Melissa Cavan @meliceae - Tumblr Blog

Quality, Prestige, and Impact

Esteban Morales et al. wrote an article called “How Faculty Define Quality, Prestige, and Impact of Academic Journals”. The article had some interesting views from faculty that were interviewed and asked for their input when it came to these three terms.

In my opinion I do think that quality is very important and I know that open educational resources are sometimes questioned when quality is involved because they are free and the same gets questioned when it comes to open scholarship. However, I feel like impact can be drastically improved with open scholarship because it can be far reaching when it is open. It seems like more people can be reached and impacted with open context, resources, and scholarship.

https://edtechbooks.org/open_scholar/how_faculty_define_quality/simple

#openscholarship

The Flight of Open Education

I have read David Wiley’s article called “Open Pedagogy: The Importance of Getting it in the Air” a couple times and I love the analogy he makes when he talks about the invention of motorized vehicles and how roads needed to be made so that vehicles didn’t ruin the countryside, but when planes were invented the law said that they needed to be driven on designated roads. This meant people couldn’t fly planes. Clearly the law needed to be adjusted as new inventions came along.

The same holds true for copyright laws. As new technology comes to light the laws should be adjusted, and as open educational resources become available there needs to be specific adjustments for people to have access.

Open educational resources are fairly new, but the benefits already outweigh any negative effects. David Wiley compared it to using an airplane on the road when choosing to use copyright material in the classroom.

https://edtechbooks.org/open_scholar/open_pedagogy_the_im/simple

#openscholarship

Boyer’s Framework

After reading an article by George Veletsianos and Royce Kimmons entitled “Assumptions and Challenges of Open Scholoarship” they reference Boyer’s framework of scholarship. I was not familiar with this framework and so I looked it up and found what Boyer considers the four categories of scholarship.

1. The scholarship of discovery

2. The scholarship of integration

3. The scholarship of application

4. The scholarship of teaching and learning

It was fascinating to read up on these different categories and see that Open Education and Open Scholarship fall under the category of Scholarship of teaching a learning, yet Boyer made these categories in 1990. In fact open scholarship and open education make the use of this category easier because it references critiquing faculties work which is easier when things are open.

Here is a link to the framework:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyer%27s_model_of_scholarship

David’s Ruby on Rails

I read an article by David Heinemeier Hansson called “I Won’t Let You Pay Me For My Open Source” and I found the article quite interesting. But then I decided to look up more information on David and found that he is the creator of an open-source web framework called Ruby on Rails. From there I decided to check out Ruby on Rails, which it was not what I was expecting. So, it looks like it is a place for codes to be contributed and available for anyone to access. The website seemed fairly simple and had a video explaining how to use/access everything. It is not necessarily something that I would use a lot, but I do like when someone tries to make things easier to access for others. I have included a link to the Ruby on Rails website and I would recommend taking a look at it, just to see what it has to offer.

https://rubyonrails.org/

#openscholarship

The Social Media Algorithm Discussion

I recently read an article by Sherri Spelic entitled “Nobody’s Version of Dumb”. In this article she discusses prominent figures in social media claiming that the social media algorithm is making us dumb. Sherri then pushes back claiming that social media is a place of connections and expansion of knowledge.

Of course, everyone is welcome to formulate their own opinion on this matter, but I stand firmly...in the middle. I do not feel that social media is making is dumb, but I do feel that the algorithm can narrow our field of vision. Potentially in an exponential manner because as we view what social media “decides” to show us our field of vision gets smaller and smaller because we are only selecting and see what the algorithm shows us.

However, I also agree with Sherri in the sense that social media keeps us connected in ways that we would’ve never imagined 20 years ago. We are the ones that decide who to connect with, and we have the option to discuss things with like-minded people around the world. This increases our reach and our expansion of knowledge.

Now, the decision is up to you, which side do you agree with, and were you the one who decided to view this blog post, or was it a social media algorithm??

#openscholarship

Finding Balance with Open Education Research

I was disheartened when I found out that Open Education Resource (OER) research is weighted different than other research. This means that faculty could devote a portion of their career to OER research, then when promotion and/or tenure come up the committee counts the OER research different (with less value) than other research.

I was glad to read that the Iowa Open Education Action Team is working on a way around this. They have compiled a matrix that is meant to advocate for equality when it comes to OER research involving tenure, promotion, and faculty evaluations.

I think the initial reason for the discrepancy was lack of knowledge about OER research. Most committees probably didn’t understand what goes into doing OER research, including the rigor involved. OER research is still in its infancy, but there is enough information now that committees can see how OER research has the same accuracy, rigor, and prestige as other research and should be weighted the same.

#openscholarship

Sharing now a days

One of the articles I read this week was “Planning to Share Versus Just Sharing” By Scott Leslie. It was originally a blog post. The idea was that institutions will often start out strong with the idea of open scholarship or open education and they want to share information, but these motivations dwindle after a time. This is due to restrictions on how much to share and also having the task handed from one person to the next until things die down.

The thought that occurred to me while reading this, though, was that now a days everything is shared. Think about social media, YouTube, Wikipedia, there are so many resources out there and almost all of them are shared freely (for the most part). This is one reason the education system should consider catching up with how things are now a days. Open resource, open education and open scholarship are all ways to push institutions in the direction that the rest of the world is already heading.

#openscholarship

Connected People

I read an article this week entitled “Seven Habits of Highly Connected People” By Stephen Downes which listed the following things for being highly connected:

1. Be Reactive

2. Go With the Flow

3. Connection Comes First

4. Share

5. RTFM (Read The Fine Manual)

6. Cooperate

7. Be Yourself

After reading through each one the two things that stuck out to me the most were 1) it is best to share without thinking what you could gain in return, that is not what being connected is about (that is also not what life it about) and 2) the thing that makes online communication work is remembering that on the other end of the lifeless terminal there is a living human being. In the article this last point was brought up to suggest letting others get to know you, but the thing that struck me was that sometimes people forget that there is a person on the other end and we are sometimes more willing to say and do things to someone online than we would to their face, in reality we are doing it to their face though, and we should always remember that.

#openscholarship

University Care

This week for my open scholarship class we read a couple articles, and one was titled “The University Cannot Love You” by Brenna Clarke Gray (2022). There were a couple things that stuck out to me, one was when she discussed her struggles during the pandemic. Having a child at home while trying to work from home and give care to everyone around her (family, co-workers, students she taught). This often meant working into the late hours after her child had gone to bed, and the reason this stuck out to me is that I went through the same thing. I recognize that many people had similar struggles, but it was nice to read about someone having the same type of struggles that I did.

When everything was shifted to online I spent countless hours converting Biology, Zoology, and Physiology labs to an online format. I had to coordinate and communicate with the instructors for those labs with a lot of back and forth to make sure the labs were as well designed as they could be. My kids were doing school work from home, and my daughter often had to use my laptop because it was the only computer with a camera, and a lot of her assignments required a recording of herself. This meant I would have to work long into the night to complete my work. I also continued to go into campus because I manage animals that needed to be cared for on a daily basis, but I no longer had student help. I did have one part-time employee which made it so I didn’t have to go in every day.

The reason I bring this up is because when I read the struggles from Gray’s article, it did make me feel better in that I was not in it alone and that others had similar struggles during the crux of the pandemic. So, hopefully this will in turn help someone else not feel so alone.

#openscholarship

OER and Biology

We have been learning a lot about Open Educational Resources (OER) in my course and this week I decided to do a little more digging into how I can use it in my Biology courses and in my field. Here are a few good open educational sources that I found, most are pertaining to Evolution. Check them out!

https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-evolution-interactive-timeline

http://biologyinmotion.com/index.html

https://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/lizard-evolution-virtual-lab?News=

https://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/animation.html

#intro2opened

The OER Dilemma Open Educational Resources (OER)

#intro2opened

My take on Rivalry

#intro2opened

Create a new presentation and edit with others at the same time. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Slides to edit PowerPoint files. Free from Google.

My brief description of Copyright vs Patent vs Trademark

#intro2opened

Going to the aquarium was fun and the kids had a blast.

#combjelly montereybay

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Melissa Cavan