This period of the ONL-course we have focus
on “Sharing and openness” in education, a very relevant and actual topic, and
has been so for a long time, see for example Sharon, F. and and Deane, E.
(1997). There are many aspects of “openness” in education, for example: Accessibility
for both teachers and students, contributing to society (doing well), open up
for joint development, and procedures how to “explore and exploit”.
In this blog, I have chosen to elaborate on
the technological possibilities of open education. The ONL-course provides an
excellent opportunity to explore this topic, including many examples of different
IT-tools and solutions. When getting to know some of these tools and solutions,
I sometimes ask myself: Why? More precisely, in what way do these facilitate
learning? An answer would be that technologies for open education make it easier
for more people to attend in different forms of educations, which is a way
towards opportunities for learning. Also, some tools (as the padlet for
example, used and discussed in the webinar (topic 2) by Kiruthika Ragupathi and Alastair Creelman,
provides participants to share and discuss ideas, which promote learning (i.e. based
on discussions and reflections). Other tools, for example Prezi (prezi.com) or Mural
(mural.com) facilitate presentations, which then promotes understanding, and
learning.
However,
from my point of view, the main contribution of many IT-tools and solutions is
to share information. The core of education however, as I see it, is learning. And
if open technologies are here to facilitate learning is not obvious to me (even
if indirectly as described previously). Maybe is technologies
for open education foremost about sharing and give information away (see, for
example the Ted talk by David Wiley). A risk though, as I see it, is that increased
openness in education more become a “quantitative approach”, i.e. sharing massive
information, than a “qualitative approach”, promoting knowledge and learning.
Hence, most IT-tools and solution could probably support learning in education,
but need to apply with the specific context in mind (
e.g. type of course, seminar, program,
lecture). In our ONL-group (no 8) we have focused on advantages and
disadvantages of open education, form a wider perspective than discussed in
this blog. Please take a look and share your opinions with us.
References
Fraser, Sharon and Deane, Elizabeth. Why
open learning? [online]. Australian Universities' Review, The, Vol. 40, No. 1,
1997: 25-31.
Wiley, David. Ted talk: Open education and
the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0syrgsH6M
Hi Fredrik, intersting thoughts - I completely agree that the digital world poses the risk of information overload and that the available tools can make things even more complicated. Good guidance is key - and as with reading the relevant literature, taking the time to understand the tools available is important!
SvaraRaderaGreetings from Sophie :)
RaderaHi Sophie, thanks for the comments. You have an interesting blog on information overload, with additional interesting comments formothers. I commented on that too, but it was not saved of some reason. Will make another try :-)
SvaraRaderaDear Fredrik, Thank you for sharing some of your thoughts on open learning and openness. My reading came to a halt when you stated that the main contribution of many IT-tools is to share information. I can see and understand your point and the perspective taken, but I would like to challenge you by sharing an example. I am thinking of the way one of the PBL groups in this iteration came to work with Mural. They used it as their collective worktable, adding bits and pieces to their mutual understanding of the scenario and the topic. They worked synchronously on Mural whilst discussing on Zoom. The space on Mural became their way of externalising and concretize their understanding of where they were going in their understanding and what to accomplish. As I understand the process they went through, they used Mural in order to support their learning process rather than using it for sharing information. Perhaps sharing information is close at hand and therefore IT is often used for those purposes? To collectively work on something demands more effort, and are perhaps not seen in open tools as much as in closed ones? As you see, your post initiated a lot of questions to the one who read it, good job! :) Best wishes, Karin.
SvaraRaderaHi Karin! I intended to provoke a little with the blog, and of course your're right that many "IT-tools" can promote learning. However, I got the impression during the course, and especially webinars, that the presenters/lecturers where more eager to use tools than explaining or reflection how the tools used supported learning. //Fredrik
SvaraRadera