Back to research

So... what is my research question? I'm revisiting this before meeting with the other OER Fellows in Toronto on Saturday.

How does the application of critical digital literacies inform my open knowledge construction at a Faculty of Education, as I negotiate the complex, personal and contextual teaching and learning landscapes of open educational spaces?

Key elements:

Critical DL

1. code breaking
2. meaning making
3. using & problem solving
4. analyzing
5. persona

Open knowledge construction in open educational spaces

• building understanding - using social media & LMS spaces
• negotiations between personal and professional - Cronin's macro, micro, meso, nano layers
• dial-it-up graphic

Complexity; networking; decisions made and reflective actions

• use of D2L - why I don't step into this space unless I have to (part of code breaking issues - figuring out how to use it on my own)
• use of Slack - why, how, use
• use of Twitter - 
• use of blogging
• use of inquiry projects 
• use of digital storytelling
• external influences and impacts on course design and delivery

NOW: 

• data collection has started but is it the right data? 
• What am I not considering? 
• where will this be 'published'? or will there be more than one possible publication result?

Voices Echoing in the Open

Yesterday, there were many interconnecting waves (sound waves, twitter streams) where voices echoed outward into the open. The 'tens of listeners' who may have heard the echo, may have gained insight or had an idea resonate for them. These voices certainly were opportunities to share my work, teaching, learning and experiences in the OPEN. Now I'll take a critical look and listen to see what I'm saying.

The Getting Air radio podcast that I had recorded with Terry Greene was published and shared on VoiceEd.ca while on the same day, I had agreed to be interviewed by Sarah Lalonde for her VoiceEd podcast show Que Sera Sarah? When networks and PLNs overlap, I thought to myself.

The podcast was mentioned in the OEORangers (#OEORangers) online meeting (using Zoom) right after Terry sent out some tweets about the episode. Sarah saw this tweet and made a connection. This enriched our conversation about the courses I teach at the Faculty of Education.

Love listening to this podcast as I get ready to speak with @hj_dewaard on #QueSeraSarah tonight ! Thanks for sharing Terry. https://t.co/I3TnmysEQW

— Sarah Anne Lalonde (@sarahlalondee) January 12, 2018

So, my next step is to transcribe these two conversations to see and hear what I really did say and how I said it..... as part of my action research. The hope is that I can reflect deeper by listening deeply. I've done this in reverse where I've written a blog post (Why I Listen, Your Voice is Compelling), then recorded it in order to think more deeply and write more accurately, as a reflective practice.

In terms of critical digital literacy, this falls into many categories:

• code breaking - figuring out how audio recording tools and devices create podcasts (Zencastr, Audacity, file formats, microphone inputs, settings on computer and software, editing options
• meaning making - relating, interpersonal, tone, voice, context, expressing, multi-authored, modes of communication, translate
• use & understand - creating, artefacts, confidence, explore, networks, audience, applying tools
• analyzing - deconstructing messages, analyzing authorship, questioning impact
• persona - building identity, multiple facets, participating asynchronous and synchronous, managing reputation, community (within open eduators), language and content

Cronin comes into focus

I'm reading (meaning making) and deconstructing (analyzing) Catherine Cronin's article Open Education, Open Questions in order to better understand the layers and levels she describes for open "individuals seek to balance privacy and openness in their use of social and participatory technologies at four levels (see figure 3): macro (global level), meso (community/network level), micro (individual level), and nano (interaction level)."

C. Cronin, CC SA

The graphic clarifies the negotiations that individuals (me, my students) continually make when teaching and learning with/about digital literacies. This is compounded by the pressures all educators face as they venture into the public eye of the profession. Teachers candidates who are new to the profession are negotiating through even tougher decisions as their persona as a student shifts to one of being a public teacher. Their decisions are based on multiple levels of emotional responses beyond the course requirements I may establish for them to shift into public, digital spaces. For example, I don't require my students to sign up and use Twitter but I do require them to sign up and use a blog as part of the course assignments. In creating their blog space, I do not require the students to make their blog public so many keep their settings on private or turn of search optimizations. I invite the students at two points in the course to allow me to link their blog sites to the course site - once at mid point and again at the end of the course. I don't assign specific topics for their blog responses but do require four submissions over the duration of the course. Many will post extensively and build the blog as a learning repository, while others may only do the required posts. For me, blogging allows the students to model and experience identity building, reputation management and digital participation, all elements of the critical digital literacy of persona.

Maybe I should include this graphic into my teaching - it may help students understand that everyone is in the practice of negotiating many layers within digital spaces. Something to consider.

NOTES:

Cronin, C. (2017, October 17). Open education, open questions. Educause Review. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/10/open-education-open-questions  

The graphic is licensed under Creative Commons and openly available at https://www.slideshare.net/cicronin/open-culture-open-education-open-questions/24 

Let it Begin

Here I go... my first journal style blog. I'll try to quick write to capture my actions, thinking, events and readings as I begin my research journey.

Purpose: Beginning my action research into open educational practices with a focus on critical digital literacies.

Today: toughest part of starting is picking the mechanism for doing this. I've chosen Blogger, connected to my personal gmail account since this will connect to other Google tools I am familiar using and have come to rely on in my digital toolkit. So, integration of tools and apps is the deciding factor. So, this connects to CODE BREAKING as a critical digital literacy - knowing affordances of each tool and how these affordances can support what I need to do, how I want them to work.

Next steps:

1. re-read and highlight the article by Catherine Cronin (catherinecronin.net) Openness and Praxis: Exploring the Use of Open Educational Practices in Higher Education. 
2. review the graphics I've done for Hinrichsen & Coombs article on Critical Digital Literacy (PDF file found here)
3. begin re-building my domain website to streamline and focus (frame) my teaching and learning