{"id":152,"date":"2020-04-20T03:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T10:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/?p=152"},"modified":"2020-04-25T16:08:05","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T19:08:05","slug":"reflections-on-open-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/reflections-on-open-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Open Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unit 1 Week 1 Activity 1 \u2013 Virtual Symposium Reflection<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In going into the Virtual Symposium, I found myself excited by the opportunity to pick and choose from a broad range of topical presentations and discussions. The freedom of choosing my own path through the material was exciting. I didn’t expect that to be the very thing that would be a recurring theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would call myself a non-traditional academic student. I came to this program … with two college diploma\u2019s, two apprenticeships …\u201d (Heck, 2020, 32:47<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My experience with learning has been similarly non-traditional and hands-on, having completed a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design and with over a decade of experience in both corporate and higher education. Even so, coming to this Master’s program without a prior degree is still a daunting proposition. Having had conversations with fellow students regarding Imposter Syndrome, a commonality among Graduate students (Weir, 2013, p. 24<\/a>), hearing this from a student finishing the same program as I provides not only hope but also validation for students from a variety of backgrounds.<\/p>\n

As mentioned, this rang true throughout the Symposium. For instance, in describing his work with developing open learning communities, Dave Cormier likened the community to a plant structure called a rhizome, stating that \u201c[it] is made up of a number of semi-independent nodes, each of which is capable of growing and spreading on its own, bounded only by the limits of its habitat. … From a learning perspective … imagine your learners from that perspective … they follow their own paths.\u201d (Cormier, 2017, 14:09<\/a>) In embracing a multitude of learning paths, students whose experiences are both within and without academia are able to find acceptance within an open learning environment.<\/p>\n

Paul Stacey, in his discussion on diversity, equity and inclusion through a global learning commons, noted that “openness offers up a means for people to actively participate with something, whether it’s education or even other things like contributing to culture, in ways that they simply weren’t allowed to before.” (Stacey, 2018, 22:30<\/a>) This is the opportunity which students from diverse backgrounds are afforded when education is opened up in this manner.<\/p>\n

In her talk involving open culture and education, Catherine Cronin asked, “If we say those are not valid sites for learning, and they should sign into this particular space, this is where formal learning happens, then the message that we\u2019re tapping onto [sic?] students and learners is that there is a difference, there is a dichotomy between formal and informal learning, and they must learn to build bridges between them themselves. We\u2019re not enabling that bridge building.” (Cronin, 2017, 18:15<\/a>)<\/p>\n

And while I and my fellow students move forward on paths, in the midst of this bridge that is being built between informal and formal learning, between past experience and future, I find myself mulling over a paraphrased quote by Heather Ross: “We shift away from students consuming education and knowledge to students contributing to it.\u201d (Stacey, 2018, 25:25<\/a>) And I find myself curious just what my own contributions might be.<\/p>\n

References<\/em><\/sub><\/p>\n

Cormier, D. (2017, April 18). Intentional messiness of online communities<\/i> [Webinar]. Royal Roads University. https:\/\/ca-sas.bbcollab.com\/site\/external\/playback\/artifact?psid=2017-04-18.0934.M.260AD3030AD273255B9B9C087E6864.vcr&aid=194973<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n

Cronin, C. (2017, April 20). Open culture, open education, open questions<\/i> [Webinar]. Royal Roads University. https:\/\/ca-sas.bbcollab.com\/site\/external\/playback\/artifact?psid=2017-04-20.0917.M.260AD3030AD273255B9B9C087E6864.vcr&aid=195019<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n

Heck, T. (2020, April 17). Assessing the Impact of a Digitally Enhanced Rubric\/Feedback Tool in a Practical Lab Setting<\/i> [Webinar]. Royal Roads University. https:\/\/ca.bbcollab.com\/collab\/ui\/session\/playback\/load\/abcf9f300d4340968e374f6cf3a33c53<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n

Stacey, P. (2018, April 17). Diversity, Equity, Inclusion – building a global learning commons<\/i> [Webinar]. Royal Roads University. https:\/\/ca.bbcollab.com\/collab\/ui\/session\/playback\/load\/1e7524409f81435db6df3c575d115e82<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n

Weir, K. (2013). Feel like a fraud?. gradPSYCH Magazine<\/em>, 11<\/em>(4), 24. https:\/\/www.apa.org\/gradpsych\/2013\/11\/fraud<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unit 1 Week 1 Activity 1 \u2013 Virtual Symposium Reflection In going into the Virtual Symposium, I found myself excited by the opportunity to pick and choose from a broad range of topical presentations and discussions. The freedom of choosing my own path through the material was exciting. I didn’t expect that to be the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,20,22,21,23,18,19,25],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt521","tag-community","tag-creative-commons","tag-diversity","tag-imposter-syndrome","tag-inclusion","tag-lrnt-521","tag-open-learning","tag-virtual-symposium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions\/179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}