Essential question: What do you see as the promise of Open Learning as an emerging technology/pedagogy/philosophy?First lets start with what open learning is. "Open learning is described as learning that occurs in a shared and transparent manner in which others can reuse, revise, remix, and/or redistribute the evidence of learning with others. Open learning encourages collaboration, connections, networked learning, and interdependence between educators and learners" (Graham, LaBonte, Roberts, O'Byrne, 2014). So a huge benefit in open learning is the flexibility it provides. There a not many barriers with this type of learning. This means that students have access to anything they or the teacher can find. It really opens up a whole realm of possibility as far a learning goes. With this flexibility learning becomes more open to everyone. There is such diversity in a population it is hard to meet the needs of all learners. Higher education is starting to see a greater diversity of students than in the past and they must accommodate all. As Fraser & Deane (1997) state, "Institutes of higher education are also facing the challenges of large numbers of learners, each with differing educational, ethnic and cultural backgrounds and hence, foundations upon which the learning experience can be based." Even though this is an older article, I believe this is still true. Open learning allows for more differentiated learning as learners take charge of the learning they encounter. The video below shows a school designed around the open concept. I like how the teacher explains that it forces her to differentiate. Another huge benefit to the surge in open learning is Open Education Resources (OER). OER's "are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license permitting their free use or re-purposing by others" (Graham, LaBonte, Roberts, O'Byrne, 2014). According to the article titled Open Educational Resources (OER): Resource Roundup (2015), "High-quality OER can save teachers significant time and effort on resource development and advance student learning inside and outside the classroom. Further, open sharing of resources has the potential to fuel collaboration, encourage the improvement of available materials, and aid in the dissemination of best practices." So really this is a win for everyone. These resources save time and can be changed many times for the better. I just couldn't resist posting this video, so enjoy! It was in a playlist on the Edutopia article I read.
Graham, L., LaBonte, R., Roberts, V., & O'Byrne, I. (2014). Open Learning in K-12 Online and Blended Learning Environments. Retrieved May 25, 2016, from http://www.academia.edu/10311797
Open Educational Resources (OER): Resource Roundup. (2015, December 4). Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/open-educational-resources-guide
10 Comments
Sarah K
5/26/2016 12:37:06 pm
We both had similar thoughts this week. I agree with you that open education resources are a huge benefit to open learning. The information is available to everyone, they just need the desire to learn. I also agree that open learning provides flexibility for learns as well. I think if more schools started embracing open learning we would see more students extending their learning beyond the school walls and becoming lifelong learners. Nice post this week, I really liked the videos you shared!
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Sara Lucas
5/29/2016 11:13:06 am
It really makes me take a look at the way I teach. I have really started to wonder how I could design my classes so that students would become lifelong learners.
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Genevieve
5/27/2016 04:09:02 pm
I like that you mentioned that "open learning allows for more differentiated learning as learners take charge of the learning they encounter." This is also important for the teacher and how she sets up her classroom environment/materials. The video you included regarding that was a excellent resource.
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Sara Lucas
5/29/2016 11:14:47 am
I definitely think open learning lends itself to differentiation. Students encounter material and then are asked to use it in life. Also open learning is more about the learner choosing what they want to learn.
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5/27/2016 10:11:59 pm
I also think the free resources are great. There is a lot of potential here. Why do you think this hasn't caught on in a bigger way? Is it a management questions. Public schools are a preset, management system that works very efficiently. Maybe open learning needs a better system to disseminate all these resources.
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Sara Lucas
5/29/2016 11:16:38 am
I think a lot of the obstacles come down to policy. What is allowed to be taught for credit? There are so many limitations placed on students and teachers. I think for this to really catch on policy needs to be looked at.
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Aleta May
5/28/2016 03:11:09 pm
Hi Sara,
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Sara Lucas
5/29/2016 11:20:20 am
The second video really made me wonder if maybe our school isn't designed so poorly after all. Granted our building doesn't look as "cool" as that building, but it is very open in the 6-12 grades. I wonder if we as teachers need to change how we organize our classes? This has been a major question in my mind throughout this week. I can't stop thinking about how I can change my classes to better meet the needs of my students.
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Daysha Easter
5/29/2016 07:09:32 pm
I really enjoyed the video about the open learning school in Denmark. That school is so fascinating. I like that it blended learning over the internet with group activities where students were interacting with each other. I think as a student I would need a quieter place to study and focus though.
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6/1/2016 10:10:31 am
I like how you talk about how the OERs can save teachers time in planning and preparing for a lesson. As you may have heard before, "why reinvent the wheel?" Qualified teachers have already taught the lesson you are planning on teaching. I have always believed we should just adapt their materials for use in our classroom.
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