Is Your Education Open?

The term “open education” means different things to different people. There are many interpretations as to what open education and content means for learning. Often the financial costs, learning environments, accreditation and the role of the faculty are a few key issues that arise when discussed amongst educators.

I thought it was suitable to explore this topic, since I am currently enrolled in 2 open education courses, EC & I 831 & CCK 09 as a non-credit student. My goal in joining these open content courses was to collaborate with other learners, share resources, & establish on-going connections beyond the scope of the course, i.e. stay connected to people in the #edtech field for information-sharing and learning support. My participation in #eci831 & #cck09 has greatly enhanced my knowledge and research for my doctorate work at UNT, and I value the introductions to various topics, presenters, and peers.

Last week, Jon Mott joined #eci831 to discuss his experiences in open education. Here are the slides:

A few key take-away points, resources & quotes include:

• Great Talk: David Wiley’s recent keynote on Open Education
• openness allows for connection, personalizing and creation: allowance to share resources, ideas & knowledge
• ability to move from passive consumption to sharing & collaborating amongst our connections
• Creative Commons is a valuable entity that allows content to be shared & accessed
• “Literacy is moving from being knowledgeable to knowledge-able.” ~Jon Mott
• MIT Open CourseWare project is a solid model that offers free content for approximately 2000 courses
• Open Courseware Consortium is a great database for other open education content
• Other examples where education is open = Education Channel of YouTube,  iTunes U, and OER Commons
• academic institutions vary their stance on content sharing, open education, etc
• help students and instructors to understand the difference between “open” and “closed” education
• need to seek sustainable models for open courseware and education
• debates and questions continue about openness in education, with regards to Learning Management Systems (LMS), credentialing, faculty role, archeticture of courses, etc.
• open education is more of a social & cultural issue, now that the technology is becoming rapidly available and accessible for learners/educators

The final thoughts prompted questions on how open education will impact our learners & how education will change in the future. More discussion about open education will continue tomorrow evening when Alan Levine joins #cck09 to share some of his thoughts around Openness & Transparency. Join in & share your two cents.