The future's bright...

 

                                        Image by Ylvers from Pixabay

Some of you may remember the tag line of a telecoms company that went:

The future's bright, the future's Orange

I have been reflecting on my participation in the Future Teacher 3.0 network and the connections between the future, the orange flames illustrated here, the nature of forest fires and technology are all coming to my mind. I last wrote about the impact of Future Teacher 3.0 nearly two years ago.

Now I wish to reflect more urgently on the nature of this network and the resources it provides. Urgently because time is running out, we are (if you hadn't noticed, let's face it our government hasn't) in a global climate crisis. We are also at 90 seconds to midnight on the Doomsday clock.  The orange future is upon us like a forest fire. Education is urgent, must be accessible to all, sustainable and free from bias if it is to help humanity to face the future. Importantly, it needs to be trully sustainable. 

How does Future Teacher address this urgency? 

• the resources it contains offer a comprehensive digital snapshot of technology enhanced learning in 3rd sector education spanning many years. We can learn from the past to better face our future
• the community it has created over 7 years is vibrant and supportive. You can connect on our LinkedIn group we have recently moved away from the burning hotspot of X formerly aka Twitter. We are better together.
• The shifting sands of technologically "enhanced" teaching and learning bring big challenges and a need for critical thought. We have to watch our step.
• As educators we have a responsibility to ensure access for all, push back against bias, exclusion and discrimination. We must keep our eyes and our hearts open. 

Urgent action has been happening in Future Teacher 3.0 over a prolonged period thanks to a small group of committed individuals who got together supported by a little European funding and decided to keep going after the funding finished. That activity is captured on the You Tube channel with subtitles added to increase accessibility for all because it matters. We will be reflecting on the latest series of webinars shortly because urgent action in a crisis is best when it is based on informed, intelligent decisions rather than unthinking knee jerk reactions. I am very proud to a be team member and to be able to contribute in a small way by recognising through an open badge the work shared freely by others. 

If we can incorporate these resources into our teaching communities we have the possibility of the hope of a better educated, more sustainable way forward in education. The growth that often we are told follows forest fires, pushing up from the grass roots.

Snowdrop by Teresa MacKinnon CC BY

Demystifying Open

 

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

I am delighted to see more educators engaging with OpenEducation or at least taking a greater interest in things "open" but I think it would be helpful to have a sort of beginner's guide to the many forms of open which are relevant to educators. I do not profess to be an expert in all things open but, as chair of the Open Education Special Interest Group and as an open education practitioner, I feel I could contribute a little to demystifying some of the terminology which comes under the banner "open". Here goes. 

Open Access:

Probably the first term most academics engage with as it relates to academic publishing. Essentially this is a category of publication which is accessible to anyone rather than being restricted to those who are registered with a university. Some publishers require APCs (article processing fees) in order to make publications available to a wider public. For more detail see Jisc's useful guide.  Librarians are often experts in this area. 

Open Source:

A term that applies to computer software and how the coding has been created. Open source software is usually created by a community and the source code is shared openly so that developers can build on it. Contributors to open source are not always paid, some do the work as a passion project. There are many examples of open source software which practitioners may encounter such as Moodle, H5P and others. Here's a more in depth article which explains why open source is helpful for teachers and learners.  

Open Educational Resources:

Often referred to as OERs, these are resources which are shared openly on the internet usually under a Creative Commons licence. UNESCO provides information here about the origins and place of OERs in education.  Many practitioners and institutions create OER as part of a mission to broaden access to learning, such as these from the University of Edinburgh.  Practitioners often share their own resources, known as Little OER (Weller,M) through sites such as Slideshare or social media free of charge, expressing their sharing preferences through a Creative Commons licence. 

Open badges:

Open badges are digital artefacts which can be created and issued to recognise participation or activity according to the criteria defined by a badge issuer. They are made up of a digital image which has hard coded data "baked in". Open Badge platforms build on a shared standard which enables portability of badge display for earners and, when used in a learning context, can allow the creation of an ecosystem of badges to support educational aims. Here's the handy badge wiki site to find out more. 

Open educational practice (or praxis):

OEP, or the act of working openly as an educator, may include creating and sharing OER, using social media to connect and collaborate with learners or other practitioners online, maintaining a digital profile which is visible to anyone online and curating digital resources. This is an emerging activity which is described in more detail here (Cronin,C) and is clearly connected with achieving the aims of open education. 

There are other "open..." terms in use out there - for example open data, open pedagogy but these are related to the ones mentioned above so I think this may be enough for a primer! However, here are some additional resources  should you wish to know more. 

An introduction to Open Educational Resources and Open Licensing. 

Open Education Policy Hub

The OER world map. 

The recent OERxDomains21 conference has many recordings and resources available openly as part of the #OpenCovid4Ed pledge. 

Open Education is a route to addressing the many inequalities suffered by our populations around the world which have only deepened during the pandemic.