O is for Open Participatory Learning Ecosystems

Wow, that's a mouthful - but - really for me this concept is the heart of the greatest value of the Internet.  Open Participatory Learning Ecosystems (herein referred to as OPLE) is a combination of Open Educational Resources (such as the MIT course material available free  to anyone), eScience and eHumanities links and Web 2.0 & beyond.  While in school, we have access to many resources (and the above resources should be used and only make educational opportunities even richer) but when we leave a formalized educational experience, opportunities to learn often need to be sought out.  The beauty of OPLE is that these resources can be found in our homes and our physical distance from a school is no longer a factor.   Because of the value of this access, the digital divide becomes even more an area of concern.  How do we ensure that everyone can easily use these resources?   From our country to across the ocean, people are working to achieve this necessary goal -