Models and Matrices

IN conversation with Jenni, she mentioned Rogers model of diffusion of innovations. In the article I read this morning it was mentioned as well - Extending the Territory: From open educational resources to open educational practices - so I've done a bit of checking and reading to find out more.

• Diffusion of Innovation on Wikipedia 

The article provides a definition of OEP which is useful for comparison purposes. Ehlers also describes matrices that outline constitutive elements of OEP and the diffusion of OEP. The OEP model is an interesting link for further examination on an individual basis. (adaptation and some rewording is done)

Positioning YOU in the OEP trajectory

1. to what extent are you using OER
2. do you have a process for creating OER
3. to what extent are you repurposing OER
4. to what extent are you sharing OER and OEP
5. to what extent are you working with open learning architecture

Creating a vision of openness and a strategy for OEP (for YOU)

1. do you have a vision for OEP
2. do you have strategies and procedures for OEP
3. do you have a model in place
4. are you involved in any partnerships or collaborations
5. what is the perceived relevance of your OEP work

Implementing and promoting OEP to transform learning

1. do you have an intellectual property rights, copyright and creative commons understanding for OER
2. do you have incentives or motivational frameworks
3. is your OEP work aligned to your practice
4. are you committed to OEP and do you have the right mindset and attitude
5. do you have tools to support sharing and exchanging about OEP
6. do you have quality mechanisms in place
7. what level of knowledge and skills do you have
8. what level of digital literacies do you have
9. do you have mechanisms in place to support yourself or students to develop OEP

I'll certainly take these questions for further reflection as I move deeper into self analysis of my work in open educational practices.

Curation as a critical literacy

Nope, I'm NOT Nostradamus! How online pop-ups can make individual users feel like luddites or idiots when using their 'open' resources is a lesson for all open educational resource curators to remember. Customer service and design principles need to be applied to curated resources for higher education faculty and staff who are interested in using OER, learning about OEM and building on OEP.

In an article (where the Nostradamus pop-up happened) this statement caught my attention because of a connection to some thinking about curation as a critical digital literacy:
"Because faculty are the ones who plan courses and teach using these materials, OER’s points-of-access needs to be designed for them. They need to know where to go to find the best OER materials. Once they get there, all the essential information needs to be at hand: which textbooks and resources are available, how to best combine materials, what devices are supported, how to get technical support, and what will the cost be for faculty and students."

This can also be said for building a collection of OEP - practices, pedagogies and purposes - for the OER's that are applied to course design. It's one thing to put an OER into the course, but a whole other side to how that is being used to engage and enhance learning experiences. This ultimately is a call for those in the OEM - movement, makers, mindful educators - to openly share WHY and HOW they are using OER in their teaching.

Getting Air Time

Today - I'm listening to VoiceEd.ca radio show done by Terry Greene titled Getting Air (among others) to prep for my air-time debut. I've agreed to go on Terry's eCampus Ontario radio podcast. I'm jotting some notes to some of his common questions and lining up my 'must mention' items:

• think about what I do, where I work, how I teach and learn
• how I ended up in open educational spaces - OER, OEM, OEP
• metaphors for OPEN e.g. music
• connections in my PLN - bubbles that collide
• research connections - Hinrichsen & Coombs, Catherine Cronin, Veletsianos, Siemens, etc.

Next steps: re-connect with VoiceEd.ca organizer Stephen Hurley to get set up for blogging with/for this audience.