In a post which was mainly about Transport, Whinery also brought up the issue of education. What are people's thoughts on education? Could the PPNZ have an education policy?

There is heaps of work being done in the free/open education space. Organisations like Open Educational Resources Foundation running projects like WikiEducator and OERUniversity. Textbooks are being written under CC licenses. Lots of popular GNU/Linux distros have educational versions like EduBuntu. There is the One Laptop Per Child, and the kid-orientated Sugar OS that was designed for it. There are MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platforms like MIT's OpenCourseware, and Corsera.org. There is a huge movement for open access to academic journals, lots of open journals adopting CC lienses, and lots of academics sharing their research papers through open databases like academia.edu.

A number of schools in this country have adopted CC licenses as the default license for any learning materials created by their staff. This has sometimes created a backlash, as teachers suddenly discover that their employer owns the copyright on anything they create during their work time. This is follow by relief and then excitement when they start to understand that a CC license not only allows them to continue using and building on that work legally, even after leaving that employer, but also allows them access to a growing commons of work by other teacers.

I have also noticed a backlash against other open education initiatives. I've seen blogs and editorials write them off as "neo-liberal", as a kind of "privatization" of education. The fear seems to be that academic institutions and face-to-face teaching will be replaced with online courseware and degrees in the mail. This climate of fear seems to be partly a response to moves by the current government to begin the privatization of education through "charter schools" and "national standards" which are more work for teachers and less useful to parents (they compare kids to other kids, but unlike the older reports, they give no information about the child's progress against their own previous achievements). Even building big hurricane fences around school grounds and locking gates after school hours could be seen as a form of privatization, blocking access to what are essentially publicly-owned parks and playgrounds.

I suspect lots of this backlash against open education projects would dissolve, like the backlash against CC licenses does, if someone presented an integrated vision for education which included the best aspects of the traditional education system, and the successful open education projects thus far, and consulted a range of teachers, parents, academics who study education and learning etc. Are we up to the task?

I've noticed that my education improved significantly once I could afford textbooks from amazon rather than the limited selection from uni bookstores. Better, cheaper and more variety.
I also appreciate being able to download free videos of lectures from the best universities in the world.

=point 2=

My brother is an english as a second language teacher in Taiwan.
He has various freelance contracts as a teacher in schools and kindergartens in the area.
His qualification is a BA in a few things from VUW, no teaching qualification though, as all you need is an english speaking university degree.
Where this gets relevant is, their education system is basically charter schools (cram schools) that run after regular schools from early afternoon to night. In these schools, you start marking from 100% and only take points off for error.
The parents have so much power over teachers that the worst mark my brother has given is 68% for a girl who could barely say her name in english and couldn't even keep up with a youtube karoake session of pop songs.

Now, I think somehow the current regime's idea of charter schools that have unregistered teachers who have to suck up to parents and give easy marks to idiots is just the same as what happens in Taiwan.
(Perhaps more idiots is a long term goal of getting new votes for national, it would match their policy of no post grad student allowance.)
When that is the education system, you just get people who aren't able to think for themselves, who don't take initiative, who just don't challenge themselves at university. When my brother does guest lectures at local universities he decides whether it's a success by the quality of the questions, not the quantity of students attending.

The role of enhanced schooling, a central part of most progress strategies, has become controversial since development of school achievement has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. Case study essay writing service is a role of education in promoting economic well-being, with a exacting focus on the role of educational excellence.

have also noticed a backlash against other open
education initiatives. I've seen blogs and editorials write them off as "neo-liberal", as a kind of "privatization" of education. The fear seems to be that academic institutions and face-to-face teaching will be replaced with online courseware and degrees in the mail.

nice article...........
http://www.telugumoviesnow.com

Education Should Be a Basic Thing To each and every Induvudual to open their mind and expose to world. The role of enhanced schooling, a central part of most progress strategies, has become controversial since development of school achievement has not guaranteed improved economic conditions.

that would rather be a good one to mobile number tracker with owner name movie download sites list thats amazing