Activity 2.3 - Researching Openness

This activity asks us to research two areas of openness that are less familiar to us. It referred to a Wordle, which had mainly words that I've heard of and even know something about. So, the first topic, I picked because I wasn't sure what it was. The second, I picked because I'm thinking I might link my project to this area and therefore I figured I should find out more about it.

1. Media repository

I'd never heard this phrase before but once I Googled it, I realised it was pretty obvious. It's basically an online collection of 'stuff'. It can be photos, journals, blogs... practically any kind of data that can be stored, searched, uploaded, downloaded and so on. There are some well known media repositories, such as Flickr and various online libraries. Having got that far, I came to an abrupt halt. I tried to find out who's doing research in this area but it was really difficult to find anything useful. As it's not an area I'm particularly excited about, I stopped there.

2. Innovation

Going from something quite specific, I then picked a topic that is huge! As I've been thinking about ideas for my project, I'm drawn to this as the theme. Innovation is a word that is banded around quite a lot. All teachers who want to become someone, aspire to be innovative. ICT teachers, especially, leap after the latest innovations. But what really is it?

When I was brainstorming ideas in Activity 1.5, I looked up a Google definition of innovation and it was all about new ways of doing established tasks. Again, it was difficult to find definitive information about the big names in innovation through a Google search. Maybe this is too big a topic. I mean there must be hundreds of top researchers, researching innovation!

Narrowing down slightly, I focussed on openness and innovation. I'm interested in where these two areas overlap. In doing this, I found out about the Agency for Open Culture. It's an agency that centres in on humanitarian issues and post-conflict problem solving. Their mantra is "open knowledge for open societies", which sent my thoughts back to that Veletsianos article and the first assumption about Open Scholarship.

There are several big annual conferences which bring together openness and innovation. My personal favourite is the BETT show, which I try to get to most years. Although openness at BETT is variable, there are a lot of speakers, exhibitors and visitors who are really into open education and the whole sharing of resources idea. Another one, that I hadn't heard of is LINQ, (Learning Innovations and Learning Quality). The motto for this year's conference was "The need for change in education: openness as default?"

I also looked for some academic works on this topic and found articles by:

• Norm Friesen & Judith Murray
• George Veletsianos
• Andy Lane & KJ Vandorp
• R John Robertson (JISC)

I don't think the area of innovation/openness in education is something that is particular to a specific time or place. It could be argued that it is new to this generation but I think that is a slightly arrogant view. In one way or another, educators have been coming up with new ideas and sharing them with other teachers since the beginning of time. It's just that now it's all happening online and technology is making it easier and wider-reaching.

Activity 2.2 - Openness

Consider your own stance on openness on the following statements, giving a reason for each.

1. I will only publish in open access journals.

At this stage, I'm not even thinking about having my work published in any kind of official capacity. I enjoy blogging and agree with Weller (2012) that "we are all broadcasters now." One of the great things about Web 2.0 technologies is that anybody can publish anything online, without it first having to be sent to a publisher, reviewed and critiqued and rejected many times.

Looking forward, if I did decide to try to get any of my work published in journals, it would probably be open access but it would depend on the situation.

2. I will share all learning material that I create and own openly online.

In general, yes, but I wouldn't say 'all'. I already share some things but only where I think others might find it useful. When I was teaching, a lot of my materials were made specifically for my group or class. It might have their names and/or photos in it, so it wouldn't have been appropriate to share. I know I could have adapted it and removed the confidential stuff but honestly, that would have taken too long. At that stage, I was working 60 - 70 hours a week and needed to sleep occasionally.

3. I will maintain an online social media identity as a core part of my professional identity.

If I was purely giving my own view on this, then yes, absolutely. However, the local authority that I work for has a very strict social media policy and it really limits what we are allowed to share on social media. I tend to use Facebook mainly for personal, family and friends - keeping up with my personal network, which is spread all around the world. Twitter is my professional identity, where I follow other professionals, although I'm not 100% strict about it. I do occasionally dip into a hashtag conversation, particularly when watching certain TV programmes, although that is rare.

4. I take a pragmatic approach and release some resources openly if it's not too much extra work.

Absolutely - I think this one sums up my approach!

5. I have concerns about intellectual property and releasing my content openly. 

I don't worry about others using my work. I tend to think that if God has given me a talent of any kind, then I have a responsibility to share that for the benefit of others. My only worry about releasing content openly is that you sometimes get people being overly critical (often when they have misunderstood the purpose of a resource) or random strangers starting political arguments in comments threads. For that reason, I usually set up so that I can moderate comments, where that is an option.

6. I will share all material that I create and own openly online, as soon as I create it.

No, probably not. Again, it goes back to the word 'all'. I'll share some, depending on whether it creates extra work for me and whether I think it might be useful. I don't always share 'as soon as' either, sometimes because I'm busy and sometimes because I want to test it first. The thing with learning resources is, you've got two different types of teachers who look for resources online. The first looks for a resource, then checks it through, adapts it for his/her situation and then gets a lot out of it. The second is maybe a bit lazy... or needs educating in digital citizenship. They take a resource and the first time they look at it, is when they use it with their class. Then they complain that it wasn't very good.

Summary

I'll use social media as a tool for communicating and sharing resources, split into Facebook for personal purposes and Twitter for professional. Having said that, I share this blog on both. I basically hold to the principal of sharing resources and allowing others to use and adapt them, though it's nice to be acknowledged when people use my resources.

Activity 1.5 - Brainstorming and tagging topics

Together with your tutor group, brainstorm topics that presenters might choose as the basis for submissions at a conference where ‘inclusion’, ‘innovation’ and ‘implementation’ are offered within a theme of ‘Openness in education’.

I started off okay. Inclusion is a word I am well familiar with. Innovation also filled my mind with ideas. But implementation? I suddenly realised it would be a good idea to define these words, especially as I've had a sneaky peak at the first TMA and I'm going to be writing 1000 words about one of them. So I've started with a definition (stolen from Google, using the technique one of my sons showed me of typing define: inclusion, etc. into a Google search).

Inclusion: 

Definition: The act of being included within a group or structure.

• The use of a VLE to tackle rural isolation
• Blended learning for ESOL learners
• MOOC to provide ESOL for Syrian refugees
• Can interactive whiteboards motivate travellers enough to improve achievement?
• A video to raise awareness/funds for Worklink
• How could technology improve teaching, learning and assessment in BSL sessions?

Innovation: 

Definition: The act of making changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas or products.

• How could technology improve teaching, learning and assessment in BSL sessions?
• Introducing apps to enable learner voice
• Producing photobooks as RARPA evidence
• Use of QR codes in promoting courses
• An interactive ILP on the VLE
• The case for **** going mobile

Implementation: 

Definition: The process of putting a decision or plan into effect.

• Dragging **** into the 21st century
• MOOC for early reading – synthetic phonics
• Could **** save money by going Open Source?
• The use of mobile devices in improving Functional Skills achievements
• Embedding interactivity into teaching, learning and assessment
• Implementing Fundamental British Values through the VLE
• Online safety – implementing a cross-organisational community

Activity 1.4 - Open Architectural Studio

The task was to watch a video by John Seely Brown, in which he talked about the concept of an architectural studio and then how technology can be use to create an open studio as a place to create pieces of work. Here are some of the main points I took from his talk.

The best way to learn something is to teach it. (I like this!)

Tinkering - you build something and then ask questions about it. Does it work? Does it do what I was expecting it to do? Could it work better?

We are entering a different world now, in terms of learning. Criticism is central to learning. We must learn to accept and embrace critiques from our peers, teachers, the master.

Witnessing the struggle - in an open studio, all works in progress are made public. Rather than working shoulder-to-shoulder, like in a physical studio, with other students, we work avatar-to-avatar.

The tools of technology are powerful for building, sharing, tinkering, receiving and giving criticism.

Identity is now based on what I have created and what others have built on it. It's more about networking.

Personal experience of learning through witnessing the struggle of others

Clearing the plot of trees. Temp = -20C

From 2010 to 2012, we built our own house in Oulu, Finland. It was never intended that we should actually build. We couldn't even assemble Ikea furniture without cutting ourselves and fighting with both the item and each other. However, for various reasons, we ended up having to do it ourselves. Actually though, we weren't doing it alone because it was a new estate. Everybody was building their house. It was like a giant architectural studio!

Some of our neighbours were experts at this. A lot of professional builders were building. Some, like us, were complete beginners. Two other families, with whom we were close friends, came into this category. We were largely working side-by-side on our own houses, but within shouting distance. Every so often, we had to drop everything to comfort and encourage whoever was despairing that they could possibly continue. We would share suggestions, demonstrate techniques we had recently learnt and decide what to take back to 'the master'. The master was our independent inspector, Juha. Without his help and guidance, we would certainly not have succeeded. He is in the pictures above, giving Neil tips on how to build a brick wall. 

Thinking about critique, we did this as well. Sometimes it had to be very soft and gentle. Stress levels were such that heavy criticism could have led to abandonment of the project. It became a kind of art form and it worked. Look what we built!!!

Finished house

Activity 1.3

Activity 1.3 - The Assumptions and Challenges of Open Scholarship

Task:  Read the George Veletsianos and Royce Kimmons paper  Assumptions and Challenges of Open Scholarship. In the article the authors set out a number of common assumptions and challenges (see their Table 1).

1. Examine their assumptions and your own, and state the extent to which you agree with the four statements of assumptions.
2. Identify examples from your personal experience that relates to any of these.
3. Post a message to your tutor group forum stating your level of agreement with each statement and sharing experience of these. If you have a blog, or other online space, you could post into this and provide a link in the forum.

I have to confess that I hadn't given a lot of thought to the concept of Open Scholarship until I read this article. I have, on many occasions, sung the praises of Open Source software but mainly because I'm a stingy Yorkshire lass and I don't like paying for anything that can be acquired for free. So first of all, I wanted to be sure what Open Scholarship actually is, and Veletsianos and Kimmons (2012) helpfully spell it out as being about a "collection of emerging practices that espouse openness and sharing," including:

1. Open access and open publishing;
2. Open education, including educational resources and teaching,
3. Networked participation.

So, onto those assumptions... 

1. Open scholarship has a strong ideological basis rooted in an ethical pursuit for democratisation, fundamental human rights, equality and justice.

I partially agree with this but I think in reality, there is a spectrum. At one end open scholarship is motivated by ethical pursuits but at the opposite extreme are those that use technology for business and financial gain. Maybe more people lie at the former end of this spectrum but I think many more are somewhere in the middle. They might have the strong ideology of equality for all and want to enable equal access to resources but the realities of life mean that something needs to generate an income. I think I'm one of those.

I have considered developing (M)OOCs - massive open online courses (but probably not that massive) - for teaching children to read and write using synthetic phonics. The ideological part of me wants all children to have access to high quality resources and teaching, such that literacy is achievable for all, regardless of social, racial or other identity. On the other hand, I need an income. For me to put in the time and effort that is needed, I would have to make this my main work. Thus, it would have to generate a living wage. Does the need for an income take away from my ethical desire for all children to have access to online literacy teaching? I don't think so but I would add this to the challenges raised in the article.

2. Open scholarship emphasises the importance of digital participation for enhanced scholarly outcomes.

I strongly agree. Digital participation, if practised by digitally literate scholars, leads to enhanced outcomes. I would, however, temper this by clarifying that much more needs to be done at all levels of education to improve digital literacy.

In two contrasting contexts, I have witnessed enhanced learning outcomes of young children who have been engaged in a deliberate programme of digital literacy education. In the same way as academic literacy continues to be developed through all levels of the education system, digital literacy and online participation must be.

3. Open scholarship is treated as an emergent scholarly phenomenon that is co-evolutionary with technological advancements in the larger culture.

I mostly agree with the article on this, though since this article was written in 2012, some SNSs (Social Networking Sites) now facilitate hierarchical structures of 'friends'. Maybe this still needs to be developed further. What certainly is true, is that Google and other 'targeted ad' users shape what online users see and are exposed to. SNSs quickly work out whose comments we 'like' or respond to most frequently and then show us more similar content. Maybe this is part of learning the literacy of digital/open scholarship. We must actively seek out opposing theories and engage in discussion, bearing balance in mind.

4. Open scholarship is seen as a practical and effective means for achieving scholarly aims that are socially valuable.

I think one of the biggest issues that stands against practicality and efficiency is the potential for misinformation and/or deliberate deception. Of course, this is nothing new. Charles Darwin, as a young boy, learned how to use his scientific knowledge to deceive his peers.

Again, this takes us back to the need for a structured system of learning about how to assess the validity of online information because what is new, is the use of social media and the web for valid academic scholarship, as opposed to mere general interest.

These were my initial thoughts, having read the article. I haven't even thought about question 3 because none of the tutor group forums opens for another couple of weeks. I'll post links to this when they do. This is probably as far as I can get now until the module officially starts. The rest of this unit starts work on something called Open Studio but that isn't open yet. Hopefully though, I've bought myself a week off for Ofsted. In our management meeting today, it was confirmed that we are expecting them imminently! 

Activities 1.1 & 1.2

Activity 1.1

Somewhat predictably, the first activity is about getting to know what's happening, where, when and who and checking that I've got everything ready to get started. There was a nice video to watch by Chris Pegler, the 'production chair' of the module. She talked about what the course is all about and a bit about the project. I really enjoyed the E854 project, so I'm hopeful that I've chosen a module that will be useful and interesting.

The second part of the activity was to set up my OU profile. I had sort of already done this last year but I hadn't written much. This got me thinking about how much I want people to actually know about me. There are some things that it's pretty much expected that you share online, like the family set-up and what I do for work. Then there's the stuff that could understandably be kept private. I'm sure the theme of privacy will pop up at some point in the course but for now, I've decided it makes sense to share a bit about my health and lifestyle, since it plays a huge part in who I am and how I work. I also changed my profile pic to my current favourite - the one of me in my chair at York Races, earlier this summer.

Activity 1.2

Actually this isn't the activity but there was quite an interesting bit of reading about what it means to engage in reflective writing. I'm generally quite a reflective person but I tend to keep my reflections very private. It's usually when I'm driving around on my own that I reflect on a whole variety of things - work, study, life, the universe... everything. So again, it got me thinking about how much reflection I'm prepared to go public with. I haven't come to any conclusions yet but I condensed the text into a little graphic which I printed out and stuck on the wall in front of where I study.

The actual activity was an online questionnaire about study preferences. There was just under 50 questions, most of which I can't remember. I might have another look at the questions but the way I answer these quizzes tends to vary according to what day it is, what mood I'm in and a whole host of other variables.

Module website open

Yesterday the H818 module website opened. Unfortunately, I was really unwell though and not able to do very much. I had a brief look at it between Lemsips and sleeps and managed to send the Kindle files to both my Paperwhite and my Fire. This meant that I could lie in bed reading it, which promptly sent me back to sleep.

This is one of the reasons I got ahead last module, at the beginning. My disability means that a couple of days with a virus (I think that's what they call unknown bugs) can easily wipe out a week's study. I also know that Ofsted are coming very soon and that will steal another week. I've learned to manage my new life by taking advantage of the good days to bank respite time for the bad ones. For E854, it worked. I wasn't working much in September and October, so I got myself five weeks ahead. I was glad of those when I had a week or two in too much pain to study and a couple of weekends to be with my boys around their exam times.

This time round, I'm working but I know that if I don't get a head start, at some point I'll fall behind. That seems to be acceptable for disabled students but I don't want to start doing that. I see it as my responsibility to manage time, work and study sensibly and save for the future. So I'll be making a start as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, on Facebook, everyone's been posting deskies - like selfies but of your workspace instead of yourself. So here's mine...

EMA Submitted

How do you know when to stop work on a project report? One of the downsides of the OU Masters marking/grading system is that they want to work with letters and descriptors:

A = Excellent

B = Good

C = Clear Pass

D = Bare Pass

E - G = (varying degrees of) Fail

...but Moodle need numbers, so they have given each grade a percentage. The trouble is, you can't get an in-between percentage. You can get 63% or 78% or 93%. So what happens if you think you've done enough to get 63% and you know you could spend a few more hours eking out a few more percent but you doubt that all the work in the world would get you to 78%? Do you keep going, stressing out to get it to be as good as possible, even though the chances of getting to the next grade boundary is less than 7% (bad fail!)? 

E854 was always going to be my most challenging module. That's why I did that first. Am I happy with my progress and learning? Most definitely. Have I been happy with my grades? Mostly. Could I have done better? Maybe, but not a whole grade better. Hence, I've decided to stop and submit. I hope I've done enough to pass. 

So I have 4 days until the H818 module website opens. Is it a bit sad, at my age, to be counting down the days/sleeps?