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Steven Secord Post 1

• 1 June 2018, 7:40 PM

Hello on Day 1

I am already blown away by the content on Day #1. Some of the readings were extremely interesting, particularly the Cape Town Open Education Declaration, which I had never heard of but was happy to sign.


I love that we are spending time on definitions so that we are sure we are all talking the same language. I find that one of the struggles when delving into Open Education is that different people and groups have different ideas of what is considered open. Having a baseline for our discussions is fantastic.

The resource I want to share is a LibGuide on OER out of Southeast Missouri University. It has some great resources embedded in it. I haven't looked too closely yet, however, the link to the Bookley - Free to Learn looks interesting. 

My biggest challenge with Open Learning is that I struggle to find resources in my discipline. I find this disappointing as I teach in a Faculty of Education so I am teaching future teachers. One thing we know is that teachers often use the models they are taught in their own practices. If we are unable to model OERs and OEP to these future educators then the practice will never catch on in a significant way. I am looking for ideas on where to find these resources or barring their absence, then how to go about creating them myself. Networking with other open educators around the globe is another aspect of the course that I feel I will benefit from.

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

Cheers,

Steve

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ruth Lindsey-Armstrong Post 2 in reply to 1

• 1 June 2018, 7:44 PM

trouble finding resources

Hi Steve,

I hear ya! I teach Early Childhood Education, and I find it really challenging to find materials that can be used to replace the expensive development textbooks.  What's worse is that students choose not to purchase them as their budgets just can't afford them, so they are not doing the required reading!

ruth

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Suzanne Wakim Post 3 in reply to 1

• 1 June 2018, 9:37 PM

Hi! We were finding the same issues for Child Development. There are few Community Colleges in California that are collaborating to build resources. You can email me (wakimsu@butte.edu) if you would like more information.  Or, stay tuned - we will share what we build :)

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Marvin Patton Post 4 in reply to 3

• 2 June 2018, 1:57 AM

Please do share, Suzanne!

I'm in the same circumstance shared by Ruth.  I teach Child Development in California.  All the early buzz I heard about OER was so reassuring--that I would surely discover exploding galaxies full of wonderful free material, just what I need, all for the taking...

Well, it didn't take long for me to discover that OER had been enormously oversold--at least from the perspective of CD and ECE!

However, much as you've described, I have since teamed up with collaborators to start producing the resources we couldn't find.  I would surely appreciate if you would forward whatever information you might have.

Hey!  Day 1--and I'm loving this course already!

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ruth Lindsey-Armstrong Post 6 in reply to 3

• 2 June 2018, 7:38 PM

Thanks for that offer Suzanne! Yes the availability of oer in ECE (lol...acronyms) is woefully inadequate. I can't help but wonder if it's a professional recognition thing, just as the field continues to be, under recognized and underpaid. 

Ruth

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Laura Killam Post 5 in reply to 1

• 2 June 2018, 7:36 PM

Hello, 

When I took David Wiley's MOOC one of the messages I got out of it was that defining openness is not as important as moving to the next step - being open in the way you define it. It seems that when it comes to some aspects of openness we can agree to disagree and still be effective. However, I agree that it is good to know where everyone is coming from. 

Laura 

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Susan Jones Post 7 in reply to 5

• 2 June 2018, 8:42 PM

That makes sense (this is about sense-making, right?)... if I can define what I'm doing then I can move forward.   Now, if what I'm doing doesnt really fit my definition, that's worth discussing, but mucking about forever over whether something is Properly Open is time we could be spending revising our resources :)