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If you are a teacher who embraced technology as a teaching tool and are now encouraging your colleagues to do the same, you are an e-pioneer. 

Who is an e-pioneer?  When you promote e-learning and the use of e-tools in your environment, you are one!

Adults must be socially stimulated to learn, which is why language retention is usually only successful for adults when they are immersed with other language-speakers. Bilingual people “build new bridges” in the brain, said Dr. Kuhl, and their brains are constantly adapting and reshuffling data as they translate.

“Bilingual people aren’t cognitively smarter, but they are more cognitively flexible,” she added. “Practice at constant switching improves an aspect of their cognitive abilities. They become more facile at adjusting to new situations and inventing new situations.”

This is much like what people do when they’re updating their Twitter status, instant-messaging friends, or answering text messages and emails while they’re doing something else. Dr. Kuhl said this multitasking, where people are stimulating new patterns of sequential processing, could then reap the same benefits as bilingualism.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are defined as “materials used to support education that may be freely accessed, reused, modified and shared by anyone” (Downes, 2011). Open Educational Practices (OEP) are practices which “support the production, use and reuse of high quality OER through institutional policies, which promote innovative pedagogical models, and respect and empower learners as co-producers on their lifelong learning path.” (ICDE, 2011). Open Communication is reciprocal and respectful exchange which contributes to social presence in online learning (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997), and the development of intercultural awareness and competence in language learning.

“A culture of sharing resources and practices will help facilitate change and innovation in education” (OER Commons, 2011).

Open access initiatives to make research publications freely available online or the adoption of open source software solutions, such as Moodle or Mahara, are already having a big impact on education.

In thinking about the next evolution of open learning, TRU Open Learning has conceptualized a new model for open education. In keeping with our outcomes based philosophy of higher education we can envision a truly open model for higher education. Judith Murray refers to this new model as "Open Education 2.0". The conceptual framework for "Open Education 2.0" requires us to think not only in terms of the "Traditional Model", but in addition to envision a parallel model where we can have Any learner, using Any material, and being supported (taught, instructed, facilitated, mentored, tutored) by Anyone, to achieve learning which is then subjected to Our assessment, in order to receive Our credit, which can be applied towards Our credential.