actions will in turn help us probe and refine these values.

P2PU is open:  Open sharing and collaboration enable  participation, innovation, and accountability. Our community is open so  that everyone can participate.  Our content is open so that everyone can  use it. Our model and  technology are open to enable experimentation and  ongoing improvement.  And our processes are open so that we are accountable to our community.

P2PU is a community:  P2PU is a community-centric  project and our governance model reflects  that. P2PU is driven by  volunteers, who are involved in all aspects of  the project. As members  of this community, we speak and act with  civility, tolerance, and  respect for other opinions, people, and  perspectives. We strive for  quality as a community driven process of  review, feedback and revision. ? 

P2PU is passionate about peer learning:  P2PU is  teaching and learning by peers for peers. Everyone has  something to  contribute and everyone has something to learn. We are all  teachers and  we are all learners. We take responsibility for our own  and each others  learning.

How to participate


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