I think some of the issues in this last part of the course have been some of the most complex. In particular notions of what consitutes freedom, and issues surrounding permissions to reuse OERs commercially. In this final section we have really gone beyond learning to discussing issues.
I'm not convinced by arguments which promote notions of complete freedom of learning resources. I think this is a fallacious notion and I don't think excluding commercial rights limits freedom in any meaningful sense. And I also don't believe that sharing OER with the provision of commercial rights as well is in essence true to the spirit of the initiative.
Another area where I have seen that complex issues have to be unpicked is in the uses to which OERs are put. I don't think OERs are any kind of simple panacea for lack of quality learning resources and anyone who thinks a simple world bank of OERs would be the answer to everything doesn't, I believe, properly understand the relationship between resources and education. Resources do not in themselves make an education, just as bricks do not make a house. The cement lies in the facilitation provided by the educator, the contexualisation, the activities built on these and so forth.
I think the course has given me a lot of food for thought and, as one would expect, this last component has given rise to thought about some of the key implementation issues. I would certainly commit to the spirit of OER in future, but I feel now that I better understand what decisions about licences I would make and why.
I think I have seen one of the weaknesses of mOOCs in the debating of issues around OERs however. The nature of participation in the course has made it difficult for us to have what I would call a lively debate, and I could have done with some real time online discussion to that end. I think the asynchronous nature of mOOCs makes genuine debate difficult. I also feel that the disaggregated and decentralised nature of Wikimedia also contributes to this effect. However, for my own purposes I have definitely learnt on this course.
John, Thanks for your posts throughout the course, you are one of the people I have been following. I agree with your comments about the disaggregated nature of the wiki - whilst it is nice to use a truly open tool, simply being open does not make it a good tool and I have found navigation tricky and am sure I missed a lot of salient points because the contributions are scattered across a range of media (which aren't open!) and so unstructured and distant from the original content. That said, like you I feel I have learnt a lot from this course and glad that in this MOOC I stayed the distance.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for your comments Malcolm. I'm glad I'm not alone in finding Wikimedia tough to use. If God had meant us to use Wikimedi he would have got Google or Amazon to invent it.
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