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82 T.Amiel et al.
evenmore so if they can alreadyobtain commercial advantages bydoing so.What
wouldmake sense is subsidizing—or directing—OERproduction byperipheral or
under-resourcedactors.AsDivardinandAmiel(2018)show,thepioneeringpurchase
of digitalmultimedia resources under thePNLD in2014 led to a restructuring and
strengthening of existing players to cope with this novel demand. The structure
of the call, associating the purchasing ofmultimedia to the usual print textbooks
meantthattheusualplayersacquired,outsourcedorincorporatedintotheirstructures
mechanismsforproductionofdigitalresources—theprogramtendedtofavoralready
dominant companies.
Before concluding this discussion about the risk of offshoring, a caveat should
beadded.Thereasoningmadehereabout this risk issomewhatsimplified:weknow
there is an imprecise continuum—and not a binary distinction—between the pro-
duction of original material, on the one hand, and reuse of anOER, on the other
hand. It is thusperfectlypossible to reuseOERinanauthorlymanner, adaptingand
remixing it creatively andwith high context awareness. Similarly, the decontextu-
alized use of translated and poorly adaptedmaterial is not a phenomenon brought
aboutbyOER,but ratherapractice thatalreadyhappenedin thepast.17Theproduc-
tion of originalmaterial is also not a panacea: itmaywell happen that an original
material ends up being inferior to an existingOER, particularlywith regard to its
content or pedagogical approach.That, however, doesnot negate the fact thatOER
alsoopenpossibilitiesformoremechanicalreusepractices,encouragingthembythe
cost reduction, andconsequently introducing the risksof technical andpedagogical
impoverishment (of the producers and resources, respectively) in subaltern regions
andcountries.Therefore,although thereasoningabout the riskofoffshoringshould
not beundulygeneralized, and theparticular circumstancesof eachcase shouldbe
evaluatedwhendiscussing specificusesofOER, this argument also reveals a trend
that canbeproblematic, particularlywhenconsidering itswidescale impacts.
5.4.2 ConcentrationofGains fromCostReduction
Asmentioned above, the benefits that OER can offer to societymust beweighed
against the risks it implies, such as those fromproduction offshoring. The second
type of riskwewill discuss involves the possibility that producers of educational
resourcesmightwithhold those benefits, without sharing themwith consumers or
thepublic sector.
Indeed, inmarkets that are alreadyconcentrated (suchas the textbookmarket in
Brazil), competitionmight not be enough to force thosewho reduce costs (through
17Evidently the riskof lackof contextualizationarenot a issueonlywithOER.Contextualization
hasbeen a concernwithin thePNLD, through textbooksonHistory andGeography, for example.
Still, looking at the recent 2016 purchase of these books, only 10 states were contemplated by
specific texts (and some, likeMatoGrosso do Sul and Espírito Santowere not even covered by
more general textbooks, such as thosewho discussed theAmazon region or all of theNortheast
(Brasil, 2015).
Radical Solutions and Open Science
An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education
- Titel
- Radical Solutions and Open Science
- Untertitel
- An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education
- Herausgeber
- Daniel Burgos
- Verlag
- Springer Open
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-981-15-4276-3
- Abmessungen
- 16.0 x 24.1 cm
- Seiten
- 200
- Kategorie
- Informatik