Before we started working on Topic 2: Open Learning – Sharing and Openness, I thought that for me the problem of openness and sharing of resources is associated almost exclusively with technical issues and with copywrite and creative commons knowledge. After two weeks of working on this topic, however, I came to the conclusion that the key issue is whether I am ready to open up? Would I be ready to share my lectures on, for example, Youtube?

The characteristics of each type of teacher turned out to be inspiring: How open am I? – am I traditional, engaging or open teacher? (Nascimbeni, Burgos 2016) It is an attempt to look at yourself and your own activity from the side. It is also the first step to answer the question: is it satisfying what kind of teacher I am, or whether I want to change something and whether I am ready for it.

Thanks to the sources we share in the group while working on the topic, I found information about the flipped classroom model. It turned out that I intuitively organize my distance learning in this way, not knowing that it has a name and is basically a well-established teaching methodology. This model consists in providing students with materials before the class. I use the padlet (where students can immediately comment on the content and add their own), or simply the university’s educational platform. Thanks to this, we have more time during the lecture for sharing insights and for substantive discussion. As a result, the entire process of transferring and assimilating a given material is extended and, at the same time, flexibly matching the students’ individual work rhythm. Or, in other words, as the appeal mentioned in the presentation of our group says: „Encourage students to prepare previously before (!) online teaching session to get the most out of it”.

I liked the two metaphors introduced by the tutors of this topic, Kiruthika Ragupathi and Alastair Creelman, regarding openness and knowledge. The photo of a large green meadow in the park is delightful with its spaciousness and openness, but maybe I really wouldn’t want to be there at dusk. Only under certain conditions it is pleasant and safe to be there. The second metaphor concerns knowledge as a flame which does not disappear when it is divided, on the contrary, it multiplies.

I was also inspired by the statement by David Wiley, who directly says that without openness (sharing, generosity) there is no education and that more open we are, the better education will be (Wiley, 2010). I like his comparison of two great milestones in human development, namely the printing press (very expensive, slow sharing of knowledge) to the Internet (relatively cheap, quick sharing). „Education is on the Edge of its own Reformation,” says Wiley, pointing out that it is time for a change in the approach to education. Even if, I think, it is difficult to indicate any clear moment when it began, as was the case with the Reformation and the October 1517 Luther’s theses nailed to door of the church in Wittenberg.

What is most important in education is not the content, but the context. A good example is the fact that in the week we started working on topic 2, I signed up for a MOOC. I was delighted to discover that the course, the program of which I designed myself, is carried out also there by the staff of a prominent university, using the same key issues that I also emphasized. Unfortunately, for two weeks I looked there maybe once. Why, when it’s fascinating and presented in the best possible way? Is it only due to lack of time and accumulation of other activities? Or maybe because nobody is waiting for me there, does not verify my knowledge, does not ask for reflections. Maybe I’ll be back in a few weeks when I have more time, but at the moment this kind of education doesn’t work for me.

I think Topic 2: Open Learning – Sharing and Openness is very practical in terms of improving the level of ones distance learning.