So what is sharing and openness in education and learning?
Wiley (2014) in his discussion on Moocs, defines openness in education as the transition of ‘open entry’, in the sense of no entry demands from the Open Universities towards ‘open licenses’, as in Open Educational Resources (OER), towards a possible ‘open educational infrastructure’.
Open education can further be explained as encompasses resources, tools and practices that employ a framework of open sharing to improve educational access and effectiveness worldwide.” Yet open education narratives and initiatives have evolved in different contexts, with differing priorities. Thus, open education often means subtly or substantively different things to different people. The qualifier “open” is variously used to describe resources (the artefacts themselves as well as access to and usage of them), learning and teaching practices, institutional practices, the use of educational technologies, and the values underlying educational endeavours. Weller (2014) advises that we are mistaken to try to define or discuss openness as a unified entity; it is more useful as an umbrella term. Watters (2014) cautions that while such multivalence can be a strength, it is also a weakness when the term “becomes so widely applied that it is rendered meaningless.” Conducting and studying research on open education thus requires that one identify the precise interpretation(s) and contexts of openness being explored (De Langen, 2014)
Together with the assistance of my team members in the PBL6, I was fortunate enough to learn more about sharing and openness in education and understood the advantages it has in terms of the benefits of engaging with learners, whether on distance, online or contact.
Openness on the demand side is about the freedom to participate in education. This is about the removal of entrée barriers. These barriers can be formal (admission restrictions), financial (high fees, large additional costs) or otherwise.
Other barriers on openness, however, may be even more important especially in later-in-life education, as the combination between education and work. De Lengen (2014) stated that, open education is different from free education; openness should be about removing barriers for learners, not only on providing resources for teachers.
By the looks of it and the way technology is advancing, sharing and openness looks like the future for teachers and also a way of conducting a business.
References:
Cronin, C. 2017. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. Athabasca University, Athabasca.
De Lengen, F. 2014. What is openness. [Online]https://frankounl.wordpress.com/2014/12/24/what-is-openness-in-open-education/(Accessed: October 2018).
OECD (2014) Education at a Glance, http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/education-at-a-glance-2014_eag-2014-en#page1 accessed December 2014.
Wiley, D., (2014), The Open Education Infrastructure, and Why We Must Build It, July 15, 2014, http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3410, accessed December 18, 2014