Alevizou MeCCSA 2010_presentation

Mediating Open Education: popular discourses, situated policies & institutional practices for participatory learning MeCCSA 2010: Media, Communication, Policy and Practice 6-8 Jan, London School of Economics Dr Panagiota Alevizou [email_address] IET, olnet.org

Overview

OERs: official definitions
Hewlett Foundation
teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others (2008)
OECD CERI
digitised materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning and research (2007)
Unesco
The open provision of educational resources, enabled by ICTs, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes (2002)

Projects comprise of

Expanded from Marguliers’ (2005) conceptual mapping of OERs (2005; see also OECD, 2007, Conole and Weller, 2008) Implementation bodies inter-governmental organisations, consortia, translation bodies, policy and funding institutions

Mediation Processes Or Learning Media?

Case Studies

Open =
Freed
Free
AND
Available
Accessible
Connected
Collaborative
Participatory
Experimental
Transparent pedagogies
Education vs. networks of improvement
“ key tenet of open education is that education can be improved by
making educational assets visible and accessible and
by harnessing the collective wisdom of a community of
practice and reﬂection” (Iiyosh and Kumar, 2008: 10)

Mediation of pedagogical knowledge
Mediatised learning
Institutional mediation of pedagogical knowledge as a continuous process (from broadcasting to dialogue? Dalsgaard, 2008 )
Doubly articulated
Objects, contents
Mediation of pedagogical flows & processes
Resources & learning media
Further resources in ‘the field’ beyond the realm of ed. institutions
Shifting perceptions of knowledge and pedagogy
Networks of improvement & self-expression beyond formal education
historically
educational resources part of a wider publishing field that has been located within central processes of mediation (Silverstone, 2005): a space of social positions, resources and power within its own forms of competition and reward (Thompson, 2005); more emphasis on educational outputs part of the educational institutional habitus, alongside scholarly material

Mediation of open pedagogical knowledge(s) & expansive learning (Engestrom, 2001)
Within institutions
Expanded from Conole, 2008, Conole and McAndrew, 2010
Across disciplines, institutions, communities
Representing pedagogy Guiding learning designs Sharing ideas Empirical evidence base

Categories of OERs
Institutional : education
Community : reference, self-improvement
Networks of improvement and peer support; Increased Access, SDL; large small operation
Drivers : legacy; marketing experimentation, outreach
Tensions : awareness and granularity
Quality
Accreditation
Sustainability, volunteerism
Participatory expertise and literacies
Scale of operation large small Provider Community Institution Adapted from OECD, 2007: 46

Discourses in OER Santos, 2008

The Institutional Discourse
OpenLearn is consistent with the University’s commitment to social justice and widening participation in higher education (OpenLearn Website (UK)
We wanted to see what offering the OUNL content to a community of learners would mean for higher education: it meant lowering thresholds for entering higher education further (RS: OpenER/OUNL, Netherlands ) MIT OCW now stands as a new model for disseminating knowledge, serving as a sort of “ shared intellectual commons ” available to educators and learners around the globe (MIT OCW website)

The marketing discourse OpenLearn […] Could be a way of building markets, synergies and reputation (AL: OL) OpenER modules have worked well as course tasters (RS: OPENER) MIT department heads believe that MIT OCW is a tool that indirectly aids in recruitment (SC: MIT OCW)

Collaboration, cultural exchange, community [We are] targeting existing communities and we show them some value in terms of adopting or doing some things here. The value might be different for different discipline groups, for different audiences … whether it’s …Union Learning, the University of the Third Age, or a local community here, or another university there it’s very much say…. here’s the resource, you make use of …we show what it is to do it, you can try experimenting with it and feed back (AL: OpenLearn) Cultural bias is addressed when different types of knowledge(s) are exchanged and transparently mediated the platform (CN; OER Africa talking about the Health OER Inter-Institutional Project)

Collaborations

Cross fertilisation & synergy

Faculty Incentives: credit, recognition Some educators are interested in contributing their work in Connexions, because it’s a way of gaining notoriety. So they’ll publish something there because it’s an opportunity for an outlet where they can get recognised globally . (JT: Connexions) When people invest time and resources, they can see a tangible benefit; these could relate to students feeling that they are better educated; […] it depends on the institution having created a policy environment that is supporting of faculty having dedicated their time and energy; there’s renumeration, promotion, credit in some way or the other… (CN: OER Africa)

Audience/use inscriptions in OER Experimentation Prod-use Remix

Community projects & hybrids
Initiative(s) outside of the traditional institution that aims to provide the social learning structures,
the “social wrapper” around existing open educational resources (P2PU)
experimental courses (e.g. wikiversity)
Community support (e.g wikieducator, OpenLearn)
Subject specific resources
Open content/deschooling

User augmented content

E ducation, E ngagement, I mprovement
OER is the dictionary of our time (DC, OpenEd Community)
Reference
self-education: autodidactism from immersion with content
Improve content
reflect on pedagogy (formal & informal; linking teaching with research and scholarship in OER)
Engagement in learning
tensions: institutional affiliation / legacy / mentoring / the interface and structures of participation

conclusions
Distinctions between ‘mainstream’ and ‘alternative’ OER genres point to both definitions of openness and public value remit
Drivers for sustainability and marketability are connected
Open and contextual, yet accessible definitions around learning designs, purpose & relevance are considered core for enhancing user feedback on use
Trust, validation, purposefulness or accreditation also important indicators for engagement alongside casual browsing
Teachers’ incentivisation to be aligned with a more open sharing culture and national OER strategies
Connection with national policy makers on education/culture/IP, key for increasing awareness on/legitimacy of OERs

credits
Education/collaboration: @psd http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/1805374441/
Open Sign:@ rightee http://www.flickr.com/photos/rightee/4356950
Mediation: : Flickr @ hyperscholar
Many thanks to Patrick McAndrew, Grainne Connole, Andreia Santos

Thank you! p.alevizou@open.ac.uk

Alevizou MeCCSA 2010_presentation

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