I posted this earlier but my service provider had a bit of a meltdown, and took my blog down with it.

Openthinking.ca has recently been launched. The idea for this online community emerged from a discussion that Rob Wall, Heather Ross and I had at a recent conference as we tended to our open source software booth. Rob Wall has set up this Drupal-based website to discuss ideas around openness and open thinking in education.

In my dissertation, I defined open thinking in the following way.

Open thinking is the tendency of an individual, group or institution to give preference to the adoption of open technologies or formats in regards to software, publishing, content and practice. Open thinkers critique, question and seek to reject technologies or formats that compromise the power of adopters, especially in the freedom to use, reuse, edit and share creative works and tools. Open thinkers value group-based problem solving and give preference to tools that enable social collaboration and sharing. Open thinkers actively strive to replace adopted technologies and formats with open alternatives. Open thinkers advocate for the adoption of open technologies and practice.

Certainly, it’s not a perfect definition, nor is it meant to be. However, it’s something that appeared in my data analysis and I think it helps to capture a certain view of openness.

If you would like to share or discuss issues around openness and open thinking in education, we welcome you to openthinking.ca.