Quick Thoughts about Open Education and Open Education Resources

So, the discussion this week is about Open Learning. There is a lot to think about with this subject.

Without a doubt, there is much we can gain from Open Education (OE) and Open Education Resources (OER’s). The potential for spreading knowledge through MOOC’s is almost mindboggling. Dr. Alec Couros gives a cool example of his MOOC in the video shown to my tech class (but, you can only see this if your in our class).  Dr. David Wiley does a very good job of extolling the value of Open Education in his TEDx Talk from 2010. In this talk, he makes compelling arguments that education should be open, even that it must be open. He does a much better job of explaining how education is open be definition. I’d encourage you to listen to his talk.

This video posted by Nadia Mireles makes a superb point – everybody has a right to education, but some don’t have the opportunity to exercise that right. OE and OER’s can make an almost unimaginable difference in the lives of people that increase their knowledge through these sources. How those newly educated people change their local environs would almost certainly be for the better – history shows control of information goes hand in hand with government oppression of freedoms and rights. More information and knowledge in the hands of the public acts to break this oppression. This is why authoritarian regimes tend to block, control or censor Social Media platforms available to their citizens.

As a current college student, as well as the father of two current college students, the money savings opportunity for OER text books is a huge draw. It often seems as if schools and publishers are in cahoots to milk students for profits by requiring expensive textbooks. And when the revenue stream falls off, they issue a new edition so the old, used books become useless and everybody needs to buy new ones. This is a good segue into my Devil’s Advocate side (you knew it was coming)…….

If everything is open and free, who pays to produce the work? In my textbook example, if the revisions are due to new subject matter research by the authors, how did that get funded? If part of the revenue model is textbook sales, if we take that away how to we ensure studies and research get funded. Altruistic researchers are great, but we all need day jobs to pay the bills. The grocery store doesn’t accept a list of people I helped learn, they kinda want money. That money must come from somewhere, and unfortunately in the US we have repeatedly shown we’re unwilling to make education a priority that we want to fund with tax revenue. In Dr. Wiley’s India example in his video, he’s right when he says OE can play a huge role in meeting the demand for higher education in the developing world. The other side, however, is imagine how many jobs would come from the construction, staffing and operation of the schools. I know it’s just about impossible to hit the numbers Dr. Wiley states, but that doesn’t mean that brick and mortar schools shouldn’t have a place. Either/Or is seldom a good option. Life contains a lot of Both and It Depends.

When watching the video Srta. Mireles’ posted (I hope it have the honorific correct – no offense meant), I was struck by something at the very end. In the text at the end, it is mentioned that story of the lesson spreading around the world was adapted to fit the video. While it can be argued that all lessons edit knowledge, the adapting aspect points out a problem. Teaching from anecdotes is preaching, teaching from facts is education. As we move to more and more OER’s, we all must be vigilant to guard against using resources with biases, non-credible sources, or even outright mistruths. I’m not saying that is the case in this video, but if a situation doesn’t fit your hypothesis, you need to find more situations that do or change your hypothesis. That’s how knowledge progresses.

In another video from Dr. Couros, he does a great job giving an elevator talk about what OE is and how it’s already happening. What I found as a huge takeaway from this, is how the schools need to teach kids about what to keep private and what to make public. To paraphrase a quote he used in the video only my class saw, if we don’t act when we see a knowledge void, we must own the results of that void. In other words (as I paraphrase what I’ve already paraphrased), educators must act to help kids learn skills that will help them and society, not just what’s on the high-stakes test at the end of the school year. But how do we find time to do both?

I have a ton more notes about the material from this week in class. If I have more time, maybe I’ll post some more about it.

Thanks to Dr. Couros ( @courosa)  for giving a balanced view of OE, and thanks to Dr. Savery ( @johnsavery7 ) for pointing him out to me.