I recently read some compelling articles that highlighted the ways in which Open Learning approaches provided opportunities for students to engage in learning communities. The first article entitled, A Guide To Making Textbooks With Students offered some novel ways for students to extend their learning through interacting with Open Educational Resources, or OERs. Since OER’s may be accessed through Creative Commons Licenses, they provide unique opportunities for students to use them in ways that are characterized by what is called the 5 Rs: reused, retained, redistributed, revised, and remixed. This presents opportunities for students to use open access resources to create content, remix and reframe ideas in new ways and for new audiences. I feel that this notion connects with much of what we do as teachers by providing students opportunities to create projects that remix and repurpose concepts to reflect their understanding. However, in a digital learning context, this way of transforming and repurposing knowledge supports the process of extension, whereby students are working with ideas and constructing ideas in such a way as to increase access to their peers and communities. The way in which Open Educational Resources may be built upon or reframed and remixed holds a lot of potential, as student are able to take their learning beyond the confines of closed environments and share it with others, not just amongst their instructors and peers, in new and meaningful ways.
The article, Digital Redlining, Access and Privacy presented a compelling examination of the ways in which restrictive access of educational resources creates challenges and barriers to students and threatens online equity. As someone who enjoys delving into peer-reviewed research using online databases and university libraries, I find restricting student access to specific libraries and online databases is very troublesome, and is something that will eventually lead to the eroding of digital democracy. When I attended university in the United States many years ago, I revelled in the amount of peer-reviewed research that was available to through just a few clicks of a mouse button. Later, when I attended a smaller college in Canada, I was amazed to find how little resources in terms of research was available through their online database. I soon found that this was due to licensing, and that this college library had access to only a few database networks, most of which only featured research from Canadian researchers and not those from the United States. I found this very restrictive, as my research project required global perspectives on issues relating to gender and race. With only a few resources to choose from, I often had to rethink topics or scrap ideas entirely, which was a rather painful exercise that made me reflect on the ways in which licensing can restrict the exploration, transformation, and extension of ideas in learning communities.
Chapter 4 of Design Principles for Indigenous Learning Spaces provided a glimpse into the ways in which learning spaces, physical and digital, are transformed by culture and community. In reflecting on this reading, I made connections to a local story about a young, indigenous knowledge keeper who used her knowledge of computer skills to document and share the Ktunaxa language to help create the First Voices Indigenous language database. The First Voices database is an example of an Open Learning community that is engaged in the process of cultural restoration and community transformation, which is something that connects very much with the 5 Rs. Through this database, indigenous communities are able to collect and store words and language systems for the purpose of translating and sharing this knowledge with others to ensure their language, history and culture is preserved and restored. It is in this light that I am beginning to see the promise of how Open Learning environments can be used to create opportunities for meaningful change, promote equity and the exchanging of multiple perspectives.
References:
Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community.
Gilliard, C., & Culik, H. (2016, May 24). Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy.Common Sense Education.
Kral, I. & Schwab, R.G. (2012). Chapter 4: Design Principles for Indigenous Learning Spaces. Safe Learning Spaces. Youth, Literacy and New Media in Remote Indigenous Australia. ANU Press. http://doi.org/10.22459/LS.08.2012
lleist
Hello Jerrod,
Thank you so much for providing such an insightful post on this week’s readings. I was very intrigued by what you said in regard to the first article, “I feel that this notion connects with much of what we do as teachers by providing students opportunities to create projects that remix and repurpose concepts to reflect their understanding. ” I find this so valuable from the perspective of a teacher candidate, but also as a student who defines her self as being kinaesthetic. It was always so important for me to be able to reflect on a learned topic in a way that would increase my own understanding. You also mention the importance of going beyond the confines of closed learning spaces… This comes as a newly important idea for me as previously I did not understand the idea of closed or open spaces nor did i think I could succeed in such an environment. However, I feel that I have been extending my knowledge and experience within these parameters through classes, assignments, and engagement in online spaces. Thanks to this part of your response I am finding myself again reflecting on the reading, my response, and also my past experiences in more depth.
Your responses to the other two readings this week were equally as helpful. I found your example of going from an American University to a smaller Canadian one very interesting in terms of the limited access you then encountered. Was it like the article said, “like specific information did not exist”?
Finally, I loved how you mentioned the First Voices Indigenous Language Database in reference to the third reading. I believe it was in one of the classes for the personalized learning institute that you provided more knowledge and insight into this database. I am so thankful that you have linked it as well because it honestly provides a whole other avenue of awareness and recognition to how open learning environments can be used to cultivate something this meaningful.
Thank you again!
misterbondy
Hi LLeist, thank you for your reply,
I love the potential that open learning provides for people to be able to contribute meaningfully to their communities. It’s very empowering for students and members of the public to be able to use existing tools to create new connections and build upon knowledge in ways that were not previously possible. In small communities, like the one I live in, open learning environments present people with opportunities to connect with others, share interests and get involved in ways that result in real change. It’s a very cool thing to see it in practice and I feel that I am being made more aware of how these kinds of actions come as a result of open learning.
ziqili
Hi Jerrod, thank you for sharing your ideas with us! I really agree what you have wrote in the second reading, Digital Redlining, Access and privacy, the sentence you wrote about educational resources creates challenges and barriers which will affect online equity really brings up my memories about my experiences to the challenges and barriers of educational resources. Firstly, when I was taking online courses in China, the first challenge for me is to find a way to get into those educational websites, because our county dose not allow us to use our internet to connect those websites directly. Then the barriers was the time zone and equipment. First, sometimes I miss things because of the timezone and sometimes because I have to use VPN to access those educational resources, I am stuck with my computer so that limited my use of those resources.
livaktiv
Hi Jerrod,
I very much agree as well what you said about creating learning opportunities for students to use open access resources and create new ideas through their own understandings. This also allows them to share their new knowledge with the community and the community to benefit and grow from it. I feel that this process also encourages students to have a growth mindset and to learn how to contribute to their community this way. It’s a win-win.
Thank you for sharing the story about the young, indigenous knowledge keeper, it’s amazing to see the ways OER can be used and how they can create meaningful experiences for communities.