Finally ... ;)


Openness is a subject that evokes different feelings – like a closed can without the label, you don't know what is inside and what to expect and when you decide to open it, everything could happen. And in addition the edges could be sharp. But what could fall out of the OPENNESS can? Collaboration, open education, open educational resources, open textbooks, creative commons, sharing, globalization, unlimited access, e-learning, knowledge and many many others. The question is how we want to manage the cans content? For sure knowledge and information should be dealt with responsibility. E-learning courses, all MOOCs should be made available to everyone free of charge? It depends – making courses can be a way to earn money for living, then why resign getting paid for it (some governmental or EU funds could be thought of)? Collaboration? But to what extent? And is it possible to cross all the barriers (also those existing only in your head)? How hard it is to become open?

For sure openness is a hard subject. However after Topic 2 ONL172 discussions, webinar, tweetchat I learned many things. In fact I got to know about things I never before dared to think 😊 I never cared about creative commons and licenses [1]. Ok, I always added the link to the source from where I took the photo. But anything more. And now it turned out that I should do more (even ask the author for permission if no license is given). A kind of absurd, isn’t it? Hmm, in fact no. I would like to be given credit to if someone used my work/picture etc. Wouldn’t you? So we should also add the license to our work to make it easier for others.

And again what with MOOCs? If they could substitute for traditional learning/learning at the Universities (in my opinion they are not a threat to traditional education, but they could be an alternative in some cases, or, a supplement) than they could be a huge possibility for middle and low income countries/countries at war. But these people cannot afford to pay for the certificate, and only knowledge, although very valuable, will not grant them getting a job. However in these countries, MOOCs are not regarded as a “hot topic of consideration for educational policymakers” [2]. In fact they might be generating confusion – how to use them, where to use them and so on.

In my country, Poland, e-learning (and MOOCs) is in my opinion gaining more and more attention. I guess that the list of MOOCs will get longer [3], at least by adding the FOCUS course 😉. e-learning is more often used in big companies while it is regarded an option to teach/train more people at the same time. And people value their time 😊

So not to waste yours, it is time to finish this very late blog post!

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uiq42O6rhW4
[2] http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/moocs-developing-countries
[3] https://www.mooc-list.com/tags/polish

Komentarze

  1. Alastair Creelman16 listopada 2017 23:41

    It is an extremely complex subject and the word "open" can mean many things (just like other vague terms like green, free, democratic etc). There are however many examples of truly open MOOCs being offered to less privileged groups. I'm working in an Erasmus+ project called MOONLITE, looking at how universities are using MOOCs to help refugees - see http://moonliteproject.eu/.

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