Open knowledge and education at the new level of web paradigm

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Sustainable Answers through Experimental Learning

Butterfly Works is a foundation and do-tank, working to develop sustainable answers to social problems around the world. We partner with ngos, public and private parties, educational institutions
and individual creators.

Butterfly Experiential Learning designs processes wherein young people, through self-expression, group work and case studies explore skills for quality living. Facilitated by people and media. Topics of orientation are sexual health (Nigeria), alternatives to violence (South Africa) and children’s rights (India); in a broad but local context.

I will give an Introduction of Learning about Living from Nigeria, Extract of video on testing and content development workshop, South Africa. Followed by an interactive session where participants experience a typical session on alternatives to violence.

Presentation Butterfly Works - Emer Beamer

Informal Learning and the Digital Divide

The Amsterdam computer clubhouses are part of international network for clubhouses. In more than hundred clubhouses all over the world young people from the age of 10 to 18 years and from underserved communities develop ideas and use multimedia and IT to realize them.

In the year 2000 the first clubhouse in Amsterdam Slotervaart was started. A few hundred youngsters from different ethnic backgrounds became part of the clubhouse community and visited the clubhouse after there school hours. The clubhouse approach focuses on what kids want and what they can. It’s not curriculum driven on the contrary the key words are: creativity and development of your own products (raps, animation, websites, video etc.).

In this presentation the experiences of the last six years will be discussed.

Digital playground

A Bank of Common Knowledge

The Bank of Common Knowledge (BCK) is a pilot experience dedicated to the research of social mechanisms for the collective production of contents, mutual education, and citizen participation. It is a kind of laboratory platform where we explore new ways of enhancing the distribution channels for practical and informal knowledge, as well as how to share it.

BCK is organized as an open source model of knowledge transfer, a laboratory for inventing and trying out new forms of production, education, organization and distribution, involving new roles for producers and receivers, experts and amateurs, teachers and students.

For more information watch this:
http://openserver.cccb.org/bcc/capsulas/49/

Lifelong Competence Development

In this session we will present and discuss our pedagogical models for lifelong competence development, which we have developed within the TENCompetence project (www.tencompetence.org). First, we will present the basic concepts of lifelong competence development in a concept map.
After that we will discuss how, using what pedagogical - or better: organisational - models, lifelong competence development can be supported. Finally, in an attempt to ‘teach what we preach’ we will involve the participants in a reflection game, in which they reflect on what they have learned.

Lifelong Competence

Long Tail in Education

Hans Pronk - The slides of our presentation can be found on the
following link.
NB: some more info (in Dutch).

The Long Tail in Education

Changes in environments: education in world 2.0, the Long Tail in education
• Each student will have his/her personal curriculum, enabled by tools in Education 2.0
• Current organization of education based on Paretho’s principle, the new tools enable the Long Tail approach with low search and distribution cost. The cost of another unique, personal curriculum is almost equal to the cost of a Paretho based average curriculum.

Truth is negotiable
• Both professionals and prosumers alike can/will produce all types of content,
• Not all materials have enough quality but producing content is a learning experience in itself.
• The projects in the KN-SURFnet program have given insights in how to organize this processes in an educational setting
• Producers have access to professional equipment at very low cost, anyone with talent can reach a large audience
• New tools make huge amounts of data, or maybe even information, available at very low costs
• New tools offer ways to communicate about these vast amounts of material
• Students must learn to cope with these large amounts of sometimes contradictory information and find the ‘truth’ in that.
• Consumers have access to high quality search functionality and are not limited by high distribution cost when acquiring materials

Long Tail in Education

Bringing statistics to life through an interactive world map

Statistics often confuse and bore people rather than educate them. Hans Rosling has recently proved that this need not be the case - the video of his presentation of the Gapminder software that brings statistics to life has been seen by half a million people around the world since last year. This workshop will introduce a similar interactive tool inspired by Gapminder, which aims to make statistics more interesting, accessible and educational through a graphical interface centered around an interactive world map. A topic for discussion is how graphical user interfaces can make statistics and information in general, more interesting, accessible, and educational.

Bringing Statistics to Life

Paulo Freire meets Tactical Media

Here you can find our presentation on MetaReciclagem. An exploration of an interactive new way to produce knowledge and culture, which is sustainable with the use of free and open source software.

Advantages of a College Education

In today's global economy looking for a job can be tough and getting one can be even harder. With so much competition for the few jobs that you are looking for can mean that competitors will go that extra mile to obtain that job and become a part of a workforce. So what can you do to open up more opportunities for your career in the industry that you want to work in?

How about a college education? Many consider a college education a great way to kick start a career in a chosen path. Colleges will provide you with the skills and knowledge that you need to start in the industry of your choice. Whist undertaking the courses you will gain knowledge and get experience from those who can be a great source of information.

A college education will provide you with many benefits over those who aren't fortunate or do not choose to undertake such a qualification. One such advantage can be the availability of jobs. With stronger competition for jobs the employers can afford to be more selective and you may find that a higher education will give you the edge on any competition applying for
the job. To a potential employer a completed college qualification will show them that you are able to study, complete tasks that have been set, meet deadlines and work towards and reach a goal. This allows them to see that you are able of undertaking long term work and stay on the job until complete. Some college courses involve working in a team and this will
also show the employer that you are able to integrate well with others and work well in a team environment.

Undertaking a college course will also allow you to gain any experience that you might need with computers. The work place today is vastly populated with computers in various types of industries from admin assistant to architecture all of which use technology to drive the industry forward.

A completed college course also opens up the opportunity to work in many fields that are just not open to those with out a college education. This is not to say that college provides you with the only way in to an industry but it will certainly open up some doors that other wise will remain locked with out one. Many careers that involve science or engineering
require a qualification that shows you are able to undertake such work and alongside practical experience the chance of obtaining such a job becomes far more realistic.

Salary benefits are also something that draws people to a college education. People with a recognised qualification can climb up the ladder in a company, usually faster than those without any such experience as this can show you are willing to work hard and focus on the task in hand.

Through these few points it is easy to understand why people are opting for a college education. It's a great was to gain experience and the knowledge that is needed to enter a certain industry and allows any potential employer to see how committed you are to the industry you have chosen to work in.

Teaching Tips on Safe Sex High School Education

Good sex education should allow the adolescent to talk freely about sex and its relationship to interpersonal relations, dynamics within a relationship, love, family and his/her future. Sex education should be open enough so that the atmosphere in the classroom is comfortable and the adolescent does not feel inhibited when asking questions.

Unfortunately, most parents' actions are less a result of planning in advance, and more often reactions to children's provocations. This necessitates the importance of exposing adolescents to as much information as possible. An educator's goal should provide them with information regarding different types of sex protection and to impart knowledge based on holistic attitudes.

Suggestions for how Sex Education could be presented in High School

On International AIDS day, High School students can visit people with AIDS in hospitals or in their homes so that these people feel they have somebody to comfort and nurture them, even if it is only for a day. The students can help AIDS patients' children (if they have children) with schoolwork and/or games just to reassure the sick ones with AIDS in a constructive way.

One powerful method of exposing students to subjects such as unwanted pregnancy and abortion is through films. Show a film about a teenage girl who is pregnant and decides to have an abortion discreetly without the knowledge of her parents. After the film, divide the class into two groups: one group being the teenage girl and the other group as the parents. Pose the question: "Would you tell your parents that you are pregnant?" and, if so, "How would you tell them?" In essence, conduct a role play where the challenge is to express themselves openly as if they were in that situation. Roles plays, if well constructed, can be very effective teaching devices.

Finally, ask the question, "Do you have an open relationship with your parents where you can talk about problems regarding sex, the dynamics of a relationship with a boy or girl or about sex prevention?" If some of the students' answers are negative, pose the question: "What can you do so that your relationship with your parents can be freer and more open?"
Finally, raise the key question: "Does it bother you that you do not have an open relationship with your parents?"

Another method of teaching sex education is having the students fill out questionnaires about AIDS. In spite of the fact that many students may have heard about the AIDS disease, not many know its causes and what it is exactly. Questions such as: "Can you reduce chances of infection by taking birth control pills? Can you get AIDS by donating blood? And "Can you get AIDS from oral sex?" are some of the relevant questions to ask. Afterwards, hand out the same questionnaire and have them interview their friends, neighbors, relatives, family members and compare the results among the members of the class.
The purpose of this questionnaire is to present several topics such as: "What can we say about the fact that people do not know the answers? Is it the fault of the school, family or society? Do you think it is good or bad that your parents do not expose or share their feelings/knowledge about AIDS, prevention of sexual diseases and contraceptives? Would you like your parents to talk to you about these things?" This activity focuses on the parent-adolescent relationships regarding talking about sex and what can be done in allaying the adolescents' doubts, fear and anxieties.

Perhaps this chunk of "something else" can be nurturingly provided by the school system or in parent-teacher meetings where these issues should be discussed openly. After such meetings, new or seasoned High School teachers of sex education will not be so inhibited in talking about it with their students, similar to parents talking with their children.

Advantages of Online Education

Nowadays, for many reasons, online education is considered the best way to impart the desired knowledge. Following are few advantages of the online education system so that education seekers can choose the right path of fulfilling their knowledge thrust:

Advantages of Online Education:

Convenience:
Students need not go anywhere to get classes. Just open your computer and select your online course from any corner of the world.

Flexibility:
You can choose your own reading schedule. Take time to work on assignment and readings at your own discretion.

Availability:
These programs are usually accredited by reputed universities so you don't have to feel that you are being tricked.

Costing:
These programs are usually cheaper than traditional school programs.

Accessibility:
Attending these classes is very easy as they can be accessible from anywhere. All you need is fast internet connectivity and a functioning computer system at home.

Almost no expenses:
Attending online programs can be referred as an opportunity. Since the learning is based on the internet, you save considerable money to be spent on commutation and others related activities.

Uninterrupted learning process:
One of the greatest advantages of taking an online program is to non interruption. Access from anywhere and accessed anywhere, you learning never stops until and unless you want to do so. There are vast variety of resources available over internet that your thirst of knowledge will increase day by day. Just try to search the articles of your interest and you
will be provided with large number of online educational resources where you can learn.

ICT and E-Learning - The Growing Knowledge Economy and How to Staff It

When discussing the term, 'knowledge economy', it is worth discerning exactly what this phrase means and why it is worth understanding its importance today. Primarily, knowledge within a knowledge economy is a product that can be sold, which contrasts - somewhat confusingly - with a knowledge-based economy, in which knowledge is a tool.

In order to simplify this further, it is worth noting when the term was used first, i.e. by Peter Drucker in his book The Effective Executive in which he examines the differences between a manual worker (i.e. one who works with his/her hands and produces something tangible) and a knowledge worker (who works with his/her head and produces ideas, knowledge and
information).

In the UK, an examination of the current knowledge economy with an estimation of how this will develop over the next 10 years has been undertaken by The Work Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to provide answers 'for UK-plc and the public sector'. This year they published the first phase of their Knowledge Economy Programme (available here: theworkfoundation.com).

This highlighted the primary differences in the economy today in comparison to 1970, for example: today 50 percent of the workforce are employed in knowledge industries (such as education, high tech services, creative) compared to just 25 percent in 1970 - and today almost 90 percent of the workforce have a qualification compared to just 40 percent in 1970.

Subsequently this development of a knowledge economy has in part been stimulated by advancements in technology, communications and the internet which is set to have a continued affect particularly after the recession and the increasing number of fresh graduates. Of the future, one of the primary questions that The Work Foundation asks prior to its phase two Programme is: "What skills will be needed?"

This leads me to contemplate the importance of ICT-based courses and e-Learning in regards to staffing a growing knowledge economy. Degree courses that naturally include the usage of Web 2.0 technologies such as social networks and blogs in addition to traditional synchronous face-to-face learning are no doubt the most logical ways to prepare individuals with the necessary skills for tomorrow's workplace. Additionally, promoting independent study, learning without walls, and open content is also the key to increased accessibility and educational equity which should lead to an ever-more cohesive global village.

Open Access Movement - The Future of Academic Writing

Open Access material is readily provided to help further research, help teaching, and to aid many other academic purposes. Open Access gets rid of subscriptions and fees and most copyright and licensing restrictions. This movement for open access through the internet is extremely beneficial for the future of not only academic science writing but for other research
fields as well. The ability for authors to assist other researchers without money in the picture will establish a more accurate approach towards researching in our society today.

What is Open Access?

The Open Access Movement is the effort to make scholarly research articles free to the public online. According to Public Knowledge, "the OA movement has focused on peer-reviewed journal articles and their preprints." This is because scholarly journals don't pay royalties to authors and most of their research is funded by taxpayers. One method for providing open
access is self-archiving. Self-archiving is when someone submits a digital document on the web in order to provide open access to it.

Along with the open access movement comes the open source movement. The open source movement is composed of various individuals who feel the best way to produce sophisticated bug-free software is to bring together skilled programmers who would work for free (Cherian, 2000). The software provides a source code for the user which meets the Open Source Definition, allowing users to change and improve the software. Even though there is some cost involved with open source software, both movements are fairly similar in that they promote free material for users by conveniently making it readily for them to use or amend.

When Paul Ginsparg set up the server ArXiv to make physics preprints freely accessible, the first building block for the movement was laid. Other co-founders were Peter Suber and Steven Harnad (www.open-access.net). It has gained momentum from three major statements since 2002: Budapest Open Access Initiative, Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing, and Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (Cambridge University Library). The movement has gained many supporters since it has been around. It gives authors a larger audience while giving readers a chance to esearch material without having to worry about barriers or payment.

Libraries support the movement because they want to help raise the school's research profile, and with open access can better help students find the information they need. The movement also assists funding agencies by providing public access to the results of publicly-funded research (Peter Suber, 2004). Even though Open Access allows for a larger audience for authors, the movement can strip the reuse of the published work. This can bring about a possible negative side for opposers to sit with.

Many of the initiatives for Open Access focus on taxpayer funded research. "The campaign usually recognizes exceptions for military research, patentable discovery research, and research that some authors publish in some royalty-producing form"
(Suber, 2004).

Potential Impact

According to a study mentioned in an e! Science News article, "when academic articles are "open access" or free online, they get read more often, but they don't get cited more often in academic literature" (Cornell University, 2008). The reason suggested for this is researchers already have the information they need from other relevant articles readily accessible to them. Researchers conducted a study by making some journal articles free to users while requiring a fee for other articles. They found the free articles were downloaded and read more but weren't cited more than the subscription based articles. According to Cornell graduate student Phillip Davis, they found that open-access publishing may reach more
readers than subscription-access publishing, but there is no evidence that freely accessible articles are cited any more than subscription-access articles (Cornell University, 2008).

Peer review is the screening of a work to consider for publication. Within this topic, publishers make various claims that Open Access threatens peer review. "If OA is forced on them they will not be able to survive financially because they will discover that there is no stable long-term business model for OA publishing" (Poynder, 2006). Stevan Harnad makes a good point saying that Open Access is the free availability of peer-reviewed research, not the availability of research free of peer review.

As mentioned earlier, the movement can greatly affect universities, libraries, and various funding agencies. The movement decreases the school's expense on journals and helps them extend their goal to share knowledge and other research. In dealing with libraries, Peter Suber states that this movement solves the pricing and permission crisis. The pricing crisis
means libraries have to pay sky high prices for journals, while the permission crisis deals with licensing terms prohibiting libraries from accessing electronic journals.

The Future of Open Access

I think this movement will tremendously affect academic research. Allowing researchers to freely read academic journals will help our world's growth in knowledge. Sharing each other's works with certain ideas and stances will allow for additional, maybe even more significant, ideas to form. The movement will assist authors get their research out to a larger
number of people willing to read about their findings in order to assist their own research. With this movement does come some issues related to authorship rights. The movement will have an affect on individual authorship, priority, and especially ownership. Peter Suber talks about various ways how the movement can maneuver around these negative affects.
First, this access doesn't require the author to throw away all of their copyright privileges. They can use one of the Creative Commons licenses or compose their own licenses and attach them to their works (Suber, 2004). "When copyright holders consent to OA they consent in advance to the unrestricted reading, downloading, copying, sharing, storing,
printing, searching, linking, and crawling of the full-text of the work" (Suber, 2004).


Final Thoughts

After finishing my research, I believe this movement is a masterfully developed concept that has potential to aid students and professionals with their research and help extend their knowledge of certain sciences. Allowing for academic journals to be available online for everyone to read, disregarding any barriers that previously came with it, would be a significant improvement for our societies research profile. The movement benefits so many professions and institutions such as authors, readers, libraries, universities, and funding agencies. There have been many times when I have been denied access to scholarly articles on the internet because of subscription fees, but without these fees in the future I can develop better research from a wider range of material.

Learning English Will Help You Gain Skills and Enhance Your Knowledge

One of the best possible things you can do to improve yourself and make you more appealing to your current and future employers is to learn a second language. Learning any second language can and will have many benefits, but learning English as a second language could have benefits that are far beyond any other possible choices, possibly far beyond what you can even imagine learning a second language would do for you.


Completing the difficult task of learning English as a second language will not only make you more capable of connecting and communicating with millions and millions of people worldwide, but it will also open up many more opportunities for you to continue to further you education. If the saying, "knowledge is power" is true, than your true key to power could be learning the English language.

When you finally have a good grasp of the English language, you'll have access to almost unlimited resources for learning anything imaginable, on just about any topic that you can think of. Books, magazines, newspapers and trade publications can all offer incredible amounts of information but most of these valuable resources may only be published in the English language.

The amount of information that you could amass from the above mentioned sources on any given topic could take you years of study to get through, but that amount of information probably pales in comparison to the information available on the same topic located on the internet. There are millions of personal, professional and educational websites on the World Wide Web and many have tremendous amounts of valuable information to share, but as was the case with books and magazines, many of the internet's resources are also only available in English.


If you've got the motivation and persistence that it will take you to gain mastery of the English language, the doors of learning are so wide open to you that there is really nothing that you won't be able to accomplish if willing to apply that same amount of hard work and dedication to other areas.

Learning English will also open wider the doors to understanding the world of computers. There are very few jobs out there today that don't at least require some computer skills and there are many jobs that are totally dependent on your level of proficiency with a computer. The majority of computer programs today are available only in English, so if you have had any intention of pursuing one of the many careers that involves the use of computers or if working in the computer field has any interest for you, than learning English as a second language could very well be a must for you.

There are very few things that you can do that will enhance your education, build knowledge and open new doors for you as much as learning English as a second language. So very many people worldwide are speaking English already, and a good majority of the rest are either already learning it or considering learning it. Whatever your current situation is, there
is likely an option for learning English out there that will fit into your schedule and your budget. There are even several options available for you to learn English as a second language online, from the comfort of your very own home that are very reasonably priced.

With all of the opportunities that learning English online will open up for you in the area of your career alone - possible promotions at your current job and potentially more exciting and higher paying jobs with future employers, can you really afford not to find a way to learn English as your second language?

Learn to speak English with our experienced teachers. We can help you develop your English skills so you can reach your goals at our online English school.

Education and Islam

Islam is the religion of peace, and it is one of the most sacred and trustworthy religions, which has given us guidance in every aspect of life. Islam has given us education with knowledge which has no limits. The Holy Quran is the most sacred book of Allah revealed on Prophet Muhammad (SAW), for the upliftment guidance and enriched messages to the humanity.

Education is the knowledge of putting one's potentials to maximum use. Without education, no one can find the proper right path in this world.

This importance of education is basically for two reasons. Education makes man a right thinker. Without education, no one can think properly in an appropriate context you. It tells man how to think and how to make decision. The second reason for the importance of education is that only through the attainment of education, man is enabled to receive information from the external world. It is well said that

"Without education, man is as though in a closed room and with education he finds himself in a room with all its windows open towards outside world."

This is why Islam attaches such great importance to knowledge and education. When the Quran began to be revealed, the first word of its first verse was 'Iqra' that is, read..

The reflective book of Holy Quran is so rich in content and meaning that if the history of human thought continues forever, this book is not likely to be read to its end. Every day it conveys a new message to the humanity. Every morning, it gives us new thoughtful ideas and bound us in the boundaries of ethics.

Islamic Education is one of the best systems of education, which makes an ethical groomed person with all the qualities,

which he/she should have as a human being. The Western world has created the wrong image of Islam in the world. They don't know that our teachings are directly given to us from Allah, who is the creator of this world, through our Prophets.

The Muslims all over the world are thirsty of acquiring quality education. They know their boundaries and never try to cross it. It is the West, which has created a hype that the Muslim are not in a path of getting proper education. They think that our education teaches us fighting, about weapons, etc., which is so false. This is true that there are certain elements, which force an individual to be on the wrong path, because as we will mould a child, they will be like that, but it doesn't mean that our religion teaches improperly to us.

Our Holy Prophet (SAW), said,

Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.

And:

Seek knowledge even [if it is to be found in a place as distant as China. At the battle of Badr, in which our beloved Holy Prophet (SAW) gained victory over his foes, seventy people of the enemy rank were taken to prison. These prisoners were literate people. In order to benefit from their education the Prophet declared that if one prisoner teaches ten Muslim children how to read and write, this will serve as his ransom and he will be set free. This was the first school in the history of Islam established by the Prophet himself with all its teachers being non-Muslims. The Sunnah of the Prophet shows that education is to be received whatever the risk involved.

Today, the Muslims are acquiring good ideas, thoughts, knowledge, and skills, from all corners of the world. The world is moving very fast, and in this industrialize world, It is the duty of the teachers to give quality ethical integrated education to the Muslim students worldwide, because children are invaluable assets of future generations.


The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) encouraged all Muslims to acquire knowledge and share it. He said:

"Acquire knowledge, for he who acquires it in the way of Allah performs an act of piety; he who speaks of it, praises the Lord; he who seeks it, adores Allah; he who dispenses instruction in it, bestows alms; and he who imparts it to others, performs an act of devotion to Allah." (Bukhari, Muslim)

All the teachers of either secular or religious education should give more attention to the pupils inside the classroom. It is necessary that in the Islamic system that we should consider these dear children as our own children, and put aside all other considerations, and rise above all such things and realize our duty and our mission. We should raise the standards of education and attend to the needs of these children. We should realize our duties with earnestness and awaken to the sense of responsibility. It has been seen that there are certain teacher who are not fulfilling their duties with keen interest. I would like to request all the teachers that for the sake of God, for the sake of your revolutionary duty, teach the
children with devotion and dedication.

It is important that we advance our work through discussions, debates, studies, and through proper distribution of work among ourselves.We must never forget that we are living in an Islamic State, and our aim should be simultaneously to create both an independent as well as an Islamic culture in character. Independence and richness of content are indeed among the characteristics of the Islamic culture. Our system is an ideological system.

We should make our child enthusiastic, dynamic, and this search should pervade every corner of our society. We should aspire them to be truthful and sincere.

Self-sacrifice and generosity, love of freedom, the resolve for resistance and headstrong perseverance, the courage to welcome martyrdom-all these are the new values of the new generation, which should be taught according to the teaching of Islam.

The doors of the school should always be kept open for the sake of Islam, for the sake of the Muslim Ummah.

Munir Moosa Sewani is one of the famous, prominent and creative names in the field of Education since 8 years. He is a Master Trainer In Special Education, Post Graduate, Teacher Educator and a Teacher. He is a Freelance Writer and Photographer too. He is an author of the famous self-published storybook for children named as "The MORAL STORIES FOR CHILDREN" and has also written Biology course book for Secondary Classes. He has written almost more than 40 articles on social, health, educational and cultural issues, which are internationally recognized and published on most of the famous world wide websites, magazines and newspapers. He is also a Social worker, private tutor, career counselor, musician, lyrics writer and have multi- dimensional talents. His future plan is to write dozens of informative books and articles and to work for education and media too.

Open Education Will Be Great For High-Quality Content Providers

As the Web is converting from 1.0 to more social-based 2.0, the next 3.0 generation of how the Web will affect all of our lives is starting to surface. Various social media networking sites, blogs and free online learning communities have brought free knowledge to an infinite amount of people around the globe and have grown exponentially through the last decade. One of the biggest things that will change peoples lives is the amount of free education people will be able to access.

As most will agree, everyone in the world should have access to learn and grow. The question is, as more free learning sources appear, how will this affect colleges, universities and continuing adult education? Will open education eliminate the demand for expensive online programs?

The world's largest e-learning provider, Gatlin International doesn't think so. Open education should bring positive results if you offer quality content. As the world starts to even out and poor and rich alike can learn at the same level, a larger need for advanced training will surface. Therefore, as long as your courses and degrees are among the best in the world, then you should not suffer any loss.

Think about it, more people learning means that more people will need to advance their education to keep competitive, this will further separate low end education providers and great ones. Low end content providers might be wiped out by free education. The best quality education providers will come out on top.

The challenge of competing with free learning on the Web brings an opportunity to content providers, so while there are thousands of free learning sources out there, don't let it worry you. Offering content in areas like video game design and development, business marketing design, Six Sigma, and Microsoft Certified Application Specialist takes advantage of highly demanded fields, and your content will fill a need for advanced training that free resources don't provide. You might also consider providing content on the lucrative and growing healthcare industry. The superior skill sets your content presents for a career such as pharmacy technician is something that open education cannot compete with. Free education can be your friend by sparking an individual's interest in any given topic and creating a craving for a deeper knowledge and need for your course.

Gatlin International LLC is the Internet's foremost resource of elearning content. Gatlin International partners with businesses, governments and institutions of higher learning to create completely individualized portal Web sites where students have direct access to both certificate and non-certificate, non-credit courses. The result is a comprehensive and user-friendly one-stop shop where students and business professionals can meet their continuing education needs and get on the fast track to a long and successful career. Gatlin International also hosts the Internet's largest collection of skills-based, career building courses from the world's leading online education companies at http://www.worldeducation.net The site's more than 6,000 self-study programs are available for direct sale to students anywhere in the world.