Openness in Education - Ideals and Challenges

Advances in web technology increasingly enable the classroom in terms of creating a more interesting and engaging environment. The challenge is how to take a product "off-the-shelf" and turn into something that both instructors and students like to use. Many institutions take a formal approach to eLearning by providing IT support and training. As eLearning has advanced from a classroom perspective, there have been an increasing movement towards more open education. In Europe, GDPR has brought an important aspect on privacy in the classroom - but there are other ethical points that also need to be addressed: Do instructors want their material open to everyone? Do students want their work open to everyone else in the course - or everyone who wants to browse the open content.

As a consequence of ethical considerations and regulations on privacy, it is becoming increasing important to engage with both instructors and students regarding how they participate in open learning. For the current ONL191 topic on open learning, our group is investigating two areas of concern:

1. Practical implications of open learning
2. Advantages and disadvantages of open learning

I will be joining the team that is working on practical implications and I have already been looking at regulatory and ethical aspects; however, I am also interested in understanding the thoughts that both instructors and students have towards participation in open learning.

The continuum of life in the web

This week's discussions focused on how we, as a society, perceive web literacy. A short recap is in order to help understand my thoughts on this...

An older view of looking at online technology literacy compares "natives" - those who grew up with technology and engage with it versus those that are older and engage less.

An alternative proposal is to view online technology literacy as a continuum with two axes using a compass as an example with West-East representing Visitor-Resident and North-South  representing Personal-Institutional.

Visitors approach online technology and the web from the context of a toolbox where a tool is used to achieve a specific task or outcome such as using a search engine or Wikipedia on a research paper. In this context, a Visitor does not leave any trace of them self on the web.

Residents approach online technology and the web as a "habitation" where they create and establish a persistent presence - blogs, social networking sites, and leaving comments on blogs and social media are examples. In this context, a Resident leaves a trace of them self on the web.

The Personal-Institutional continuum comes into play as people "filter" or "assume a persona" on the web - for example, a professional wants to establish and maintain credibility so they will filter and control what they say and do. In contrast, a people interacting with friends and family within a closed or more private setting will tend to much more informal.

To get more information, visit the video at: http://youtu.be/sPOG3iThmRI

My thoughts gravitate more towards the alternative proposal of the two continua. Before the Web, there were many online communities accessible via dial-up modems (a few examples in the US include CompuServe, AOL, and Prodigy). Later, as the web evolved, more feature rich services replaced earlier types of social media. As bandwidth and technology matured, more people engaged with online technologies. Many of the people using these earlier sites were older and had not grown up with technology - the attraction was to stay in touch with family and friends, re-establish ties with friends and family, and to meet new people with similar interests. As technology itself has become easier to use, bandwidth has increased, and the Web has become more pervasive geographically, more people are connecting, which I feel is also an important factor in people adopting and engaging with the Web.

The first week, the first foray into new types of media... As our group introduction, we decided on Padlet (ONL191 Group 12) as the media with which to introduce our group to the ONL191 community. Here, each of our group members introduces themselves and, for those that have relevant skills, any special skills that can help out the group. I am looking forward to the coming weeks to explore new ideas and technologies.