This is a special guest blog post by Jonathan Wong, Counselor at Leeward CC.
What was your motivation for taking the Go Open, Go Free workshop?
I decided to participate in the OER training workshops because I believe textbook publishers are not educators but rather entrepreneurs.
Publishers are driven by stock market prices and profit sharing, resulting in education being less not more accessible to marginalized students.
Through the workshops I have learned that college instructors are often co-conspirators often without even realizing it.
It’s similar to buying a stylish shirt made in Pakistan by children working for pennies in sweatshops. We are happy getting it for less not realizing how much children are enslaved to a corrupt and unjust economy.
I hope that LeeCC will embrace a First Year Experience course for many of our high risk first semester students using OER.