The Open Influence: Towards an Ecology of Abundance
M.S. Vijay Kumar
Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Director
Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, MIT
vkumar@mit.edu; http://web.mit.edu/~vkumar/www/
Abstract
An emergent Open Education movement characterized by an abundance of
information and interaction opportunities, as well as new connections between
content, curriculum and community, presents the potential of profound impact
on educational access and quality. Fueled by the affordances of networks and
technology tools, open education presents the ability to overcome traditional
assumptions about the development and delivery of educational resources and
opportunity to radically alter the economics and ecology of education.
This presentation will build on recent efforts at MIT and elsewhere to illuminate
some of the transformative possibilities. It will also highlight some of the
technological, organization and cultural dimensions of “readiness” that need to
be addressed for the promise of the open education movement to be realized,
Biography
M.S. Vijay Kumar
Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Director
Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, MIT
vkumar@mit.edu; http://web.mit.edu/~vkumar/www/
Education:
Ed. D, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
M. S. Industrial Management, IIT Madras ‘78
B. Tech. (Chem. Engg.) IIT Madras ‘75
As Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Director, Office of
Educational Innovation and Technology, MIT. Dr. Vijay Kumar provides
leadership for sustainable technology-enabled educational innovation at MIT. In
his prior roles at MIT as Assistant Provost and Director of Academic Computing,
as well at other institutions, Vijay provided leadership for the effective
integration of information technology and media services in education.
Vijay was the Principal Investigator of O.K.I (Open Knowledge Initiative), a MITled collaborative project supported by the Andre W. Mellon Foundation to
develop an open architecture for enterprise educational applications.
Vijay is a member of the Advisory Committee of MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW)
and a member of the steering committee for I-Campus, a MIT-Microsoft Research
joint initiative for educational technology. Vijay also served on the Applications
Strategy Council for Internet2, as a Trustee of the Corporation for Research and
Education Networking (CREN), Chair of the Board of the Seminars on Academic
Computing (SAC) Snowmass, CO and NERCOMP.
Vijay is honorary advisor to India’s National Knowledge Commission and
advisor to the Open University of Catalonia. He has been an advisor to UNESCO
on their strategies for open technology, education and policy. He is actively
involved in efforts to advance Open Education, such as those supported by the
Hewlett Foundation. He is a co-editor of a Carnegie Foundation book "Opening
Up Education" (MIT Press, August 2008).
Vijay's research, as well as his extensive professional engagements is directed
toward strategy, planning and implementing innovations for education.