Practice in opening things

I'm marking assignments today - it's often an effort to open documents that are locked, privacies and permissions not opened to allow others to engage. This time it's in Mindomo concept maps that students have created to 'map out' their inquiry projects before the finalize their information into a logically sequenced presentation. Mindomo's default setting is to keep it locked and private. In order to share a map the settings need to be changed and then passwords can be added to allow others to access with the appropriate code.

Despite the fact that I have sent a 'how to guide' out to the students in order to allow access, many have not completed those steps prior to submitting their URL in D2L or Slack. There are multiple requests over time to multiple users (students) to open their access. As my students begin to realize the code-breaking and the navigational elements of opening stuff - their google docs, slides, Mindomo maps - they'll become more aware of how to USE permissions and privacy settings to their advantage. For now, it's a practice in patience as I teach and learn about 'opening things'!

IMAGE of the 'how to guide' [created in Canva] to open permissions and sharing in Mindomo.

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.

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.