This week, we were challenged to consider the advantages and disadvantages of Open Educational Resources (OER). As someone who previously made my living from non-OER, I have been really torn about this topic. I found the readings this week helpful in adding to my knowledge on the topic and I got some new things to think about.
There is a lot that can be done with OER I think: maybe more than I thought could be done. The spirit of OER is more democratic and more in keeping with equity in education. It is not, however, how the world generally works today.
I have been thinking a lot during this week about how we can use OER in niche, necessarily protected areas, like nuclear security. OER methods can be used for facilitation, but the content could still be protected I think. I came across a podcast this week that talked about using a lot of open source tools in the monetization of products, which is where this thought came from. (PS – Mattermost is cited as a viable alternative to Slack).