Open Culture in #ASKnet: Access, Collaboration, and Shared Knowledge
Imagine the Future of OER
The future of learning is distributed, modular, personalised and local.
We need to understand the skills and resources available in our place based communities, and know the people around us, us, around us, while also staying connected to global flows of knowledge with our fingers on the digital pulse.
We need to recognise and value all forms of knowledge. The wisdom of the body, the senses, the cycle of rain & dry seasons, hands on, practical skills based knowledge, embodied knowledge, as well as philosophical and speculative imaginariums of future knowledge. This is how we will codesign the next chapter of life on our beautiful, endangered and resilient planet.
Looking ahead, the potential for OER is vast and transformative, especially for communities working under constraints (refugee settlements, remote areas, limited internet or electricity, resource challenged environments). As formal education can be expensive and inaccessible - piecing together the knowledge you need in a modular way becomes the pragmatic approach.
Some future possibilities:
More Local & Decolonized Content: As formal education is expensive or remote, locally created OER (stories, skills, cultural knowledge) will play a larger role in filling gaps. OER that arise from communities rather than imported models will be empowering to facilitate locally specialised and relevant skills and knowledge…
Hybrid & Low-Tech / Offline Friendly Tools: Innovations in offline-first platforms, low-bandwidth accessible formats, printed or community distributed OER will grow, so that limited access to the Internet doesn’t limit learning…
Sustainability Models & Community Ownership: Community hubs manage their own OER repositories; shared platforms allow hubs to amplify content, review each other’s work, maintain resource quality. Funding may shift from donors to decentralized models—community contributions, micro-funding, peer-review…
Education Outside Formal Systems: OER will increasingly support informal and non-formal learning—skills relevant to livelihoods, environmental resilience, repair, climate adaptation. In #ASKnet’s open learning modules, this means the #ASKotec Media Kit, Solar Dryer, Modular Housing prototype, Community repair cafes, podcasting workshops, e-waste upcycling and storytelling are all essential parts of how lifelong education is reimagined beyond the traditional classroom…
Interactive & Multimodal Learning: Video, audio, animation combined with traditional text; augmented reality, interactive simulations; or storytelling games. Learners contribute media (images, local stories) as part of living OER resources…