U.S. Department of Education Begins Campaign to Encourage Schools to Use Open Education Resources (OER)

From the U.S. Dept. of Education:

The U.S. Department of Education announced today the launch of #GoOpen, a campaign to encourage states, school districts and educators to use openly licensed educational materials. As part of the campaign, the Department is proposing a new regulation that would require all copyrightable intellectual property created with Department grant funds to have an open license.
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With the proposed policy, the Department joins the U.S. Department of Labor, USAID, State, and other Federal agencies in leading the Administration’s open government initiatives. After the proposed policy is published in the Federal Register, members of the public can submit comments for thirty days at regulations.
“By requiring an open license, we will ensure that high-quality resources created through our public funds are shared with the public, thereby ensuring equal access for all teachers and students regardless of their location or background,” said John King, senior advisor delegated the duty of the Deputy Secretary of Education. “We are excited to join other federal agencies leading on this work to ensure that we are part of the solution to helping classrooms transition to next generation materials.”
The complete announcement includes more info including a list of commitments from a number of companies including Amazon.com and Microsoft.

Direct to Complete Announcement
UPDATE October 30
Comment/Reaction to Announcement by Association of American Publishers
UPDATE October 30
Comment and Reaction to the Announcement by Creative Commons
Includes a link to the proposed rule that will be published in the Federal Register.
 

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Funding, News