ABSTRACT
Anyone who assays to speak generally about even some limited aspect of open education is surely treading on dangerous ground. For here is a development in education where even the advocates feel universally constrained to comment on the lack of systematic, agreed-upon principles in their domain. Indeed, they make of this lack of coherence the virtue of flexibility. I will leave open what the critics make of it. Nevertheless, in sampling the works of writers on open education and in talking with those who engage in what they call open education, one does get a general picture of the sort of thinking which ties this loosely-knit field together.
