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Thank YOU for the #OEAward2021, @YearsEd Community!

Last week, I learned that a podcast project I helped to produce won an award from the Open Education (OE) Global community. Clint and I shared a thank you message (in audio format, of course) for awarding the 25 Years of EdTech: The Serialized Audio Version project a 2021 Open Education Award of Excellence for Reuse/ Remix/ Adaptation.

2021 OE Global Award of Excellence for Reuse/ Remix/ Adaptation

Here’s a bit about the award from the OE Global Awards site:

The Open Education Awards for Excellence provide annual recognition of outstanding contributions in the Open Education community, recognizing exemplary leaders, distinctive Open Educational Resources, and Open Practices from around the world.

OE Global Awards

The award was given to the project in the “Open Reuse/Remix/Adaptation” category and, according to the adjudicators, the project is an outstanding example of the power of OER reuse for the following reasons;

  • Remixing the physical book into an audiobook has increased accessibility by providing the text in an alternate format.
  • Drawing together the open education community around the reading of the text sparked the companion “Between the Chapters” podcast, providing a deeper dive and critical analysis by experts into the topic of each chapter. This has added an additional layer of richness to the original book. 
  • The weekly podcast release schedule, and accompanying critical analysis created a fundamentally new way to experience the book – slower and in bitesize chunks. 
  • Each episode of the main recording or the companion podcast also now exists as an OER available for future use / reuse.

Although I am honored and delighted to receive this award, I share similar sentiments with my audio project partner-in-crime, Clint Lalonde. We are grateful for the nomination and award; however, the real motivation and “win” was getting to be in community and conversation with all of you. From chats with guests on the “Between the Chapters” episodes, Twitter threads/banter, and reading/hearing your reflections on the topics for each chapter — I was overwhelmed by the interaction, engagement, and offering a space for others to give voice to these issues and ideas. I hope this remixed project inspires others to continue the conversation, as we have learned that ed tech history often repeats itself.

As Clint shared, we could not create an audiobook without the generous contributions from the ed tech and open ed community. I’m so grateful for those of you who were willing to participate in this pandemic podcast project, as your stories and thoughts about this book helped bring new ideas and perspectives for the podcast episodes. It was such a lovely time talking, editing, and producing the “book club chat” aspect of the project. Many thanks to my the “Between the Chapters” guests for your candid conversation and willingness to share:

Lorna M. Campbell, Phil Barker, Lee Skallerup Bessette, Catherine Cronin, Sukaina Walji, Grant Potter, Brenna Clarke Gray, Maha Bali , Caroline Kuhn, Anne-Marie Scott, Alan Levine, Jim Groom, Mark Brown, Clare Thompson, Jessie Stommel Mark Guzdial, Kelvin Bentley, John Robertson, D’Arcy Norman, Laura Gibbs, Bonnie Stewart, Maren Deepwell, Judith Pete, Virginia Rodés, Bryan Alexander, Alexandra Pickett, Sarah Frick, Orna Farrell, David Wicks, Sue Beckingham, Chrissi Nerantzi, Tanis Morgan Autumm Caines, Rebecca Hogue, Christian Frierich, Helen DeWaard, Dave Cormier, Rolin Moe, Amanda Coolidge, Dragan Gasevic, Joyce Seitzinger, Chris Gilliard, David Kernohan, Audrey Watters, sava sahali singh, Clint Lalonde, & (of course) Martin Weller.

If you’re just learning about this audio project, know that you can still find the 25 Years of Ed Tech: The Serialized Audio Version wherever you catch your podcasts [p.s. thanks Athabasca University Press for your support & sharing too!]. All episodes are archived and available on a number of podcast platforms. You can subscribe to listen to both the book chapters and the “Between the Chapters” conversation episodes now have detailed show notes and transcripts (new!) now available from our discussions.

Follow @YearsEd & Subscribe/Listen: https://25years.opened.ca/

Attributions

Higher Education, Learning, Learning and Performance, Library, Library Science, Open Education, OpenAccess, Professional Development

Introducing: Open Higher Ed Learning & Development (HELD) Digital Library

There are a growing number of learning networks, online communities, educational resources, and openly shared learning & development (L&D) created for and by higher education professionals. Over the years I have personally discovered a wealth of thoughtful and creative resources that have helped me improve, learn, and grow in the work I do. These open artifacts and digital items are openly shared by a brilliant group of colleagues who work in and around in higher education. This past summer, a course I as enrolled in as a learner prompted me to start this side passion-project to think about how I can best gather these professional L&D resources that best inform my own teaching, research, and practice. This led me to create the Open Higher Ed Learning & Development (HELD) digital library.

OER is sharing is a Flickr image/drawing shared in the Public Domain by Giulia Forsythe

The Open HELD digital is designed to showcase and display open educational resources (OER), specifically resources that provide professional L&D for peers and colleges working in the postsecondary education (staff, faculty, and graduate students). This space is a digital library is always a work “in-progress” as I will continue to edit, update, and add to the collections — you know, all the metadata fun.

Open Higher Ed Learning & Development (HELD) Library

https://openheld.omeka.net/

This digital library shares open L&D materials with an open license as an OER object via Creative Commons, the Public Domain, and/or via permission of the creators/authors/editors for each item. As you browse this digital collection, you will find open L&D items to enhance your instruction, help with student support/advising, and improve your scholarly work with teaching, research, and service. I hope this digital library is helpful for you to find and learning with these resources. I encourage you to share this digital library with other postsecondary peers and colleagues.

If you have an open L&D teaching, learning, research, or service resource to share with higher education professionals please let me know. It would be great to share and showcase your resources/items. The Open HELD library collections currently include: books, journals, reports, podcasts, Twitter chats, drawings, pictures, videos, webcasts, team/personal blogs, and websites. I welcome links to URLs, uploads of files/documents, images, and more. Also, I welcome expanding this to share relevant whitepapers, course syllabi, presentation slide decks, program/teaching handouts, and more. These collections can be augmented, expanded, or added to.

Do you have an OER L&D item to add to a collection? Please feel free to submit your contribution to the Open HELD library here: https://forms.gle/SF8LCPVJ3ehS6XnQA

Also, as the Open HELD collections are a living and evolving library, I welcome your questions, comments, feedback, and suggestions for how to improve current collections and or corrections for an items already housed in this library — please feel free to send me an email at: techknowtoolsllc@gmail.com Thanks!

#HEdigID, Open Education

#HEdigID Chat No. 6: Open Educational Practices with @SuzanKoseoglu #OEP #OER #OpenEd

It’s almost Friday, July 13th, which means it’s time to get ready for the monthly Higher Ed Digital Identity (#HEdigID) Chat! I am excited to expand the #HEdigID conversation to welcome Suzan Koseoglu (@SuzanKoseoglu) as a guest moderator (MOD) for this slow Twitter chat. In preparing for the #hedigid MOD -ing role, Suzan has developed a list of questions and prompts to facilitate this ALL DAY discussion on Open Educational Practices (#OEP) she details further:

There has been growing interest in digital Open Educational Practices (OEPs) in recent years as evidenced in the increasing number of research papers, reports and conference presentations on the topic and in the discourse on open practice in general. Although OEPs are mostly discussed in the context of OERs, mostly in terms of OER creation, adoption and use, it is actually a multidimensional construct which encompasses many different dimensions of open approaches and practices. These may include open scholarship, open learning, open teaching/pedagogy, open systems and architectures, and open source software.

“A focus on open practice is important because it shifts the focus of open educational initiatives and efforts from access to process: the process of learning, teaching, designing.” ~ Suzan Koseoglu

The process of co-construction, active and meaningful engagement. It is also a call to think deeply and critically about openness, a call for a deeper investigation into the relationship between technology and education, and the complex interaction between educational resources, methods of teaching, the institutional culture and available support mechanisms

To prepare for this conversation around open ed practices, here is a bit more information to review before the upcoming #HEdigID Chat:

#HEdigID Chat TOPIC: Open Educational Practices (#OEP)

This SLOW chat can be found on Twitter with the hashtag: #HEdigID and within this OPEN Google doc: http://bit.ly/hedigid6

Here are the QUESTIONS you will see appear on Twitter and in an open Google doc for the FRIDAY (July 13th) #HEdigID ALL-DAY discussion:

  1. Today we are talking about open educational practices (OEP). What questions or issues do you want to discuss related to this topic?
  2. What is open educational practice for you? How would you define it?
  3. Let’s build a thematic timeline of open practice collectively! When did you first engage in an open practice and why? – We’ll share the results soon at #HEdigID after the Twitter chat.
  4. TWITTER POLL:  Higher Education institutions recognize and reward open scholarship (e.g., OA publishing, open teaching, open sharing, networked learning) as a valid form of academic scholarship.  [VOTE: (a) I agree; (b) I don’t agree; or (c) I don’t know]
  5. How do open educational practices (OEPs) impact your digital identity?
  6. TBD based on responses to Q1

Join the discussion on open educational practices by:

  • Tweeting your response with the hashtag: #HEdigID

  • Responding directly IN this Google Doc: http://bit.ly/hedigid6

  • Use these questions to draft your own personal reflection and response (e.g. blog post, video, audio, drawing or offline discussion)

 

UPDATE: July 14, 2018 to include the Twitter chat transcript:

#HEdigID Chat Transcript, No. 6: Open Educational Resources #OEP (July 13, 2018)

Higher Education, Networked Community, networkedscholar, Reflections, Research

Thinking About My Networked Self & Digital Experiences In Higher Ed

This past summer, I spent a great deal of time talking to colleagues in higher ed to learn how they utilize social media to connect with peers and support one another in online communities. These interviews and conversations have been enlightening to help us understand more about how our digital, networked selves come to work on a university/college campus and contribute to our professional fields. For some, it is becoming increasingly vital to share instruction, scholarship, and practice online.  For others, there are still concerns about being connected to colleagues as our social networks now have context collapse. In the online world, what IS really private vs. public? Which networks are used for personal and/or professional practice?Open and digital channels help higher ed faculty and stuff in a number of different ways: asking/giving advice, collaboration on projects, free professional development, sharing information/resources, colleagues solicit advice, personal/professional support, and opportunities to learn in digital communities with common interests. Besides developing a digital presence or a “persona” online, higher education staff, administrators and scholars are utilizing social media and digital technologies to support their work, add to their professional development, engage with peers, learn in the collective and publicly in digital spaces and places.

This leads me to ask these questions of my peers working in higher ed:

  • How does being part of a digital learning network support your professional learning and development?
  • How are you shaping your online identity and presence to share your professional values?
  • How can networked communities expand your knowledge and learning to enhance your role on campus and the work you do?
  • Why might others consider finding networked peers and practitioners to scaffold their own career goals?

Although there are benefits to “working out loud” and online, there are also a number of issues as we repurpose social, digital spaces. The stakes are high, as an increasing number of higher ed professionals participate in online social networks with minimal institutional guidance for sociotechnical support or training (Pasquini & Evangelopoulos, 2017). Social and digital networks are connected, public and scaled — and often not on spaces we own or have control over. Additionally, much of our own data is being collected and reused on these networked platforms. This has me wondering:

  • How are higher ed staff and faculty evaluating their online participation on these social networks?
  • How has their contribution to open, public spaces shifted over the years?
  • What does being online as a higher ed professional look like now?

These are just a few of the questions we are asking in our research study. If you are interested in sharing more about your own experiences as a professional in higher ed, please consider contributing by participating in an interview (more about the study here).

Research Interview Sign Up: http://bit.ly/networkedself

Part of this blog post is cross-posted via my Inside Higher Ed Digital Learning opinion piece.