Sharing is very powerful. In Leigh’s circle, people have sought to develop stuff, posted it as a work in progress to find other people working on similar things just down the road. Bingo: collaboration, synergy, time saving and dare I say it, saving time and feeling better about things. Oh and doing a better job.

What is an OER (Open Educational Resource)?

Open educational resources are educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for anyone to use and under some licenses to re-mix, improve and redistribute. Open educational resources include:

* Learning content: full courses, course materials, content modules, learning objects, collections, and journals.
* Tools: Software to support the creation, delivery, use and improvement of open learning content including searching and organization of content, content and learning management systems, content development tools, and on-line learning communities.
* Implementation resources: Intellectual property licenses to promote open publishing of materials, design-principles, and localization of content.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources

The term comes from a UNESCO conference in 2002.

There is a LOT of work in developing countries at the moment, building synergy between institutions. Resoures currently being used are worked up and improved. or new resources created. Often funded by some group.

Some think this is a new form of colonialism. http://leighblackall.blogspot.com/2009/08/looking-into-sky-open-ed-oh-nine.html

A quick history of Open Education (from one perspective)

Norman Freisen: wikieducator.org/Open_Education:_Precursors

I presented on day one: http://openedconference.org/program/program-schedule-at-a-glance
I’ve summarised some of the material in some posts here and here.

OK, of what value was this conference?

1. Conversations. I learned a lot about processes for dialogue and moving on thinking. I’m convinced of the unconference model. We just don’t get it in New Zealand. We have a great opportunity at the next e-fest conference, with an unconference day, based on open space approaches. But what are we doing? Starting it with a keynote.
2. Personal. This has been quite remarkable. There was the inner core of mainly guys, but they were generally very approachable. (I’m not sure I’d go so far as the post here: …  to come when I find it)
3. University back home: there is a lot I have learned. I think this whole open ed idea is a thing of the heart. You need to have some sense of connections. Once you do this, things become quite different.
   OK then: how to engage in this at an institutional level? or a department level? or a team level?
4. Global. Still thinking.
   I’d like to go to China or Bangladesh.  I have a proposal.
5. Local. New Zealand wide? Christchurch wide? Too much competition.  But it may be possible on a micro level.

That’s it for now.  If you want to meet: Friday 28th, 12.00pm at Okover house.  But check in with me in case the venue changes.

Some emergent conference planning principles:

1. Provide minimal paper, and no conference bag.
2. Minimal paper=conference programme in pocket size form.
3. Provide wireless.
4. Have a comprehensive website with things you need to know.
5. Don’t provide food. Just park the conference near a ton of nice places to eat.
6. Give 90 minutes for lunch.
7. Have 15 minute breaks between all sessions. (45 minute sessions @OpenEd)
8. One result is that conference organisers can potter round in a relaxed fashion and talk or catch up with people.
9. Have fresh coffee and cold drinks on tap.
10. Have an unconference stream.

It is the first time I have BEEN at the conference with microblogging.

Twitter feed has been fun. So: you can ask a question about where to go, what’s best, what’s happening – as well as comment on what’s happening, what’s significant.  There is probably more, this is just so I don’t forget.

Afterthoughts

Used the wrong title for my session: it’s really all about the power of micronetworks.  Maybe the key factor in the way ahead.  The benefits to the participants that are benefits of the heart, the morale.  As well as efficiency and focus.  And quality.  And learning.

I’ve rarely felt quite so nervous before in a presentation. First, I was way out of my comfort zone.  My expertise in OER and is very embryonic, my track record is small and my approach chaotic.  PLUS:  Microblogging.  I could see at any given time 5 or 6 typing.  Including Stephen Downes. There were 400 new tweets in 45 minutes:

A few of these were about my session, from the audience.

Can entities like ccLearn OpenEd REALLY provide the technology for the communities to support? Will it be easy enough?  They have some small communities.  Will the system work?

One question was about the micro-network vs the organisation.

Stephen Downes tweeted: Downes #opened09 – role of micronetworks (community of communities) in OER… vs. large nets, broadcasts… small nets propagate, large nets grow

Jon Mott: jonmott @Downes: micronetworks are consistent with Shirky’s discussion of barriers to organization & coordination.

kiyanwang RT @boonebgorges Chirnside: The prospect of further audience heightens sensitivity to the quality of one’s own work #opened09

jonmott Chirnside: Little, informal networks for sharing & making personal recs=effective OER adoption strategy. #opened09

kiyanwang RT @boonebgorges Chirnside: Resistance to releasing teaching resources result of disproportionate attention on research v teaching #opened09

As usual, I learned more anyone I suspect, what with the thinking, the writing, the paring down to 17 minutes.  My methodology is a little chaotic, pragmatic and local.  How much do I also need to pay attention to the bigger issues of the Global, the International, the BIG repositories.  I was please to follow Arash.

Here is my handout/summary. Summary Notes (Word format)

An Approach to the Problems of Personalisation and Context Dependency in Open Educational Resources

We had some initial conversations: how are we going to move ahead in our programme, that developed into a set of interview questions.  Some roadblocks were clear. Two interesting problems emerged from those keen to share more: resources that were less useful because they were highly personalised and contextualised.

Some things were actually working. Even in a very small scale way.  There were identifiable pockets of success, and small leaps forward.  What were some of the features that contributed?  A few comments.

1. The power of the tiny network

In this tiny informal study, most of the success occurred in small groups.  Not in the larger scale.  No doublt there are some good reasons for this: scalability, networks of relationships becoming more complex, trust, synergy etc.

There is the reports from quite a large scale project where small informal networks seemed to work better than the big mother ship, described in the first post in this series.

Another story: a lecturer is teaching in a subject and course unique to the University. In other words, there are no others doing this. This lecturer has established a personal network with two other staff, one each at two other universities. Even in the initial stages it is showing good promise. The proposal is to put material online, which is sharable.

2. The power of a further audience of one

This was an observation that emerged several times quite spontaneously from those interviewed.  It seems that at the development stage, writing with even one other person/context in mind can see the product becoming more generic and more reusable, more transferrable.

It may even become easier to do the writing/creating with this added element.  Maybe as one person suggested it helps “provide focus”.  “I’m learning to make my work more generic, less time bound and less limited to use in just one course/level.”

3. The power of feedback

Quite obvious really, and may seem like a no-brainer.  However some teachers see asking for feedback as being an imposition.  My view is that they can perceive their work as being siloed.

It was unclear of the exact parameters and features of this attitude, to suggest more detail would require some more unpicking of the themes. There are a wide range of factors involved: security and confidence of the lecturers, the lack of competition for jobs, and interestingly, just plain personal organisation.

Sharing ideas and outlines with others, the reports say, has been hugely beneficial. This may be stating an obvious fact but such sharing has been proved to be not very common, or easy for some.

I revisited a few of my initial contacts to ask about this. They report pressures of time, lecturers preparing material quite late, often a day before it’s due to be used in class.  Also a feeling of not wanting to worry someone else who was also very busy.

As a corollary there was mention of the desirability of tweaking resources soon shortly after an initial use as being desirable but it rarely happens in practice.  There is a little more in the handout.

We are being restructured again, 366 days from the last time, and really only part of the way along the curve of our last restructure. In the last month I’ve oscillated from consiracy theory to “there is no master plan”.

Welcome to the Student Learning Centre

I formally moved over to the UCTL on 5th December 2006. On 6th December 2007 we will find out a new structure for UCTL with the merger of 15 staff from the Student Learning Centre here. This follows a month of work by a guest consultant, Mark McGinn of PeopleFit. I’ve found it a bit hard having no forum to talk over ideas and thoughts around the integration process. This has meant a lot of “Business as Usual” has been put on the back burner. Things like planning for next year, and finishing off plans from this year.

Stephen Covey (in an oft quoted statement, I cannot find out which of his books it has come from) said (I think)

People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value

I have wondered about my core. In some respects I have had to face this question again this year. New location, new role, new team. Just exactly who am I?

ASDUNZ Conference

I went to an ASDUNZ UNconference last year at Canterbury (ASDUNZ – the Association of Staff Developers of New Zealand). I stayed as long as I actually felt welcomed. (40 minutes). At that stage I was figuring out things. Could I wear the hat of “Staff Developer”? I was actually in the “Flexible Learning Group” at UCTL, not the other “Academic Development Group”.

I was able to go to Auckland this year for the ASDUNZ conference. It was great. I’ll post more on it soon, but suffice to say I felt quite different this year: “Yes, I can wear the Staff Developer hat”. Every discipline of course has their academic journal.

The International Journal for Academic Development. Most of the articles (3/4) in the latest edition have a touch of angst. Who are we? What exactly is our role? What exactly do we contribute? This was part of the tone of the conference. I felt right at home. But they also knew about Appreciative Inquiry: and there was some marvellous postive comment and forward looking interaction.

And so onwards.

I am off to China next week, primarily for a visit to my sister who has been there for 10 years, but also to present a two day Physics Education workshop at Chuxiong Normal University. Back to my roots really: I have not done a physics workshop or talk or presentation or even talked about Newton’s Law for five years, when I did the 40 hour teaching study at the old College of Education.
It will be fun.

Adapted from the BloggerCon IV Format by David Winer.

This will be an unusual conference. We generally won’t have speakers, panels or an audience.  We will have discussions and sessions, and each session will have a discussion leader.

The discussion leader
Think of the discussion leader as a reporter who is creating a story with quotes from the people in the room. So, instead of having a panel and an audience we just have contributors.  We feel this more accurately reflects what’s going on. It’s not uncommon for the audience at a conference to have more expertise collectively than the people who are speaking.

The discussion leader is also the editor, so if he or she feels that a point has been made they must move on to the next point quickly. No droning, no filibusters, no repeating an idea over and over.

The discussion leader can also call on people.

Think of it as a weblog
Think of the conference as if it were a weblog. At the beginning of each session, the leader talks between five and fifteen minutes. He or she will introduce the idea and some of the people in the room.

Then he or she will facilitate the discussion among all the contributors in the room, inviting others to comment and asking questions of others. It is hoped that everyone who would like to contribute to the discussion will be able to do so in the allotted time.

We have a limited amount of time, and a group of participants whose time is valuable. The leader’s job is to make sure the show stays interesting, even captivating. If it gets boring people will leave the
room and schmooze, or read their email, or whatever. So the leader’s job is to keep it moving. Sometimes this may mean cutting people off.

Looks really cool.

Leave Saturday 19th May, two days to recover in Setúbal, then some work, then return.

1. THEKA, http://www.theka.org/ – http://www.gulbenkian.pt/portal/index.html – Working with some librarians in a leadership project. We are in the middle of a two week ramp up now.

2. Then one day with an EC project on a small reference/evaluation panel.
In the middle, two days of dialogue, just like Florence. Our themes as they are developing:

1. Higher Education/E-learning and CoPs – Pedagogical practice development for f2f lecturers (especially in Engineering) – Is CoP in HE environment an oxymoron? Are lecturers too entrenched in a research driven agenda for this to even matter for them? Why are they able to see CoP’s function in their areas of reasearch (some times, in some areas) but fail to see this for their students or for their teaching lives? Given this can be a difficult and often resistant environment, how do we help learning communities flourish?
2. ELearning/Education/Communities of Practice
3. Technology Stewardship
4. Monitoring and Evaluation in CoPs
5. The Relationship Between Communities and Networks
6. Web 2 platforms; concepts of ‘anytime, anywhere’ learning; pervasive (all round you) computing etc
7. Graphic Facilitation
8. Managing reification for learning
9. Virtual Worlds and Communities of Practice
10. Community development platforms

How we do it: “The essence of our gatherings is conversations rather than presentations. We are flexible and we can change the subject, since our conversations always return to some basic questions about learning, meaning, identity, leadership, and social processes. We mix whole group and break out sessions. As much of our meeting space is out on the terrace, we will work with the weather – whatever it is!”

Why do I like this?  Everyone should have a dose every so often in knowledge creation, open sharing and dialogue, even if just a small antidote to the dispersal model in the average conference. It’s refreshing and challenging.
We are online at the moment in Moodle, with some really odd and curious translations by Google.

He shared a neat new diagram developed with Nancy White and John Smith, addressing the tensions inherent in community life (for example the individual vs the group), and how different technologies can assist in managing the tension. It is a work in progress, but it has got great potential to open windows and shed some light – as well as helping define the appropriate portfolios of e-tools for a given group.

I totally omitted the slide show on community. Put in some more slides on blogs. But it was still too much, and we spent most time discussing the role of blogs as a new medium. Dialogue on blogs continued at most breaks over the next two days.