“Immersion and desire”; when I read those words by John Seely Brown, in the foreword of this book, describing the attributes necessary for learning, I felt I was in for a treat. I was not mistaken.

This book is a collection of 30 very insightful essays from leaders in education and psychology. The topics are many, but the focus is on the advantages and challenges of education, in a world that has opened up a plethora of information and pedagogical sources. The essays present the reader with choices and questions that must be addressed, in an age where technological advances not only appear daily, but also, like fruit flies, have a life expectancy of about 24 hours.

Rather than attempt to define “open education,” editors Iiyoshi and Kumar wisely cite what they believe to be a major tenet of open education and use that as their linchpin: “Education can be improved by making educational assets visible and accessible and by harnessing the collective wisdom of a community of practice and reflection.” This is followed by citations of the enormous amount of material that has been made accessible to all, through national and international grants.

This book is not a handbook for technology used in distance education. You won’t find one PowerPoint slide in its pages. Neither will you find any essay trashing the use of technology. What you will find are reflective essays on how to make teaching and learning practices more visible and shareable.

The book is divided into three sections. Section 1, “Open Educational Technology,” presents the perspectives of eight contributors on how technology can encourage and effectively--and appropriately--use technology for open education. Evaluation is a key concern of virtually all of the contributing authors. And let me emphasize that each author presents questions and challenges that will keep faculty lounges abuzz for months.

Section 2 is titled “Open Educational Content.” In her introduction to this section, Flora McMartin mentions the prominent role the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has played in research on open educational resources (OER). The entire section of nine essays has many themes and questions, but a major point of emphasis is the challenge of university faculties to develop high-quality and meaningful open digital resources, including the need for educators to share these resources.

Section 3, ”Open Educational Knowledge,” is, in my opinion, the most exciting and valuable part of the book. In this section, contributing authors are asked to concentrate on finding ways to make the exponential advances in knowledge available to as wide an audience as possible. Educators are encouraged to find ways to create and share. Informal mentoring is praised for its value, and the importance of demonstrating to higher education that what they do to promote open education does matter is stressed.

What does the commercial say on popular television? “Bet you can’t eat just one!” Allow me to paraphrase: “I’ll bet you can’t read just one!” Once you begin these essays, it will be very difficult to stop. Iiyoshi, Kumar, and the contributors not only present us with a valuable aid to understanding open education, but they also give us an exciting book that is just plain fun to read.