Slides for my presentation on 19th April 2018, given at the Watershed, Bristol, for OER18

1. Critical
debates in
open
education

2. 2013-2018
from
OER13 Creating an OER Virtuous Circle
to
OER17 The politics of open
And
OER18 Open to all

3. • Rhetoric of open
• Utopian visions (Gourlay, 2015)
• Binaries of open/closed (Oliver, 2015; Edwards, 2015)
• ‘Learnification’ (Knox, 2013, citing Biesta, 2009)
• The ‘problem’ of ‘Big OERs’/xmoocs
• ‘Openwashing’ (Almeida, 2017) (Farrow, 2017) Weller’s ‘anxiety’ (2014)
• Need to engage with economics & models (Czerniewicz during OER17
plenary)
• The hidden curriculum
• Perpetuation of inequalities (Bali keynote, OER17) (Momodou Sallah, OER18)
• Teaching & learning
• How learning might take place after barriers removed (Knox, 2013)
• Absence of role of teaching (Oliver, 2015)
Points of critique

4. • Rhetoric of open
• Tempered language ~ Replaced by real accounts w/visible impact (Momodou
Sallah, OER18)
• The ‘problem’ of ‘Big OERs’
• xMoocs normalised, assimilated into institutional practices,
but also useful to define oneself against (the rhizome needs the tree)
• Overt refs to business models w/ OEP, resistance & negotiation of pedagogical
models w/Mooc platform (Gloria Visintini)
• The hidden curriculum
• The individual’s actions, OER17 #iwill , diverse global literature to amplified
• Teaching & learning
• Realities of actual experiences & practice being addressed by Cronin (2017),
Weller & Farrow (2018 forthcoming)
Updates

5. OER18 Open to all?
Can "anyone can hack anything“ (Raymond, 2001)
What if someone created OERs to promote racists agendas? (Question
during OER17 plenary)
• There are invisible rules to OEP/OER, norms, taboos
• Personal & institutional reputation building and gift gif culture
• Anxiety for uninitiated about ‘doing it right’

6. Sociomaterial approaches to address issues of
control and unpredictability
As humans and technology interact, each are constitutively entangled with
the other, changed. Unpredictable things happen. Limits to human control of
outcomes, that includes learning.
• Metadata, licencing, good practice, values, ethics
• Autumn Caine's “community building during technical problems” Virtually
Connecting
• Question taken-for-granted categories & binaries
Refs for sociomaterialism Sørensen (2009) and Fenwick et al. (2011)

7. Almeida, N., 2017. Open Educational Resources and Rhetorical Paradox in the Neoliberal Univers(ity ). Journal of Critical Library and
Information Studies, 1(1), pp. 1–19 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24242/jclis.v1i1.16.
Bali, Maha, OER17 Keynote: Hiding in the Open https://youtu.be/SKOVbcmgEy4
Biesta, G. 2009. ‘‘Good Education: What it is and WhyWe Need it. Inaugural Lecture at the Stirling Institute of Education, University of
Stirling.’’ http://www.ioe.stir.ac.uk/documents/ GOODEDUCATION--WHATITISANDWHYWENEEDITInauguralLectureProfGertBiesta.pdf
Cronin, Catherine, Czerniewicz, Laura and O’Keeffe, Muireann OER17 Plenary Panel: Mapping the Politics of Open,
https://youtu.be/smUvTsxVSVQ
Edwards, R., 2015. Knowledge infrastructures and the inscrutability of openness in education. Learning, Media and Technology, 40(3),
pp. 251–264 DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2015.1006131
Farrow, R., 2017. Open education and critical pedagogy. Learning, Media and Technology, Taylor & Francis, 42(2), pp. 130–146 DOI:
10.1080/17439884.2016.1113991.
Fenwick, T., Edwards, R. & Sawchuk, P., 2011. Emerging Approaches to Educational Research: Tracing the Socio-Material. Taylor &
Francis.
Gourlay, L., 2015. Open education as a ‘heterotopia of desire’. Learning, Media and Technology, 40(3), pp. 310–327.
Knox, J., 2013. Five critiques of the open educational resources movement. Teaching in Higher Education, Taylor & Francis, 18(8), pp.
821–832 DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2013.774354.
Oliver, M., 2015. From openness to permeability: reframing open education in terms of positive liberty in the enactment of academic
practices. Learning, Media and Technology, 40(3), pp. 365–384 DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2015.1029940.
Raymond, Eric S. "The cathedral and the bazaar, 1998." URL: http://www. catb. org/~ esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/
Sallah, Momodou OER18 Keynote: – Pedagogies of Disruption as Resistance: Developing Counter Narratives Through Open
Educational Practice https://youtu.be/PBIiBMknYso
Sørensen, E., 2009. The Materiality of Learning: Technology and Knowledge in Educational Practice. Cambridge University Press.
Weller, M., 2014. The Battle for Open. Foreign Affairs, London: Ubiquity Press.