Don’t forget to join us on Thursday at 11:30 EST for a discussion with Reuven Carlyle, State Representative to the Washington Legislature. No need to register, just join us here: http://breezemeeting.asu.edu/ocwc to see the presentation.  To ensure better sound quality, the audio will be on our conference line +1 770 657 9185 (888 830 8920 in the US), enter code 510-267-9409.  Please mute your phone or skype unless you are speaking.

To give you a taste of what’s in store, here is a reposting of Representative Carlyle’s recent post on the webinar:

This Thursday, November 18 I’ll be leading a public policy dialogue about open courseware and education as part of the Open Courseware Consortium, the leading public interest organization in the field. Details are here and you more than invited to join in.

My passion for open courseware material–and the power of community-driven content, materials and learning–is not just about educational policy. It’s about power, money and responsiveness to students living real lives. Today higher education is confronted with cold hard challenges around access, affordability, quality and flexibility. Bringing down proprietary, closed doors is about a move toward openness that spans the gulf of attitude as much as money.

Many states are charging forward with open courseware and many are holding back waiting for the road to be well travelled. For example, in the coming weeks and months the Seattle Public School District–an educated, progressive city district–will show its old thinking and will likely begin to spend the $6 million in additional levy dollars voters just approved for textbooks. But why are they looking only at commercial, proprietary, inflexible content that is no more customized to Washington’s curriculum than Webster’s Dictionary? Because they haven’t yet discovered the power of open content. We have a long way to go as we struggle to educate school districts, universities and college communities around the state and nation about the power of this movement.

In 2009 I was able to convince my legislative colleagues to contribute just over $3 million for the open content initiative at our state’s community and technical colleges. With those dollars we charged forward with expanding our open course content program, expanded distance learning and revolutionized the thinking about the value of education and eLearning. We’re only at the beginning since only about half of the content has been tackled, and there are few rewards yet on the ground until we’re live, but the journey has begun. The Seattle Times did a great piece on the project recently. In January, it will be a thrill to be joined in the legislature by Rep.-elect Chris Reykdal of the 22nd District who shares both a passion and a deep insight regarding this important public policy issue.

The next goal is to help unleash the power of open courseware in the K-12 environment. My goal is to open up the issue in a public, transparent way so that open courseware is on a level playing field–no higher or lower–than commercial products. My goal is to recognize courageously and genuinely that materials, information and knowledge paid for by the public should be in the public realm and available to all.

I noticed that the progressive thought leaders in Ohio–a state in many ways leading the charge in both open courseware and the power of eLearning–mentioned this public policy webinar to its members.

Please join us on Thursday!

Your partner in service,

Reuven.