Opening Up

I've just re-read an article by Catherine Cronin - Openness and Praxis: Exploring the Use of Open Educational Practices in Higher Education. I've reflected on Cronin's work on open educational practice before [Cronin Comes into Focus]. This is a piece that I will come back to from time to time since it feeds my research and SoTL directions - "critical approaches to openness are required".

I returned to this piece after a 'trigger' conversation from a hangout held recently. In this general discussion about educational technology in our teaching practice, there appears to be pushback from students who find it challenging to engage in multiple digital spaces within a course of study. The issue brought forward, that created a feeling of discomfort for me, was that of multiple sites for locating information about course content. Since this is exactly what I require and model in each of my courses, I paid particular attention to these comments. The issue appears to be the navigation from closed LMS spaces to open web spaces where similar but not identical information is presented. Conflicting information from one location (LMS) to another (web site) was challenging the students to make sense of what, where, when, and how to complete the course requirements. Mirroring the LMS into open web spaces with consistency and attention to detail is challenging at best, and a web designer or course creator's major concern. Ensuring that the due dates, assignment descriptions, and the specific requirements for each element of the course need to be consistently communicated in each location. With responsive and agile course design, this can be particularly challenging.

As I struggle with this issue - since I firmly believe that course content should live outside the LMS space. I struggle with the LMS requirements from the organizational standpoint. How can I continue to support student success with open course design when the students themselves are pushing back on the open nature of course design? Where can the shift for simplification be reversed to one where complexity and messiness, and an attitude of 'not-yetness' are accepted (Ross & Collier). I'm struggling with this negotiation of open learning while balancing student needs, learning success, and well being. My messy learning opportunities with open and emerging web technologies may not be what students want, need or welcome. How do I find out what students 'really' need? How do I balance that with what I really 'want' to see happen in my teaching practice? Tough questions for self reflection.... more opening up to come.

References:

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

Cronin, C. (2017, August). Openness and praxis: Exploring the use of open educational practices in higher education. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL), 18(5). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3096/4301

Ross, J. & Collier, A. (2016). Complexity, mess, and not-yetness. In G. Veletsianos (2012) Emergence and innovation in digital learning. AU Press. DOI: doi:10.15215/aupress/9781771991490.01 Retrieved from http://www.veletsianos.com/2016/06/14/complexity-mess-not-yetness/

Open Education Conference

Today, I'm attending the K-12 OPEN Conference from Athabasca University. Here are the topics, links. I did register but that is not a requirement for participation in these sessions. The recording will be made available beyond these moments in time.

1. Understanding the Commons for K-12 - Serena Henderson (CC certified educator)

2. Go Open from the Ground Up  - google slides of the presentation. Some links and resources from this session

• Where can I learn more about OER?
• OER 101
• What’s #GoOpen?
• Office of Educational Technology #GoOpen Landing Page
• #GoOpen District Launch Packet
• Office of Education Technology Story Engine
• What are policy considerations for my state? 
• iNACOL Report OER State Policy in K-12 Education 
• CCSSO OER Portal
• SETDA OER Case Studie

3. Curation Made Simple, Stephanie Slaton, Instructional Media Specialist Austin Keon - "Do good work and share it with people" - Steal Like an Artist

• Pinterest - https://pinterest.com/givemOER  
• Airtable.com - free templates for collecting resources, like a spreadsheet, pivot table; takes more time to set up, more detailed for curation, detailed library; https://airtable.com/shrqzxqC9Q2OvLxj 
• Trello - search things by tags; https://trello.com/b/7qfBAwN1 
• Evernote - notebooks, can build card templates.
• Slack teams - share and communicate tools.
• Zapier.com
• https://givemoer.wordpress.com

4. Opening Up 1-12 Education in Alberta - Frank McCallum & Lise Pethybridge

• Where is OER now and where is it going - multi author/ web site/blog 
• Multiply K-12 OER Project
• oer.adlc.ca - repository site

5.  Multiply K-12 Open Educational Resources - Dr. Connie Blomgren & Verena Roberts

• redesign process ABOER (higher ed materials) resulting from funding
• created podcasts and videos 
• ABOER starter kit - google doc 
• ABOER champions kit - google doc
• UDL considerations in file formats to be used
• 5 R's of OER - Wiley's reuse, revise, remix, redistribute, retain
• resources - videos and celebrations of OER use and users
• OER podcasts - list of participants - playlist on Soundcloud 
• Marshal McLuhan - technologies as amplification

6. Sharing K-12 Resources Across Canada: Silos, Gardens, or Open Range? Randy LaBonte

• State of the Nation: K-12 eLearning http://k12sotn.ca 
• 
  
• 
  
  http://cider.athabascau.ca/sessions 
  
  
  http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/bank.html
  
  
  http://www.cforp.ca
  
  
  http://www.learnquebec.ca/home
  
  
  https://bclearningnetwork.com
  
  
  http://ocr.openschool.bc.ca
  
  
  http://teachbc.bctf.ca

In Conversation

I truly enjoy learning in conversation with others. Sharing ideas, actions, insights all add to my own thinking, actions and curated resources. So, the first conversations I had this week with the OER Fellows, with some of the OEORangers, and with Jenni Hayman, all added to my knowledge construction.

The opportunity to meet for the first time with the OER Fellows, in Zoom, was great. We are a diverse set of open advocates with varying skills, fluencies and contexts. The plan is to next meet in person to do a deeper dive into our collective understanding of what it means to be an open educator in Ontario. We'll explore how we can support the open movement (OEM) to adopt and adapt open resources (OER) as we shift teaching and learning into open pedagogies and practices (OEP).

The conversation with others in the OEORangers group is a means to breaking out of institutional silos where work is often done in isolation with no ripples outward to other organizations of higher education. This conversation creates ripples across the college/university divide and builds connections between individuals (faculty, staff) who are openly advocating for access and adoption of OER.

In chatting with Jenni Hayman, I was able to dip deeper into my own work as an OER Fellow and try to understand my position in the 'grand scheme of things'. We shared ideas, contacts, interesting details and common interests. Planning for a series of webinars over the coming year fits into what I hope to accomplish and we tentatively looked at early July as faculty begin course design and syllabus production. Other bits of the conversation included:

• Bento Box series - 12 apps of Christmas as mentioned in the Catch
• Becoming an open educator - UK Open Education site; OEPScotland; Lorna Campbell
• Christina Peters - #GoOpen Fellow in the US; 20 states using OER?; zero professional learning about OER or OEP
• BCCampus OER toolkit (need to take a look for this)
• CCGlobal summit - she's working on session to develop mini-modules on OER and SDGs as learning outcomes, tied to UNESCO work; connected to Rory McGreal and Pedro ? from Peru as mentors
• EdX course on Media Literacy - Dan Gillmore on YouTube doing interviews with media experts such as Mimi Ito
• Roger's diffusion of innovation being applied to her research work on Open is an Invitation: Sense Making and OER. 
• REB (research ethics board) approval process takes 4 times longer than you think; each institution has their own process; 
• she's working with approval and distribution through teacher/learning centers to recruit participants in her study with pre-questions, workshops, webinar, post questions - has letter sent out already but awaiting REB from four institutions she's working with.

Your Inner Superhero Awaits

The eCampus Ontario THE CATCH is a newsletter that is published in the open and shares ideas, tips, and resources for anyone in higher education, but these can also be applied to teaching and learning in K-12 contexts in some way. This week's Catch included a couple of little items that I had shared - another way to curate and collect in open digital spaces.

The Open Source Super Hero Characters, which are recognized to be open source and in the public domain, caught my eye. I immediately found one on the main page listing, that I'll weave into my course in the coming weeks - Storyteller. Once on the page for the character, there is an image, their origin story, and a description of their powers & abilities. At the bottom of the page is this note: "Storyteller is an open source character created specifically for use by anyone. Feel free to use it any way you wish, author citations are not necessary."

Following the links for the image, I was able to download a full sized version for use in my course context, with a proviso to include the following statement when using the image: "The character of (Character Name) is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving (Character Name), in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed."

So for educators working on opening their pedagogical practices, there is a need for conversations about how to weave this type of resource into their course as a mechanism to engage students. I plan to use this character as a catalyst for the student's digital storytelling project and provide the link so students can find their own superhero, read their origin story and perhaps build a storyline with  classmates about their superhero's journey.

For educators working on opening their pedagogical practices, there is a need for a curated set of open source, public domain, Creative Commons licensed resources, such as the superhero characters. The challenge is finding the right resource at the right time. That's why newsletters and mail lists are an invaluable tool for teachers, educators and designers if they are openly shared.

Finding it in my stream

"Every metaphor does four things: 

It creates something new; it obsoletes something old; 

it rekindles something from the past, and it sets the stage for its own reversal."

Marshall McLuhan

This morning I received an email. This led to a twitter search for one of the people included in the email chain, someone new to my networks who has similar interests (@sam_bruzzese). This lead to looking at the twitter stream from this other individual to examine interests and activities. Which led me to an insightful tweet with a link. This link was to a document written by Marshall McLuhan in 1957 titled Classrooms Without Walls.

After reading this, I immediately returned to twitter and re-tweeted to send it out to others, tagging some individuals who may find it interesting, along with hashtags to extend the conversation. In the world of open, connected learning, this is how ideas and knowledge is built and disseminated. Over time, one share or one conversation at a time. The importance is to tag people in your network who may be interested in seeing the document or information. AND THAT is the challenge! Knowing your 'audience' in media terms. Knowing your network in connected learning terms. Responsive PLNing in digital circles.

With this one event, it heightens my awareness of the responsibility I have to share to people, not just circles or networks, but to individuals in my particular spheres of influence. This takes time, but it also requires me to dig a little deeper to find the connections when algorithms fail to find them. I rechecked twitter handles and hashtags, revisited email links, and even back checked the original site where the document was found in order to verify it's source. This led me to the Thornburg Center and a collection of other handouts from David Thornburg's collection of notes and presentations.

The 'feedback' from sharing the tweet continued, with some people sharing a quote that was meaningful (making meaning).