Free knowledge: An educational responsibility

Abstract

Knowledge has been one of the philosophical issues par excellence, having even a branch specifically devoted to its study and understanding, the epistemology. It has often been seen as something static and limited to the mere description of objects. However, in the educational sphere we understand that knowledge must go beyond the mere description, providing explanations of the facts through experience; this is the only way for it to become actual learning and to affect our lives. In addition, knowledge needs updating, growth, multiplication, and those are made possible by sharing it and preventing its atrophy. If knowledge is dynamic, it is our responsibility to release it from its potential enclosures and to enrich it. From this perspective, we are developing an educative innovation project at the University of Malaga that aims at building free knowledge in a cooperative manner. To this end we formed a group of students who employ free software tools to develop their own teaching materials through the Spanish translation of Chris Kelty's Two Bits, a reference work related with their subjects. Thus, we are not only contributing to the production of knowledge but also making it in a cooperative, distributed and responsible form.

Keywords

• conocimiento
• libertad
• responsabilidad
• compartir
• educación