What does ‘open’ mean in the context of education? Many have shared their opinions on what they think ‘open’ represents, but that’s not really the point, is it? I mean, sharing our views may contribute to the discussion, it may open some eyes and maybe even change a few perspectives, but it hasn’t led us to the answer yet. Does that mean no one really knows the answer? Merrily skipping a little further down this stream of thought, I wonder, if no one really has the answer, there’s no reason for me not to share my point of view too. What’s the worst that could happen – I look silly, unaware, perhaps a touch confused? However I look, everyone else is varying shades of the same color, so here’s me jumping into the debate.

To this humble student of life, ‘open’ education means accessible education. If it weren’t for openness, I wouldn’t be picking up my masters degree in a few weeks, I wouldn’t be singing the potential benefits of technology to whomever will listen, and I most certainly wouldn’t have had the pleasure of collaborating with brilliant minds from all over the world, all interested in pursuing their passion to explore how technology can impact the way they learn and teach.

‘Open’ doesn’t necessarily mean free, but it definitely means affordable – at least to the consumer. Case in point: I am still paying off my undergraduate loans, but I closed the account that funded my masters quite a few months ago. ‘Open’ may not necessarily represent the cheapest option for the institution, but once all that front-end heavy investment has been made, it most certainly has the potential to represent the most efficient, scalable and transferable option. Perhaps if I had waited just a few years, I could have accessed my graduate course materials for free on iTunes U where the OU ranks in the top 5 most downloaded sources in this fruity academic database. That wouldn’t make me eligible to receive my coveted competitive ammunition (a.k.a. my degree certificate), but that doesn’t mean I still wouldn’t be smarter for it.

To technologists, ‘open’ has a lot to do with trying to figure out how to avoid reinventing the wheel. For legal teams, it’s predominantly about how to navigate the slippery slopes of copyright laws. To academics…well, that one is a bit difficult for me to answer. You see, I’ve spent many years working on the ‘other side’ of the academic profession. I was a part of university administration, which essentially means that I was not ‘one of them’. However, I did have the privilege of working with many of ‘them’ (to at least attempt) to expand their awareness of what educational technology could mean to them and to broaden their understanding of ways in which ed tech could be incorporated into their worlds if they decided to give it a chance. So you see, all I can do is tell you how I perceive the way academics interpret ‘open’.

There is one school of thought that shuns the concept of digitizing any intellectual materials that it undoubtedly took these brilliant minds centuries to cultivate. These ‘inner two-year-olds’ barely feel comfortable releasing 8th generation photocopies of PowerPoint presentations to their well-paying students (6 per page so as to ensure maximum note-taking real estate). The idea of adapting their materials to fit an electronic learning environment suitable to enrich the lives of an exponentially larger group of eager beavers is simply out of the question. Why? Good question.

The other school of thought, the one with which I had much more of a pleasure working, accepts the notion that perhaps there may be some benefit to learning new ways of communicating. They concede that there may in fact be some truth that changing the way we communicate might better enable the current generation of teachers to convey information to their audiences in inspirational ways. As you can see, the title of ‘information sharer’ fits this Generation 2.0 of teacher much better than the ‘sages on dusty stages’ that precede them. Think of it like an iPhone versus a telegram – both get a message across, but the quality of the message, the way we go about receiving it and how we choose to interact with it are very different. Students may be sitting in lecture halls, texting and doing their very best to provide evidence of just how many twits there are in the crowd, but in this unfortunately common act of ignorance, they’re also sending a very valuable albeit crudely packaged message to their leaders and guides: we use technology to get our messages across, why aren’t you?

I realize I’m generalizing, but at this stage of the debate about openness, it’s difficult to deny that we haven’t yet come close to finding a middle ground. But why look at technology through bitter colored glasses smeared with resistance? After all, technology is as much a vehicle of information transfer as paper is. The difference is that whereas paper can be viewed as the byproduct of massacred forests, the Internet (for to use the term technology would be much too gnarly a maze to navigate in the context of this discussion) could just as easily be seen as a voracious devourer of our privacy. The production of paper is contaminating our planet. The Internet is home to evil predators. Producing paper pollutes our water supplies. Surfing the electronic waves of the Internet is dangerous because ‘they’re watching you’.

Is it at all clear how ridiculous the argument against anything can become whenever we refuse to bend our perceptions just enough to see things a little differently? Paper has also been an invaluable tool facilitating communication through generations. Some of the most important decisions made on the planet have been recorded on paper. Art, history and love have been created on paper. As for the Internet, it has provided access to medical care in some of the most remote places on this planet, given the opportunity for children to learn in areas where traditional schools don’t exist, and facilitated the cultivation of countless communities of like-minded individuals seeking ways to connect and contribute value to society.

And what about teachers teaching teachers? Isn’t it possible that there are new instructors out there, just entering into the world of knowledge sharing, who would greatly appreciate a benchmark approach to course development? Wouldn’t having access to some of the most renown higher education institutions’ courses (Yale and MIT come to mind) have the potential to add value to the educational offerings provided by any countries at all interested and able to access and make subsequent use of the information, regardless of whether it’s to inject new lifeblood into university, high school or even elementary school curricula?

All I’m saying is…try being open. The middle ground isn’t that far away.

Once upon a time, there was a photographer who traveled the globe, snapping stills of the magic that takes place in the backdrop of our busy lives. She had a son who she brought with her to more countries than I can name off the top of my head. In the process, she gave him the opportunity to learn from a world of no borders, a world of multi-cultures, a place where the differences represent the similarities and where nature organically translates the everyday into things for which to be truly grateful.

When it came time to pick a school where her son could continue his education in a more formal setting, she realized that formality came with limitation. The physical walls that so often compose a classroom represented restrictions and limitations that were not present in the global classes her son had the privileged of attending thus far. So…the wheels started turning…and THINK Global School began.

The world’s first global high school. 12 trimesters in 12 countries. Technology that connects students with teachers with mentors with the world. It’s an honor and a privilege to be part of a movement that will empower the incredibly fortunate young minds who will embark upon a path of education that truly represents the global mind to which we all contribute each and every time we click our mouse, google a word, post a blog entry, or even watch a video. THINK Global School is the best example I’ve seen of expanding the concept of education to create a new school of limitless possibility.

Have a look for yourself, and see what you think.

When I graduated from my first degree, I didn’t know that the job I have today even existed. What does that mean about what I chose to study? If the jobs that today’s students will have tomorrow don’t exist yet, how does a student know how to choose the right course of study? What subjects will be relevant to their profession? What tools are going to help them in the workplace after they graduate?

A business degree was a marketable degree so that’s why I chose to study it, but the closer I got to the fourth and final year of the degree, the further I found myself diverging away from the values and beliefs representative of that community. Perhaps it was a lesson I had to learn for myself, but it made me wonder how my first university experience could have been different if my passion for what I was studying grew with each new thing I learned rather than dissolved into the background of a down turning economy.

I’m not trying to imply that we need a mechanism that would enable prospective students to see the future before they have to pick their course of study, but I am wondering whether it’s realistic or even practical to expect a higher education institution to be able to equip students with the skills and tools they need to not only function but also flourish once they get into the real world.

I’m afraid it comes back down to the teachers once again. If the teacher’s talking to the board, and the student is plugged into the technology, where’s the connection?

Where's the connection?

Is learning a series of transactions that combine to pave an evolutionary road of progress? If so, how is the road paved? What materials are used? Is learning the process of aligning bricks over a defined area or pouring gravel in a general direction? Is the purpose of learning to fill in all the holes, or just create enough contact between the solid points to be able to make the next step? Or perhaps, does all of this depend on what we are learning? Is the metaphor of the acquisition of knowledge more applicable to the study of mathematics then it is to the study of educational technology, for example?

This week, one of the foci of my formal studies is to reflect upon Sfard’s (1998) concept of “the metaphor of learning as acquisition and the metaphor of learning as participation” in an attempt to gain a better grasp of what the intangible process of ‘learning’ means to me. I think that these two metaphors were able to encompass the breadth of the learning experience up until a few years ago, or maybe even up to a decade ago in some cases, but the nature of our information ecology has morphed into something so complex, so intricate and approaching an unanticipated level of artificial intelligence that makes ‘learning as acquisition’ a thing of the past.

Perhaps learning as participation mixed with learning as connection is a more accurate representation of the modern-day version of learning. Although I sense that the definition of ‘participation’ must also be re-evaluated because what was engagement ten years ago has ballooned into so much more now. Affordances change the nature of everything they impact. In our case, technology has changed learning far beyond just making it more accessible. It’s opened up a great big cupboard of neatly aligned cans of worms.

When information didn’t sprout as dynamically or as quickly as it does today, it was easier to justify the metaphor of learning as acquisition. We had access to a manageable amount of information and communities could readily interact/engage with that information because it didn’t change very quickly. We talked about skills like shorthand and speed reading that helped us keep up with new information. Today, we talk about power browsing strategies and the transmission of information via video link and other forms of rich media and that just brings a whole new meaning to the truth that a picture tells a thousand words.

Why don’t I try to use a picture to describe what I mean? Below is a visual representation of Information Streams – the ways in which we connect to information in the current age. If the image below doesn’t load, just go to this link.

(Note:
You can click and drag the image to move it around.
Clicking on the magnifying glasses on the bottom left of the mind map screen enables you to zoom in and out making the font bigger or smaller.
Clicking on the plus signs next to the nodes will expand the information streams.)

I purposefully included all of these streams into one visual burp because it more closely reflects our current reality then if I were to separate each flow. For example, who can relate to this image:

I open my laptop in the morning and Firefox is still active from the day before. I have 12 tabs open in 5 windows (so that my ideas are groups in clusters). I have 4 TextEdit files open with ideas jotted down but not yet ready for publishing. I have two Scrivener files open in which I’m organising my thoughts and preparing answers to this week’s course activities. I also have a Finder window open (MAC user here) in the background that reminds me that I have to clean up some files and expand my file structure to accommodate a couple new projects on which I’m working. After a couple sips of coffee and a practiced attempt at ignoring all the information gushing out at me from my screen, I open Thunderbird to check my mail (for some reason I sleep better knowing I quit my email client before going to bed). I always have my volume set low so that when the alarm notifies me that I have new mail, I don’t get more freaked out than I normally do! After Thunderbird checks my three email accounts, it starts working on all my RSS feeds. I am comforted when I see an email from Continental Airlines or Bank of America because I know that all I have to do is click delete. If I’m brave, I’ll take a look at a new blog entry but that usually results in five or 6 more clicks and usually a new item on my TO DO List ( as per the visual above), so I have to be prepared to spend some time on that tangent if I want to follow it through.

So, if that’s what a typical day looks like for me, I don’t see how learning can be about acquisition anymore. Our mental pockets aren’t deep enough to acquire information at the rate that it becomes available. Today…I think…it’s more about…connecting the dots…

If you’ve read through my information streams, you will probably have noticed that none of them ‘end’. They all trickle off into the unknown. Whether I return to those specific streams to continue my research or I pick up somewhere else and new research leads me back to them is to be determined as I continue exploring.

Adding your information stream

Now, I invite all of you – veteran Power Browsers and Newbies alike – to help paint a more detailed picture of what information streams look like in our current reality. Think about a recent bit of research you just did, or some casual browsing you did on your lunch break, or even the stream that brought you to this blog entry. Then, add it to this mind map.

To add your information stream: Click on the mindmeister logo on the bottom right of the mind map. This will open a new window bringing you to the editable version of the map. Click on ‘Edit’ found on the bottom left of the new window to begin adding your stream. Once you’re done, you can just close the window (your changes are automatically saved).

—
Sfard, A. (1998) ‘On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one’, Educational Researcher, vol.27, no.2, pp.4–13.

I’m not sure how much longer I’ll have access to my Sprouts, and as a result, I’m not sure how much longer the Sprouts that I’ve published on this blog will be accessible. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough resources to recreate all of my Sprouts in alternative formats, but there is one in particular that I would like transfer here into this post so that the information can continue to help those interested. This way, we can also build upon it as a community and let it grow.

On 02 Jan 2009, I published a collection of links to various reusable learning object repositories that provide access to free electronic learning tools covering a broad scope of disciplines. I’ve transferred them below (listed in alphabetical order) in case that Sprout becomes inaccessible in the near future.

I wholeheartedly encourage teachers, tutors, teaching assistants, instructional designers, learning technologists, librarians, students (both formal and informal) and anyone else who’s interested to take a look at what’s out there. These are resources for all levels of learning (K-12 through to higher and continuing education) and the list even includes some resources for the mobile learner. They can help you create blended/e-learning lesson plans, stimulate discussion among peers about how to begin integrating technology into your curricula and support your students in the development of connected learning strategies. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are accessible resources out there, produced by people with subject expertise and a genuine intention to share information with the world. Take advantage!

Please note, all links below will open in new windows/tabs.

Let’s talk Sni.ps! Copying and pasting has become on the web what chewing and swallowing is at mealtime (or snack time or nibbles time or whatever else you call it to make yourself feel better ) The thing is, now that we’ve learned how to transfer copied content to other places, it’s time to start doing a better job of acknowledging our sources. Giving credit where credit is due is one thing, not only because it’s nice for an author to feel appreciated, but also because the audience may want to explore further content by the same author, and without accreditation or proper acknowledgment, the connection is lost.

And we’re all about the global connection. Whether we want to be or not, the inter connectivity of all things in all (connected) places in this world impacts all of us, from students doing real-time group projects with classmates scattered across the globe, or grandmothers being sent a stack of photos from grandchildren who simply uploaded files onto a site and had the middleman print, snip and ship then to the desired location. It’s all about the connection.

So, how do we ensure that we keep that connection going? Well, we have to take it a step further – copy and paste turns into sni.p and paste. And what does sni.p mean? It means copy + gather source information + collect some programming code that tells the computer accessing your sni.p how to connect to its source.

What I’ll do now is use sni.ps to copy an excerpt below of the blog entry I read that introduced me to sni.ps:

Sni.ps Attribution Tool at EdTechPost

The premise is simple enough – the service provides a bookmarklet that, when clicked, creates an overlay of whatever page you were looking at. This overlay allows you to then select content on that page, for which it generates ‘embed code’ to paste on your own site. Doing so will reproduce the content along with an annotated attribution link back to the original source.

www.edtechpost.ca

It’s awesome (and it’s free), but don’t just take my word for it, or anyone else’s word for it. Try it out yourself.

Personally, I think I’ll be making quite a bit of use out of it when it comes to sharing videos, flash content, and any other sort of rich media that I can see value in sharing. What about you?

Now, since you’re reading a blog about all things virtually scholastic, let’s spend a moment reflecting on how this tool impacts educational technology? Well, if you still insist that your students submit their assignments in hardcopy only, then I suppose it doesn’t affect you a bit. If, on the other hand, you provide your students with the facilities and the processes to submit and share work electronically, then you’ve just discovered a great way for them to learn more about the importance of copyright acknowledgment in a web 2.0+ world.

Connectedness also means networked which blends into online social behaviors which impact how students learn which…should probably also impact how you teach…shouldn’t it?