Creative Commons Panel: The Legacy & History of Open Education

Events
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Here is another event in the Creative Commons year of celebrating their 25th anniversary, a virtual panel session that should of of interest here.

Creative Commons invites you to explore the legacy and history of Open Education—tracing how a set of principled ideas about access, sharing, and collaboration grew into a global movement. This panel brings together leaders who have helped shape and steward this work over time to reflect on the origins of the open education movement, the milestones that defined its evolution, and the communities that carried it forward across regions and generations.

Speakers will share stories from the field: the early experiments, pivotal policy wins, institutional shifts, and grassroots efforts that enabled open education to take root in different parts of the world. Together, we’ll examine how local context—cultural, political, and economic—has influenced what openness looks like in practice, and how these variations have contributed to a rich and evolving global ecosystem.

:date: When (in your local time): 2026-05-15T16:00:00Z→2026-05-15T17:00:00Z
:pen: Participate: Sign up to participate
:tv: Watch: zoom link sent after registration
:link: Info: https://pro.gofundme.com/event/creative-commons-panel-the-legacy-and-history-of-open-education/e796001

Panelists include:

  • Kathryn Kure, CC South Africa Chapter Lead and Founder of Data Myna
  • Cable Green, former Director of Open Knowledge at Creative Commons, Interim CEO, and member of the CC Advisory Council
  • Angela DeBarger, Program Co-Lead for the Catalyst Fund at Renaissance Philanthropy and former Hewlett Foundation Program Officer
  • Jennryn Wetzler, moderator, Director of Learning and Training at Creative Commons

This is an event offered by and for the open education community. If you are logged into OEG Connect, return to the main OE Events space where you can add your own event as a new topic

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Creative Commons has been publishing summaries of this “legacy” series:

With a few paragraphs on this webinar about the Legacy / History of Open Education:

All three panelists recognized the foundational role of policy in the open education movement. Dr. Green shared that whenever he thinks of open education, he brings it back to the very start. “For me the foundational principle that everything is based on in our work is the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 26 that says the right to education is a fundamental human right. This is our right—for everyone.” Dr. DeBarger echoed this sentiment in speaking about UNESCO’s Recommendation on OER. “[It] was certainly a catalyst in bringing visibility and validity to the work.”

and also noting the tension between policy and practice “on the ground”:

Unsurprisingly, the theme of the panel was the human center of education. Panelists encouraged us, even as new technologies emerge, to stay true to the principles of Open Education, where a pluralistic and communal approach to learning best supports the encouragement of critical thinking and collaboration in curriculum design by and for communities of learners. At the end of the day, education is about bringing communities together. As Dr. Green aptly said, “Policies don’t stand alone.”

There’s summaries of the other sessions in the series on The Legacy & History of Open Science, The Legacy & History of Open Culture, and The Legacy & History of Copyright & Open Licensing.