MEDIA CONTACT: Matt Cardoza, GaDOE Communications Office, (404) 651-7358, mcardoza@gadoe.org
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State School Superintendent Richard Woods today announced the launch of a new statewide #GoOpen initiative, joining the inaugural cohort of states across the country committing to support school districts and educators transitioning to the use of high-quality, openly-licensed educational resources in their schools. Georgia was recognized for their leadership by the U.S. Department of Education at the #GoOpen Exchange, a gathering of state and district leaders, innovative education technology platform providers, and non-profit organizations working together to share knowledge and experiences to help educators transition to using openly licensed educational resources.  

“We are very pleased to support this initiative as the Georgia Department of Education has been supplying openly-licensed educational resources to our districts via our Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) for over four years,” Superintendent Woods said. “We know that a key ingredient to personalized learning is our teachers, students and parents having easy access to a vast array of high quality digital resources, which the #GoOpen initiative provides.”

“States are powerful collaborators in supporting and scaling innovation. They can connect forward thinking educators, share effective ideas and approaches widely, amplify successes, and can support districts in leveraging limited resources,” said Joseph South, Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. “With the launch of statewide #GoOpen initiatives, states are helping districts thoughtfully transition to a new model of learning by facilitating the creation of an open ecosystem of digital resources that can increase equity and empower teachers.”

Georgia was recognized for its commitment to a statewide technology strategy that includes the use of openly licensed resources as a central component, developing and maintaining a statewide repository solution for openly licensed resources, and participating in a community of practice with other #GoOpen states and districts to share learning and professional development resources. More information on Georgia’s #GoOpen commitment can be found at WWW.GADOE.ORG.

Since the launch of #GoOpen, school districts from more than 16 states have worked with #GoOpen Ambassador districts and innovators from education technology companies and nonprofit organizations who have committed to create new tools and provide professional learning opportunities to help districts in their transition to using high-quality, openly-licensed educational resources in their schools.

Openly licensed educational resources have enormous potential to increase equitable access to high-quality education opportunities in the United States. 

“Switching to openly licensed educational materials has enabled school districts to repurpose funding typically spent on static textbooks for other pressing needs, such as investing in the transition to digital learning,” says Andrew Marcinek, Open Education Advisor at the Department, “We are excited that Georgia is committed to supporting its districts in using openly licensed educational resources.”

For more details on #GoOpen commitments made by states, school districts, and technology companies, visit http://tech.ed.gov/open.