The 2022 MALAT Symposium offered a smorgasbord of tasty offerings of which I was a happy consumer! Over several days I managed to take in some very rich presentations including, Intentional Messiness of Online Communities by Dave Cormier, Instructional Design In & After COVID-19 with Melanie Meyers, Dr. Veletsianos and Dr. DeVries and a wonderfully flavourful morsel from Amanda Coolidge titled, Open Education; what it is; what is does & its amazing impact.
One general theme, I noticed throughout these particular virtual presentations was the theme of “open”. I had heard of this idea before but had little idea of the many different aspects surrounding the concept of open. To begin with, there is Open Learning, Open Pedagogy, Open Learning Processes, Open Practice not to mention Open Educational Resources (OERs). However, there are subtle layers within each of these facets such as Open Data, Open Research and Open Science. Just like open, it is practically endless!
As Dave Cormier (2017) mentioned in his presentation, Intentional Messiness of Online Communities, which particularly struck me, were his statements about learning with open. It can be exhausting, demanding, and frustrating, but also why open is important. Open learning is like a rhizome (Cormier, 2017). Therefore, learning should be shared and divided with others and is only bound by our limit in creativity and knowledge (2017). So, how do I navigate the “mess”? I hate getting dirty.
This brought me back to thinking about my current teaching and learning philosophy which has always been that students should have equal access to the curriculum and any barriers need to be summarily dealt with. I had been following the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for several years in my teaching, so I wondered how the concepts of “open” are connected to these principles of engagement, representation, and action and expression (Posey, n.d.). How could they work together in my practice?
What I found especially eye-opening is Amanda Coolidge’s presentation on Open Education (2021). Her first question asks how do we create spaces that are welcoming and that foster a sense of reciprocity? In turn, I asked myself, how do I move beyond the textbook centered approach and shift the learning and teaching process to more of a collaboration of our collective ideas (Coolidge, 2021)? How can I be more mindful when thinking about technology? How could I utilize the different platforms, books, and other open resources available more meaningfully (Cormier, 2017; Coolidge, 2021)? For example, I currently use one open coursebook for a Human Development class I instruct but surely there must be other open options that will meet the requirements of the program and meet the needs of my learners.
Coolidge (2022) pointed out there there are many benefits to “open” learning, particularly cost. By creating spaces that are welcoming and foster a sense of reciprocity we can begin to break down the barriers that prevent some marginalized groups from being able to pursue higher learning. When an institution uses OERs the savings are significant for students. Furthermore, teachers can adapt free OERs to suit the the needs of the learners by being more inclusive. Unfortunately, institutions are still often at the mercy of vender pricing (Coolidge, 2022).
I realized six important fundamentals after my whirlwind trip down symposium lane (#RRUMALAT). Learning needs to be authentic. Technology needs to be inexpensive. Resources need to be available. Access needs to be for everyone. Instructors need to be flexible.
I guess I need to get dirty.
References
Coolidge, A. (2021, April 21). 2021_coolidge_malatsymposium. Royal Roads University. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://admin.video.ubc.ca/html5/html5lib/v2.86.1/mwEmbedFrame.php/p/154/uiconf_id/23449276/entry_id/0_ko4t0vzv?wid=_154&iframeembed=true&playerId=kaltura_player_1632766319&entry_id=0_ko4t0vzv
Cormier, D. (2017, April 18). Dave Cormier Virtual Symposium Presentation | LRNT 521 [EDUTECH 2022–1 OL] Apr 11 2022. Royal Roads University. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://malat-coursesite.royalroads.ca/lrnt521/recordings/dave-cormier-virtual-symposium-presentation/
Pavlyuchkova, K. (2018). open brown wooden window [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/FQYCJSqER_0
Posey, A. (n.d.). Universal Design for Learning. Understood. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.understood.org/en/articles/understanding-universal-design-for-learning
I agree that technology should be inexpensive, but how often is this actually the case? Computers and software programs and training can be expensive. How can we bring down the cost without undercutting the value of these goods and services? Also, I look forward to learning from you about UDL.
Lots of schools (K-12) get grants from places like Future Shop or Best Buy, or call companies where the turn over rate for laptops is high and they donate laptops that they deem are out of date, but are in fact only 2 or 3 years old. Other options are places like “Computers for Schools”, although I don’t know if this organization is still functioning. All of these scenarios, I have actually been a part of. 🙂
I would agree with that. If there aren’t any grants or other funding, it can be hard to motivate people to contribute their time and skills when they aren’t being paid.
I really believe in sharing teaching materials, but if not everyone that you work with has the same mentality, it’s a lot of work to create this content and it doesn’t seem right if other people take it and in turn don’t share it or contribute themselves.
-Patrick
I understand what you mean and that may be why many school districts (K-12) cannot or will not adopt the idea of using OER simply because there aren’t that many and because of what you mentioned; it takes a lot of work to create content and people need to have compensation for that work. However, it is my understanding that, at least at the post-secondary level, there is much more “open” resources available for use. Currently I use an “open” resource for the Human Development class I teach from the College of the Canyons, called Child Growth and Development. It has worked well with my students.
According to Amanda Coolidge, Director at Open Education BCCampus, it does not seem to be that people are not offering no- or low-cost textbooks, it is that many administrators still believe that “open” textbooks are of low or poor quality, which simply is not true anymore. The BCCampus is working on providing instructors with exemplars of co-created texts which are fact checked and peer reviewed. Furthermore, the instructor is able to adapt the content of an OER textbook or other resource to be more inclusive (Coolidge, 2022). But I agree with your point about people not wanting to share nor contribute. I, myself, have curated a number of resources for TpT (Teachers Pay Teachers) but I charge a nominal amount. Part of TpT’s agreement is that you create one item to share with the community for free. Perhaps this is my jumping off point as it is my hope that over the next two years, I can begin to source out reliable, reputable and worthy content, resources, books etc. for use at the K-12 level and begin a discourse with teachers and administrator about the value of “open”.