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.
