9. “I don’t think
education is about
centralized instruction
anymore; rather,
it is the process [of]
establishing oneself
as a node in a broad
network of distributed
creativity.”
– Joi Ito @joi (2011)
Image: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 yobink
18. At its best openness is an ethos
not a license. It's an approach to
teaching and learning that
builds a community of learners
online and off.
- Jim Groom
22. openness • social media • student voice/choice
3 tenets of my teaching
23. openness • social media • student voice/choice
AIM:
choose openness
where possible & where appropriate
USE
CREATE
SHARE
open resources
create to share, CC-licensed
openly, including my/our own learning
24. openness • social media • student voice/choice
AIM:
enable connection and learning
across the (artificial) boundaries
of time and space
TIME... class time, term time, academic year
SPACE... classrooms, schools, countries
# hashtags connect across time and space
25. openness • social media • student voice/choice
AIM:
use as many opportunities as possible
for students to Create & to Choose
TOPICS
MEDIA RUBRICS
ASSESSMENT
TOOLS TEAMS
28. “Recently our class has begun to use
more social networking sites like
Facebook and tools like DropBox to
share notes and keep up to date with
lectures. I found this to be a great
benefit in studying and managing my
work.”
Social media...
#studentvoice
29. “Strange putting a face to the voice of
my first year maths lecturer!
Khan Academy is possibly one of the
most useful sources for students
studying maths. The idea is simple, If
you don't understand the first time you
watch it... watch it again.”
Khan Academy...
#studentvoice
42. Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing
that ever has.
– Margaret Mead
43. Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing
that ever has.
– Margaret Mead
students
45. Image CC BY 2.0 entirelysubjective
MOOC
Global CoPs
Open badges
Open course
Create open materials
Develop PLNs
Social media
Use OERs
Collaboration
Authentic assessment
Use open tools
OPEN
CLOSED
64. Universities have a role in, not just creating new
knowledge within their walls, but for inculcating
students with a sense of ethical responsibility.
The higher education sector can play an
important role in developing the leadership
necessary for the creation and strengthening of
an inclusive society built on a sustainable social
and economic foundation.
President Michael D. Higgins
COIMBRA Conference
May 2013, Galway
67. PHOTO CREDITS:
United Nations Photo (Flickr)
NUI Galway
The Irish Times
NationalGeographicStock.com
Burns Library, Boston College (Flickr)
The Labour Party (Flickr)
Irish Defence Forces (Flickr)
The White House (Flickr)
Library of Congress
Trocaire (Flickr)
Fanz (Flickr)
Lochinvar1 (Flickr)
Shavar Ross (Flickr)
Editor's Notes
Start by saying THANK YOU… to the amazing ILTA team, to Tim and the local team, and to all of you.I’m so happy to be here… I attended EdTech for the first time in 2010 I believe. This gathering of educators is an engine of creativity and inspiration, so it’s an honour to speak today.
For those here who are tweeting… here’s my Twitter name & my slides are here!Now when Paul asked me to kick off this morning, he mentioned that they wanted to start with the local angle… someone on the ground in an Irish institution.
Unfortunately, I’m not *quite* a local ;)I was born & raised in the Bronx, though I now live in beautiful Kinvara with my family. I’m absolutely delighted to be claimed as a local though…. THANKS!I work at NUIG…
This is the structure of what I’d like to talk about this morning….Open Ed (some thoughts on where we are) --- One story --- Challenges (from my experience) --- Some thoughts on the FUTUREI am speaking not as a Learning Technologist, but I am speaking as a fellow educator. My standpoint is simply as a practitioner…
Some thoughts on Open Education… beginning with a story.
Fast pace of change…In the early 1990s, together with a colleague Pat Byrne, I taught RETURN TO WORK courses for women, in community centres and through Adult Ed programmes.Mostly women who had stopped work to raise families and wanted to return to work – transferrable skills.One skill which had become key was COMPUTING SKILLS… computers had arrived in workplaces.One day one woman said she felt she had fallen asleep and missed the whole boat… Pat said, you just blinked.
Stephen Heppell Affecting all of us... as educators & as learners ourselves (exciting & challenging time to be an educator)In 2011, I presented here at EdTech on a project talking about Authentic Assessment and podcasting. Doesn’t seem that long ago. Perhaps you were at EdTech11 in the lovely Waterford IT…
COMMUNITY/nonprofit – University / VC / Profit-making – Industry
Not connected/limited by geography, space, time... but connected by our own ideas, passion, commitment via social media. This is one of the best definitions I’ve seen of Open Education… and its future possibilities.
I’ll ask you the first Q: please talk with the person next to you (in 2s or 3s):What’s your definition of OPEN EDUCATION?And would you consider yourself and Open Educator?Many definitions – it’s complicated Let’s start with MOOCs
30 essaysreport sets out to help decision makers in higher education institutions gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and trends towards greater openness in higher education and to think about the implications for their institutions
Education consists of (1) Learning resources, (2) Teaching, and (3) Learning services (e.g. communities, testing, certification)Each can have a particular level of openness.If at least one of these elements has openness… then it can be called Open Education.(from article in Trend Report – Open Education Resources)
This is an ACTIVIST course, with MOOCs not just the platform but also the subject matter for our online conversations. My intention is to take advantage of the stable Coursera platform to de-stabilize some assumptions about both online and face-to-face learning, and to use the Forums to energize a significant conversation about what it means to create a public educational system (the history) and what it means to defund one.I personally do not believe MOOCs that are simply top down and offer one centralized point of view are the future of higher education. They do not begin to take full advantage of the community aspects of peer-to-peer learning. I hope we can use this course to, together, explore the possibilities of both online learning and formal and traditional modes of education. I hope this course is the platform for a global conversation
NUIG planning MOOCs – or open online courses – in Irish Studies, Education, IT, Law, and more
Using OPEN tools / resources / practices / knowledge………….. to improve access to and quality of LearningHOW?
A slide I prepared a couple of years ago that summarises my experiences as an Open Learner. Connect (across boundaries!)Do something... anything! Just try it.Share with othersThat’s it!We always DO things... but it is worth consciously thinking about how deliberate social connections before & after can significantly amplify the learning – for ourselves & our students/our children
Almost a year ago, I defined my teaching like this... This is based on many years experience, and related educational research – valuing critical pedagogy, constructivism. Feminist critiques. It sounds good... it is genuine. BUT – every year that I teach, I realise how deeply scripted I am, our culture is, in Teacher as central, as controlling.... pace, curricula, technology, everything. The more I move away from that, the more I learn, and the more I try to strip away.Every year, my students teach me. I strip away another layer and reveal new ways to learn and to empower students.
This is not a MOOC.This is not an open programme.This is a typical BSc programme, UG, mostly school leavers
Google+ was useful for more in-depth reflections, e.g....
And... a reflection on Khan Academy.
We agreed to use Twitter as a tool throughout the course… have used G+ in the past, but there were some issues with that.Use a class Twitter account and hashtag. Invokes digital identity immediately!Must discuss and explore first... privacy, identity in online spaces, etc. Who am I on Google? Who am I here? In this class? Who is the audience?
DI = online personaThis photos captures some of the ambivalence that many of us feel about our digital identities. Many students already have a confidence social digital identity, but developing an identitiy as a learner, a writer, a scholar, a citizen…. these are the essential tasks of us as educators. In the classroom and online, together.
how to use social media intelligently, humanely, and mindfully. What we know matters, and how we know matters. 5 essential literacies for a world of mobile, social, and always-on media: attention, crap detection, participation, collaboration, and network know-how. The effects of these literacies can both empower the individuals who master them and improve the quality of the digital culture commons.
Global networks, different audiences… data is PERSISTENT _ REPLICABLE _ SCALABLE _ SEARCHABLE The audience is unknown… Context Collapse.
PERFORMATIVE – constituted through practicesQUANTIFIED – clicks, follows, @s, likes, Klout, etc…. Like it or not!PARTICIPATORY – merging of production and consumptionASYNCHRONOUS – beautiful thing of creating your own moment, your own space to respond to othersENMESHED – atoms and bits, Nathan JurgensonNEOLIBERAL – ME, Inc. to what extent are we a BRAND?
Stephen Heppell, Chair in New Media Environments at Bournemouth University iswidely and fondly recognized leader in the fields of learning, new media and technology
How we improve access to and quality of LearningWHO? WHAT? HOW?
Usually rigid boundaries between education sectors.This means that only students get the “whole student” perspective... not educators!At #ictedu, educators across all levels of education Connect, Share and Learn.Serves the needs of our students better.We discuss assessment, educational technologies, student voice, etc.
5 main challenges... which I’d like to touch on briefly.
Awareness –Can I teach & learn diffrently. Should I?What’s possible? Why change? What are students doing / using & how are they learning?
Using OERs, will I lose my autonomy?In student-led learning, do we lose autonomy?When connecting with other educators, do we lose autonomy?
Uncertainty or FEAR!How do I do this? How will I learn? Who will support me?What if I do it wrong? What if it doesn’t work? What if students know more than me (about tech/platform)?FEAR of losing CONTROL!!! What happens when students have more control over their own learning process? Does Quality go down?What happens if I publish my ideas openly?
There is seeing, and then there is deciding to change. These changes are not simple, they require a great deal of thought, learning, trial & error... Commitment to change is required.
And finally... and only at this point, can we even talk about Learning Design. (Grainne 7Cs)What are the learning goals? What activities can be used to achieve these? What can students CREATE?what structures can you put in place, to meet their needs, to challenge them, to light that fire?AWARENESS – AUTONOMY – FEAR – COMMITMENT – DESIGN Discuss today!!!
History teaches us so much.History illuminates the future. I’d like to conclude with one final story… and then have time for discussion.
This is the time that I grew up, in the Bronx in NYC.It was a time of great social upheaval and great social idealism as well.Some of my earliest memories are these... the terrible spring/summer of 1968 when MLK Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. These were events that were real to children, talked about at the dinner table at home, talked about in school, talked about in the playground with our friends.RFK shot in California, funeral in NYC, buried in Wash DC. NYC…
ALEC COUROS: How do we develop kind & caring citizens, those with integrity in both online and offline spaces?”JEFF MERRELL: As educators, where and how do we best collectively advocate to create digital spaces where individuals can “become“?Future of education is being created now. Not just the creation of the education but & of a more inclusive society & sustainable futureAs Stephen Heppell says: “Learning prepares you to deal with suprises.Education often prepares you to deal with certainty. There is no certainty.” If he was to make one change he would make schooling just a little bit better. I would say *education at all levels*THAT will change history more than anything else. I agree.
ALEC COUROS: How do we develop kind & caring citizens, those with integrity in both online and offline spaces?”JEFF MERRELL: As educators, where and how do we best collectively advocate to create digital spaces where individuals can “become“?Future of education is being created now. Not just the creation of the education but & of a more inclusive society & sustainable futureAs Stephen Heppell says: “Learning prepares you to deal with suprises.Education often prepares you to deal with certainty. There is no certainty.” If he was to make one change he would make schooling just a little bit better. I would say *education at all levels*THAT will change history more than anything else. I agree.
ALEC COUROS: How do we develop kind & caring citizens, those with integrity in both online and offline spaces?”JEFF MERRELL: As educators, where and how do we best collectively advocate to create digital spaces where individuals can “become“?Future of education is being created now. Not just the creation of the education but & of a more inclusive society & sustainable futureAs Stephen Heppell says: “Learning prepares you to deal with suprises.Education often prepares you to deal with certainty. There is no certainty.” If he was to make one change he would make schooling just a little bit better. I would say *education at all levels*THAT will change history more than anything else. I agree.
ALEC COUROS: How do we develop kind & caring citizens, those with integrity in both online and offline spaces?”JEFF MERRELL: As educators, where and how do we best collectively advocate to create digital spaces where individuals can “become“?Future of education is being created now. Not just the creation of the education but & of a more inclusive society & sustainable futureAs Stephen Heppell says: “Learning prepares you to deal with suprises.Education often prepares you to deal with certainty. There is no certainty.” If he was to make one change he would make schooling just a little bit better. I would say *education at all levels*THAT will change history more than anything else. I agree.
ALEC COUROS: How do we develop kind & caring citizens, those with integrity in both online and offline spaces?”JEFF MERRELL: As educators, where and how do we best collectively advocate to create digital spaces where individuals can “become“?Future of education is being created now. Not just the creation of the education but & of a more inclusive society & sustainable futureAs Stephen Heppell says: “Learning prepares you to deal with suprises.Education often prepares you to deal with certainty. There is no certainty.” If he was to make one change he would make schooling just a little bit better. I would say *education at all levels*THAT will change history more than anything else. I agree.
At times, we think that things will never change.The evidence is all around us that the most secure, entrenched & intransigent of institutions, will change, will transform & may even disappear.When we look back at recent times (my lifetime)… we say, Of Course.We are on the brink of great change in education.So what of 20-30 years hence… what will our schools, colleges and universities look like? They’re likely to be very different. Will we say Of Course…
ALEC COUROS: How do we develop kind & caring citizens, those with integrity in both online and offline spaces?”JEFF MERRELL: As educators, where and how do we best collectively advocate to create digital spaces where individuals can “become“?These are the questions I am interested in. It’s not simply who’s developing MOOCs, is it the first or second, BUTwho is using the open tools & collaborative networks we have to create opportunities for learning, ANDhow can we work together in creating a more inclusive society?THAT’s OPEN EDUCATION.
This is a moment of great change in education. EDUCATORS, RESEARCHERS and STUDENTS must become involved in the Design & Development of educ systems & educ technology.This is the time, and we are the educators. WE ARE HERE!!!Is it risky? It sure is.But the most important things in life often are.