Weeks starting 15 & 22 October 2018

These weeks were the start of Topic 2 which focused on “openness” – open education, open educational resources, open practices, etc.

I found the resources for this topic extremely valuable – especially the introduction lecture and webinar by Kay Oddone and Alastair Creelman. I was very ignorant of the different terminologies like creative commons, copyright and OER/OEP. Both Alastair and Kay explained the concepts in a very simplified manner, resulting me in now understanding and being able to use these effectively.

Open practices resonate with me when I think about openness in education. It is the culture that we have in the educational institution in which I teach – sharing teaching resources, teaching methodologies and strategies and general teaching practices. It is something that I value as I have experienced it when I was a new educator in this space and I can now see the value that other new educators gain, when first joining our institution. It helps to alleviate anxieties when adjusting to the new environment and new content that has to be taught. It definitely assists in educators not “having to re-invent the wheel” as discussed by Kay Oddone during the introductory lecture. This enhances the sharing aspect of openness.

The transparency aspect of openness also resonates with me but I find that I am more transparent in certain contexts and with certain people. I am very comfortable with sharing my practice and thinking within my immediate institutional environment but I am still a bit fearful when having to share outside my environment. It definitely has to do with experience and comfort. This is my challenge that I have identified during this topic, to work on – I must accept that others may disagree with me and I must be comfortable and accepting of this.

I acknowledge that I am not comfortable to share my resources in an open, digital space as yet. I had not even thought about it before I worked with this topic because I did not think that there was a need to. I do have a slightly different view to this now on which I’m still reflecting and discussing with colleagues.

As David Wiley states “If there is no sharing, there is no learning” and I believe that “if there is no reflecting, there is no learning”. I have learnt so much from this topic but it has also provided me with some unanswered questions – which requires some pondering…