Image by Mark Mags from Pixabay
Topic 2 proved to be an interesting one for me – I enjoyed being able to share areas where I had some experience, and it was wonderful to learn from my PBL group members about areas of expertise and experience they had. I was able to explore even further the idea of Open Learning, MOOCs and open and closed tools.
I have participated in online courses before, but ONL201 is the first truly interactive one, where I have gained so much enjoyment from working with others. I think the communication through Zoom, WhatsApp, and Mural boards has proven particularly helpful.
In my personal experience, openness and sharing of resources has proven to be of great benefit to me – it has opened up the world in regards to what I have had the opportunity to experience. I have been able to grow in my professional practice and learn from others that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do before. With the introductory video from Kiru and Alexander, it posed many questions for me about Open Learning. Alistair (2020) said something very similar to “when something is free, you are the product”, and I see this reflected in the current time we find ourselves where many companies are offering their educational tools for free, but at what cost? I sometimes feel, cynically, that they may have an ulterior motive.
Kay Oddone’s blog post (2016) clarified my thoughts and put into words some of the concepts I had in my head around Professional Learning Networks, Environments and Open Learning. I particularly liked her definition of the Personal Learning Environment – for me this is such a movable feast as there are a lot of options out there. ONL201 has introduced me to even more possibilities – Padlet, Mural and FlipGrid just to name a few. Our PBL group used Flipgrid very effectively to discuss our scenario and present our findings, you can see our presentation Open Learning – Sharing & openness here.
In the high school context, I teach my students about Finding and Using Images and Music. I was able to discuss with my PBL group what this looked like and how we taught students about Creative Commons. In a wider context, we confront larger issues about openness and what this means for copyright and sharing of resources.
In previous blog posts, I spoke about my experience as teacher where technology has been integrated into education for most of my working life. I feel that technology is an integral part of opening up the world of learning to all, and the positive elements of this (sometimes) outweigh the negatives.
I am interested about learning more about how open learning can make education more equitable and accessible for all, and how technology can help facilitate this.
References
Christopher Brennan Library 2019, Finding & Using Images & Music, viewed 1 April 2020, < http://library.riverview.nsw.edu.au/usingimages >
Mags, M 2016, ‘Untitled’, viewed 8 April 2020, <https://pixabay.com/illustrations/science-technology-education-1182713/>
Oddone, K 2016, ‘PLE or PLN or LMS or OLN?’, LINKING LEARNING the Professional Portfolio of Kay Oddone, Blog, viewed 8 April 2020, < http://www.linkinglearning.com.au/ple-or-pln-or-lm s-or-oln/ >
Ragupathi, K & Creelman, A 2020, ONL201 Topic 2 introduction. Open education, 13 March, viewed 29 March 2020, < https://play.lnu.se/media/t/0_sg20f0kk >
