#h818

[chavboy]

The World has changed

Please join me at the H818 conference at 10am on Thursday 9th February.

Please join us at http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2994

[chavboy]

Openness can be a sordid affair

Through an #H818 activity I was reminded of an alarming number of pre-recorded telephone calls I have received over the last few months. I must be one lucky guy, as the amount of Ipads I have won over the last few months is phenomenal. I'm always winning them, admittedly, some may not have been Ipads as I tend to hang up on congr, but I know they will be equally as enticing prizes as the aforementioned Ipad. It isn't the phonecall itself that is alarming, but the frequency of the calls and the wonder from where it came from. I consider myself quite cynical when it comes to filling out personal information online, or anywhere for that matter, I don't just put my personal info anywhere, and I constantly nag my children about this kind of behaviour as well, I'm sure you can imagine this makes me quite popular at times indoors. So this leads me to think that these rogue data must surely come from a trusted source, a trusted party has been selling my personal information, who could it be, then it occurred to me to look at my facebook profile. Damn it I'm not as careful as I thought I was.

I genuinely didn't know where I was going with this but as I was writing I did suddenly think, I wonder if at some point I had put my phone number on my facebook profile, and there it was, when I looked (it isn't anymore). So this illustrates that, at least I think so, we may not be as careful online as we think we are. Certainly in my case I'm sure I carelessly put information out there without thinking. Obviously a lot of the information we put out is useful, for example, by way of cookies as it can give us a more tailored experience, but what do we have to give up to get this convenience. This is a massive debate and some are going to be more willing than others to give up more of their personal information. I think it is about striking that balance, as openness is a good thing in the “right” hands, but in the “wrong” hands it can invade privacy.

Openness eh, it can be a sordid affair

[chavboy]

Stance on Openness

Recently I was asked to consider my stance on openness, this was part of #H818. It is not really something I had considered before, so after a little thought (not too much) here are my reactions to the statements.

I will only publish in open access journals.Whilst I understand the sentiment, I don't think it is neccessarily helpful to limit yourself in this way, you could actually argue that this action in itself flies in the face of open access by only publishing in a set area. I think in order to make changes you have to stay in touch with the thing you are trying to change. I think there are other and better ways of making sure your material is also in the open access arena. I will share all learning material that I create and own openly onlineFor me, this is black and white and yes I believe learning material should be shared openly, as for me with the tools we have at our disposal we should be working towards a situation where duplication of work is not necessary and in the spirit of open source work can be used, reused and changed to suit the individual need at that particular time.  I maintain an online social media identity as a core part of my professional identityThis statement makes less sense to me. Over the years I've used social media and it has formed part of my professional identity over that time but as a core part, I don't think so. I would say that when it comes to my social media identity then various aspects of me are incorporated. I take a pragmatic approach and release some resources openly if it’s not too much extra work.I disagree with this statement, and would go further to assert that it makes little sense, to me anyway. I can not agree that this type of approach could in anyway be pragmatic. I have concerns about intellectual property and releasing my content openly.I have no such concerns and am a great believer in open content. It stands to reason that  we can gain a whole lot more by sharing content and at the same time reduce duplication. As the pool of open content increases then the gains will also grow exponentially. I will share all material that I create and own openly online, as soon as I create it.Why the immediacy? It also depends what material we are talking about of course, you may create material that is just your friends or family, there needn't be a need to publish absolutely everything that you create and certainly not the instant you create it.

[chavboy]

Assumptions and Challenges of Open Scholarship

Assumption 1Ideals of Democratisation, Human Rights, Equality, and JusticeVeletsianos and Kimmons (2012) set out a number of assumptions around open scholarship. Assumption 1 being democratisation, human rights, justice and equality. They pose the question as to whether these are essential components of open scholarship or merely just incidental to those early adopters pioneering the field. This is no straight question to answer as you would need to know the journey that open scholarship is going to take. In order to just publish an item in an open manner for anyone to use then these attributes are not necessary, the pieces will be sitting on a server until deleted. You may argue that there will be certain democratisation as without views it will not be ranked by google or whoever and therefore will not get the coverage it might, but it will still be sitting there, and can be viewed and is therefore open. We are not just talking about a few papers existing on a server though, that can be viewed as there is no closed licence attached to it, we are talking about something much bigger which indeed needs these components to operate or at least certain aspects of open scholarship will require certain components to operate. Weller (2012) talks about the problems surrounding peer review with regards to publishers and accreditation with regards to universities, for this to take place in an open system then some or even all of these components are necessary for such a system to be taken seriously. Of course the nuts and bolts of how this might happen is a much bigger topic. My personal view would be that these components are not necessarily prerequisite of open scholarship, but should be in order to realise its potential. Veletsianos and Kimmons (2012) go on to talk about MOOCs which is a very exciting aspect of open scholarship, they say that certain MOOCs do not resemble each other which is not at all surprising as there is no narrow definition of what constitutes an MOOC and I would say again for the MOOCs to realise their full potential then these ideals will need to be embraced. Assumption 2 Emphases on Digital Participation for Enhanced OutcomesVeletsianos and Kimmons (2012) cite Jenkins et al (2006) in what they call the participation gap, this is the unequal access to technology and/or digital literacies. Even just 10 years ago this would have been a bigger problem than it is now, this is not to say that this is not an issue, but will be considerably less. There does need to be an emphasis on digital participation to enhance outcomes, but the skills needed for this are quite basic and can be learnt very easy for the average scholar/student, especially considering the amount of people in possession of the skills needed. Assumption 3 Co-evolutionary relationship between technology and cultureVeletsianos and Kimmons (2012) argue that although social media affords opportunity for connectedness and knowledge sharing, but that we must remain vigilant as there is a tendency to follow like minded people and reinforce existing structures. This is no different though than befriending like minded people in everyday life, although this is amplified online as the opportunities in regards to numbers is greater. This can be the case on Twitter for example, where one follows feeds they like and this can be a self confirming feedback loop, and as such becomes a diluted, bland way of consuming content. This is really just a matter of self awareness and can be mitigated by making sure a good proportion of the feeds are from sources you don't necessarily agree with.Veletsianos and Kimmons (2012) go on to talk about a service like Google gives a great deal of access to a vast array of information, but that information may be based on the person who is searching's opinion, this is more or less the same problem as can arise from the use of social media. Again this can be mitigated by using a search engine such as Duck Duck Go as it does not take into account personal information and so the search results should not be influenced by the individual. Assumption 4  Practicality and Effectiveness of achieving scholarly aimsThe authors argue that there has been such a deluge of data that is suddenly available that people can become inefficient, finding it increasingly difficult to find anything amongst all the extra information. In reality digital scholars just need to use the available tools to aggregate the information it needs. It could never be seen as acceptable to stem the flow of information just to make it easier to sieve through the information we have. Although there has never been such a large amount of information available it is not the first time in history that suddenly a massive amount of information has become available for example when the printing press was invented suddenly the masses had access to much more information than they had in the past. This did not mean that suddenly everybody became an efficient reader, but it did mean that an opportunity existed where it hadn't before.

[chavboy]

Enter the blogosphere

So, I thought to myself, well I’m expected to keep a blog during this course, I’ve got a Tumblr account, that must count, so here I am, as the title suggests, Entering the blogosphere. This is not meant to be a space where I can wax lyrical, and put my ideas out there for all to read, as surely my ideas should be read by as many as possible, but rather the space I can use to enhance my studies, scrabble together ideas that I can later use, and hopefully, and this is really wishful thinking, gain feedback from the wider public. Ok so that’s not likely to happen, but I can at least hope. 

So, over the coming months, mostly, I would think, my blog will be about aspects of the course I am currently studying, H818, which is part of the MA in online and distance learning. When I first heard about this course (purely by chance as I had just signed up for the masters in education) it really struck a chord as I strongly believe in the equality of opportunity in education from a global perspective. Now I’m not suggesting we are anywhere near achieving this, far from it, but I am suggesting that by using the tools at our disposal, we can at least envisage a process how this may become a reality, and this reality can only be reached by the use of online education, by exploiting the technology that is available to us now.

So, I’m also hoping this blog can help me formulate and grow some ideas and keep a record of what I was thinking at various times throughout the course. I’m sure the process of writing will only be helpful, and maybe, just maybe, it will actually be read by somebody, and may even be helpful, or even interesting. Dare to dream, dare to dream.

Here’s to hoping this course lives up to the high expectations I have for it.

[mymindbursts]

Popplets

Popplets http://wp.me/sOtc2-pop

From E-Learning V

Fig.1. My stab at a popplet.

I added some orange hair. Themed for the 5th of November as this is how I look on the streets of Lewes at this time of year. 

As kids we had a word that sounds very like this … ‘plopplets’. We had a variety of words for poo.

With thanks to Veronique Masse Du Bois who is using Popplets as part of H818. By sharing and me picking up on it she’s…

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[mymindbursts]

Open Learning with the Open University - a modus operandi in the 21st century?

Open Learning with the Open University – a modus operandi in the 21st century? http://wp.me/sOtc2-h818open

Fig.1 Posing for a scamp at the School of Communication Arts, 1987

H818 Activity 2.1

I will only publish in open access journals.

I’m not a professional academic. Should I publish then I imagine the calibre of the journal will count for something. As a professional writer (copy, scripts, speeches), with exception of blogging I am used to being paid for my words.

I will share all learning…

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[mymindbursts]

S.C.A.R.F.

Trying to rationalise and reflect on what next I’ve reduced it to this mnemonic:

S=Strategic

C=Connectedness, Collaboration and several other Cs

A=Applied

R=Reciprocal

F=Financed.

In that order too.

S = Strategicis a term I know a few fellow students of the Master of Arts: Open and Distance Education (MAODE) have used. This means time management to some, curbing the desire to disappear down…

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