Personal Blogs

I was wondering what would be the most effective 5 tools for a learner who was just feeling their way towards some sort of Personal Learning Network. Of course, the possibilities are endless but I can see from my own experience on H817 that there is a risk of spending more time on working out how a tool works than on actually using it effectively.

Here's my top 5:

1. Twitter
2. Social networking tool(Google+, Facebook)
3. Video-conferencing (Skype,Blackboard Collaborate,Google Hang-Out
4. Joint authoring tool (eg Etherpad)
5. Blog

I would be pleased to know your top 5! Feel free to write a comment or use this survey

MOOCs would certainly not be everyone's cup of tea in a Further Education college. They would not suit younger 16-19 students on the whole as I think it would be hard to deny that such students need more structure and they lack the necessary self-motivation and resilience.

If MOOCs are all about connexion, as Cormier claims, and peer-to-peer interaction is the key, they might appeal to some adult learners:

• teaching-staff engaged in CPD activity
• niche MOOCs based on a specific vocational area which is present locally
• as an adjunct to a more traditional course where collaboration is a requirement or seen as a benefit
• as a way of catering for a wider audience attracted by the roll-on, roll-off nature of the MOOC

by John Baglow

For me, the 3 main issues with OER revolve around what is meant by openness, how open programmes can be sustained and what quality control is possible.

Openness:

The OECD talks about materials being “offered freely”? That might mean:

• no restrictions on who could participate
• without charge
• the user, whether a learner or practitioner, would be free to use and reuse the materials as they wished including making changes.
• there would be no technical barriers to access

George Siemens argued in his online presentation (25 03 12) that the success of OER hinges not so much on the placing of resources online but of making them more-widely accessible.

Issues for my FE college: would we want to make resources available to users? Would that enhance our reputation? Could we then encourage them to join fee-paying courses? Should we share our teaching resources with other practitioners? How useful are shared resources without sharing our experiences of how we use them?

Sustainability The obvious question about OER is what would sustain the OER over time? It seems to me that Stephen Downes is right when he says

“the sustainability of OERs - in a fashion that makes them affordable and usable - requires that we think of OERs as only part of a larger picture, one that includes volunteers and incentives, community and partnerships, coproduction and sharing, distributed management and control.”

In other words, OERs are not just materials deposited online by an institution. To be successful they need to be part of an organic network which capitalises on the way that people interact and collaborate online. Jan Hylen suggests that OER should be provided via user communities. This would enable users to form strong relations with the website. Crucially, the institution can then learn from the community about what works and what doesn’t. He argues that building up such a community would encourage users to return to it.

There may not even be an institution involved. The OER may be

“more of a grass roots activity where individuals contribute with their time, knowledge and resources on a voluntary basis. In this model, production, use and distribution is decentralised, compared to the institutional model where at least production and distribution are centralised“.

Issues for my FE college: If we are not to adopt the status quo option scathingly dismissed by George Siemens, we should explore ways of forming and joining user communities in appropriate subject areas.

Quality Assurance

It is hardly surprising that ideas about quality assurance of OER seem to have a lot in common with quality assurance of any product offered online.

• It may be that the institution’s brand alone is strong enough to reassure users of the materials’ quality.
• there could be a system of user reviews such as on hotel booking sites
• or a more integrated peer review system which gives recognition to creators and helps disseminate the materials.

Issues for my FE college: the college has a strong brand regionally ,based on its face-to-face teaching. We should pilot the use of OERs which include user reviews and peer review

Downes, S. (2007). Models for sustainable open educational resources.

EDUCERI › Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources 2007

http://www.oecd.org/document41/0,3343,en_2649_35845581_38659497_1_1_1_1,00.html

Hylén, J. (2006). Open educational resources: Opportunities and challenges. Proceedings of Open Education, 49-63.

Siemens, G., “Openness and the future of higher education in the age of MOOCs" Webinar, Mon March 25 2013

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

It would be great if you went to

http://openetherpad.org/FklqmzQbmb

to add your thoughts to these reasons:

Good Reasons for adopting a new way of delivering learning (such as open source programmes):

• the existing learners learn more effectively
• it encourages existing learners to go on to more learning
• it attracts new learners by increasing access
• it saves money
• it makes money
• it encourages learning for its own sake
• ..............

Dubious reasons for adopting a new way of delivering learning such as open source programmes:

• technology makes it possible so we do it
• the idea of free access to learning materials appeals to our sense of democracy
• sounds cool
• everyone is talking about it

I'm trying to brighten up my blog! There are similarities between the open sea and open learning. The sea looks empty  at first sight but is teeming with life. Sometimes it is quiet, at others it is very active and fast-changing. Anyone can dip in and it is possible to surf both.