I may try this again later. Didn't get hooked the first try. ( )

With the increasing abundance of information available on the Internet, the way we learn new things is changing in many ways. The author discusses many aspects of this revolution and how it affects business, schools and individuals. He discusses the conglomeration of information available in what he calls the Global Learning Commons, the acronyms SOFT (sharing, open, free and trust) and MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) and other concepts. We find out about the shift from learning being delivered by a teacher to a more self controlled approach. The days of learning facts and following a static curriculum are numbered. According to the author, businesses and educational institutions are lagging in this transformation but there are gradual inroads being made. I found the book informative, although I was already aware of many of the concepts because the open learning environment is becoming more apparent everyday. The book is written from a British perspective and I would prefer more US examples, but the concepts are true worldwide.

I received a free copy of the book from librarything.com. ( )

With the increasing abundance of information available on the Internet, the way we learn new things is changing in many ways. The author discusses many aspects of this revolution and how it affects business, schools and individuals. He discusses the conglomeration of information available in what he calls the Global Learning Commons, the acronyms SOFT (sharing, open, free and trust) and MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) and other concepts. We find out about the shift from learning being delivered by a teacher to a more self controlled approach. The days of learning facts and following a static curriculum are numbered. According to the author, businesses and educational institutions are lagging in this transformation but there are gradual inroads being made. I found the book informative, although I was already aware of many of the concepts because the open learning environment is becoming more apparent everyday. The book is written from a British perspective and I would prefer more US examples, but the concepts are true worldwide.

I received a free copy of the book from librarything.com. ( )

I am unable to fairly review this book as I was unable to finish it. It was more about the Open Education movement than about Open in general. It started well enough but the arguments seemed a bit long-winded to me.

This book turned out to be quite interesting when I actually settled down to read it but despite this I found myself leaving big gaps between reading parts of it (and therefore forgetting what had gone before). The book is to do with 'open' rather than traditional learning, which does not separate learning from doing, and the chapters give examples of the relevance of this to different aspects of our lives. I suspect that in order to get a full picture of the author's ideas and arguments I ought to settle down and read it in a less disjointed fashion, but as that may be some time in the future am offering my overall impressions (of good but sometimes perhaps a bit wordy) now. ( )