Edited by Sonia King, Saturday, 31 Mar 2018, 15:50
I have had a few brushes with open education in the past, through doing MOOCs with my kids and for the odd bit of personal interest, though I tend to dip in and out just taking from them the bits I feel relevant or am inspired by. A couple of them were so dry we never went back...
Through my work, and observation of family life, the majority of open education actually comes from accessing things such as youtube for specific purposes, we have fixed our washing machine three times and our dryer twice by using youtube videos. My son will put youtube on one of his screens and do the task on the other in his autonomous learning/play. I have also paid for some courses, some which have never been used, others that are dipped into and like the '10 coding languages' course are in the back of my head as something to reengage with when I get chance.
And that is where we come to the nub of the issue, as a busy adult with responsibilities and things any sort of learning is usually either because we need it now (ie fixing the washer) or something that will further our careers/that we have a deep interest in.
To be completely honest I probably wouldn't be completing this course if I hadn't already paid for it, despite having an interest in the subject.
learning for fun is the dip in and out variety or something we end up paying for because we really want to know about it.
but then with ubiquitous internet availabilty (in this country at least) and smart phone technology most 'I wonder' type questions can be answered via a quick google, or using an assistant such as asking Siri. But when I really want to know something scientific or peer reviewed I find I often cant access it due to paywalls, which is frustrating at times.
For learning to be truly open then the information available needs to be too... but then who pays the professors?
experience of open education
I have had a few brushes with open education in the past, through doing MOOCs with my kids and for the odd bit of personal interest, though I tend to dip in and out just taking from them the bits I feel relevant or am inspired by. A couple of them were so dry we never went back...
Through my work, and observation of family life, the majority of open education actually comes from accessing things such as youtube for specific purposes, we have fixed our washing machine three times and our dryer twice by using youtube videos. My son will put youtube on one of his screens and do the task on the other in his autonomous learning/play. I have also paid for some courses, some which have never been used, others that are dipped into and like the '10 coding languages' course are in the back of my head as something to reengage with when I get chance.
And that is where we come to the nub of the issue, as a busy adult with responsibilities and things any sort of learning is usually either because we need it now (ie fixing the washer) or something that will further our careers/that we have a deep interest in.
To be completely honest I probably wouldn't be completing this course if I hadn't already paid for it, despite having an interest in the subject.
learning for fun is the dip in and out variety or something we end up paying for because we really want to know about it.
but then with ubiquitous internet availabilty (in this country at least) and smart phone technology most 'I wonder' type questions can be answered via a quick google, or using an assistant such as asking Siri. But when I really want to know something scientific or peer reviewed I find I often cant access it due to paywalls, which is frustrating at times.
For learning to be truly open then the information available needs to be too... but then who pays the professors?