ONL261: the open journey continues

 When I was contacted through LinkedIn and invited to contribute to the next ONL course, ONL261 I was more than happy to accept the invitation. Back in 2017 I had contributed to the Open Networked Learning course, ONL171 which was then under the leadership of one of my greatly respected contacts, Alastair Creelman, who was working in Sweden. We have both now retired. 

The session I am contributing to is under Topic 2, as was my previous contribution. This invitation has given me an opportunity to look back over the many years of open practice since I first embarked on my online work and to share my thoughts on the changing online landscape so neatly described by Cory Doctorow and the Enshittocene. As I looked back on my online interactions I could feel the idealism and excitement which gripped me back in the early 2000's. We were living in a world of new opportunities - chances to make access to learning more accessibile and connected than ever before. How the world has changed! My session therefore will focus on the care and critical insight which are even more necessary now than they were then. 

A must read! Photo CC BY @warwicklanguage

I have put together some resources on a Padlet board for ONL261 to connect the then and now. I have also used my Creative Commons certification activities to set up a quiz which I hope anyone can enjoy and use as a fun way of exploring the challenges of open sharing. 

I am looking forward to sharing and learning with ONL261 next week. I will add my reflections on this blog. In the age of AI and the broligarchy we need human networks more than ever. 

Of genies and bottles...

 

Photo of cartoon in The Guardian November 23rd 2025


    

This time of year it is usual to reflect upon what you have achieved and perhaps set goals for the coming year. I'm going to look somewhat longer term as I feel we are reaching a point of no return and need to urgently address matters which could be catastrophic if they remain below the radar of our societal conscience. 

It is my privilege to continue to work with colleagues from UNICollaboration on virtual exchange and this has kept me researching the use of technical and digital tools for connecting educators and students across continents. I have reflected on my learning openly - as here on my Espace Sisyphe blog - showing my increasing concern about the power and influence of the wealthy controllers of many of our now limited numbers of tech platforms. Where the internet was once a place of lively, largely constructive debate and a source of help and community for many it is increasingly a dangerous, exploitative environment which requires greater skill if you are to avoid being targetted by nefarious forces. I also voluntarily work alongside the most amazing and well informed team of Future Teacher UK  to ensure that the best advice for teachers in terms of equitable access to education is shared openly and without commercial bias. 

So I feel I have been doing what I can post retirement from my position as an onlooker whilst maintaining my open education principles. I feel nonetheless that the sisyphian task is only getting more difficult as AI rapidly infects every aspect of our universe, becoming an existential threat on all that was great about the WWW. I found this interview with Sir Tim Berners-Lee really worth a listen. His belief that things may all work out is tempting but I'm afraid the big money and the greed of the Broligarchy may defeat the higher minded "public good" ethos I embrace and wish to see sustained. I salute him for maintaining dialogue with those who would spoil the internet we loved, he is the better man.

There can be no doubt that the AI race is already exacting huge environmental harms at a time when politicians still fail to enact policies to address global warming and when many world leaders are happy to talk down the risks. With outside interference in elections, democracy itself is under fire. We are standing by and even complicit in the endless exploitation of our planet's resources - that is the water and the air we need to live - so that the super wealthy can fulfil their greedy, selfish desires.  Companies with greater wealth that many nation states push ahead with data centres whilst claiming that AI will save us all - believe me they have no interest in the rest of us!

 So what can I do? 

• Keep calling out the fake and the falsehoods
• Listen to trusted critical thinkers (such as Cory Doctorow, thanks Father Christmas!)
• Resist the hype and mock those who try to fool us
• Make decisions which take power away from the wealthy. 

In the immediate, I am moving more of my reflective writing away from online spaces and back to pens and paper in the coming years. I continue to review critically the use of social media and online platforms to find more ethical spaces. I am not afraid to call out the realities of poor personal security practices online and exclusionary teaching technologies, their impacts are so negative. Please allow time as you reflect to take a deeper, critical dive into the real consequencies of the digital actions and choices you make. It is not easy but you are not alone.

Photo of my copy which came this Christmas

  

Keep on moving

 

Boy bands are back in style again so I hear on my radio! I had 2 young sons in the 1990's and they loved a little boogie to a boy band. This was one of my favourite tracks from that era and it has resonance for me again today. My Twitter (X) account is now removed and I have to move on. I had used it to authenticate a few of my other accounts so now I need to pick them up in new ways. 

I had used List.ly now and again but could no longer access my account as it was tied to Twitter. I can see no other choice but to set up a new account but just so I don't lose the lists I had made, here they are:

My lists on list.ly

So, onward! Here's my first list on my new account.

This migration away from X was a timely reminder to review all my accounts and address some of the long forgotten ones. Doing this periodically is really important as abandonned accounts present an opportunity to mischief makers online. The list above was made to share the learning and encourage others to carry out some spring (or winter) cleaning. Internet scammers are getting even more ruthless and there's no doubt that they are quick to pick up on vulnerabilities and exploit new technologies such as AI in order to line their pockets. 

Many educators had to climb a steep learning curve through the pandemic and we need to support each other in staying safe online. It may help to think about how you protect yourself when you are away from home in an unfamiliar environment. No less care is needed online. We are now in an era of deep fakes and industrial scale exploitation of technology, critical digital skills could not be more important. 

In the process of revisiting my digital online presence I remembered  that another of my occasional tools, Haiku Deck, was linked to my Twittter (X) account. I investigated a link on my online CV but the site was not reachable. Fortunately the session had been recorded and that was still available. I'm including it here as I think it is very relevant to our situation today. Technology is changing rapidly and poses many challenges. This presentation (at a Mahara eportfolio event in 2015) is about the nature of learning in the internet age. 

Transitioning - a liminal space

 

Navigating the landscape - photo by @warwicklanguage CC BY SA

The academic year 2024 has just started. Not for me though. For me this is the third year of retirement and I am still in the process of transitioning from the professional me to the personal me - identities which have been enmeshed for so long it is tricky to navigate. When I read this post from Alastair Creelman, I was reminded that I need to continue to work on my navigation skills. I always found his blog really helpful and I felt rather sad to read that he would no longer be posting, although I fully understand and respect his reasons. I tried to add a comment to reflect how important his thoughts have been along the way but sadly it did not appear. So if you read this Alastair please know I am grateful for your open sharing and for how you helped me. 

Another blog post which influenced my own thoughts on transitioning came from another open hero of mine, Martin Weller. This post  is so significant as it captures the ongoing challenges of our time and reminds me of the importance of fighting for open practices. This has been an aspect of my professional life which transcends the "employment" phase and is deeply embedded in my personal psyche. I have reflected often as to whether, post retirement, I should continue to research and publish. I am still in two minds on this. I don't lack things to do to be honest!

There is one area of openness however where I feel progress is not where it needs to be yet and where I can hopefully continue to be of use. It is the area of open recognition. I think I find this so important because it goes to the very heart of my commitment to self determination (both political and psychological). The technical mechanisms include ownership and curation of an eportfolio and collection and curation of open badges. For me these tools have so many uses:

• fostering community belonging and pathways to self development
• offering recognition and encouragement in online fluency
• supporting creative activity in assessment and knowledge creation
• providing safe spaces for experimentation and individuality

Life in the age of AI will bring bigger challenges and some temptations which we must review critically. Spoiler alert: Open AI - it is NOT Open, nor is it Intelligent. This is an age which must relish in the nature of the human, must celebrate our creativity and diverse intelligences. Academia and our educational instutions must embrace the opportunity to be on the right side of history. Money and league tables must matter less; values and integrity must dominate your futures. 

I can see my next steps more clearly now. Funny how blogging helps. 

Staying on board

                

My teaching career began in the 1980's and, as I have mentioned on this blog before, I was an early adopter of technology in language teaching. The Internet was not widely used in education for some years to come but my professional teaching career was to be hugely shaped by it's birth. I lived through the "advice" which came our way, some of it helpful, much of it erroneous and lacking in awareness of the contextual realities of teaching in the 20th Century. The 21st Century picture is not hugely different. Change is never easy, the future is "not very evenly distributed" The video remix above is just one example of the issues educators face with the challenges of working in the digital domain. Legal and ethical issues as well as practical choices continue to make the teaching ad learning environment one which requires collaborative effort, critical awareness and co-operation. I consider myself to have been fortunate to find and participate in great networks to support my understanding of learning technology such as EUROCALL and ALT. I was fortunate enough to be able to research and publish in my academic field whilst working at the University of Warwick.

I am no longer employed in schools or University, having retired at the end of 2020 after 30+ years but I don't feel able to step away completely at this stage. I continue to offer my skills, such as they are, to organisations such as EUROCALL as a Trustee and member of the Executive, and to the not for profit UNICollaboration . I am also proud to be able to contribute to the voluntary work of Future Teacher 3.0 and #LTHEchat.  The continuation this offers has enabled me:

• to maintain a sense of belonging
• to keep my knowledge up to date
• to enjoy fellowship with kindred spirits

I write this post to share the changes I have experienced since retirement as they may be of interest to others. 

Firstly, as I no longer have an institutional affiliation, I have of course lost access to some of the privileges I enjoyed as an academic staff member. Most significant of these is access to academic publications which live behind paywalls. As I favour open publishing I am glad that I can still read the work of those who share openly. 

Secondly, as a pensioner I examine my budget regularly and no longer use Microsoft products. Expensive licences are not justifiable for personal use, I prefer to pay less and get great value from Google storage and Chromebook use. I use my more limited means to support great folk such as Bryan Matthers and his Fabulous Remixer Machine  to campaign for greater fairness and sustainability and to maintain my own websites. 

Finally, I use my knowledge and skills to help newer practitioners make informed choices and to warn of the dangers of technological evangilism. I do so by sharing openly on my blogs and through maintaining curations such as my Tool Parade dynamic document and my Pearltrees account. I worry that education has a shorter memory than ever before as experienced teachers are considered to be too expensive and retention is now a huge issue. Never mind the impact of AI on our sector! 

I guess I won't be around forever but at least I can leave a digital legacy.

 

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

Anti-social social media?

 

New Year, new ways of connecting to explore. I have invested many hundreds of hours over the years in developing my use of social media channels in order to inform and amplify the causes I support, notably :

 language learning and teaching (I was Communications rep for UCML for some years), 

european language networks (I still hold a communications role for EuroCALL)

open education (curating on open practice and through the Open Ed SIG) and

virtual exchange (communications for UNICollaboration - a not for profit organisation) and many other projects such as the #knowhow one in 2017 (illustrated above). 

My use of Twitter has been fundamental to all of these roles. The open nature of the platform enabled me to make connections and build a network. I became proficient at using tools such as TAGS Explorer and Wakelet to curate tweets and provide insights against hashtags which could inform strategic direction for these causes. The networks and connections have made a real difference to my professional and personal life. 

Image from Pixabay CC0

I am very used to internet based tools changing and even disappearing (remember Storify?) but the latest changes on Twitter are without doubt challenging. Musk's impact on the company, the workforce and the integrity of the service are very worrying and often inhumaine. I have covered several bases therefore and, with the help of other open education practitioners I have extended my use of both Discord and Mastedon. Clint Lalonde's blog post is helping me find my way on the latter. He is a wonderful example of the importance of being an open educator - taking the time to log what you learn really helps others. It is a selfless act undertaken out of care. 

The openness of social media has been vital to the visibility of connections such as this, likeminded educators have been able to share wisdom. Sadly we only hear about the more negative aspects of openness such as the use of platforms to spread false discourse and harmful abuse. I have always maintained that we need to be present in such environments in order to understand how they work and call out abuse. In much the same way as bringing light to dark environments in physical spaces. 

I recently attended at #socmedHE22 conference hosted at Northampton Uni by the lovely Hala Mansour where I was able to share my #openbadges work and meet up face to face for the first time in ages with old and new friends for the first time since the first lockdown.  My second attendance at this small but likeminded grouping. Many friends have been contacts through #LTHEchat another vibrant network of open practice which relies on Twitter as a platform. It is clear that many years of interaction will be lost if we all decided to leave en masse. Not something I can bear to contemplate so I stay and curate my Twitter feed with a vengeance to block and mute the voices I cannot tolerate. 

As many uses of social media become "mainstream" parts of organsational communications strategies there will no doubt be further attempts to monetise the content and control the discourse and so those of us who work (unpaid of course) to uphold social justice will have to continue to consolidate our networks, amplify our influence to counter the voices of the powerful, wealthy 1% and treasure our values. Currently I am experiencing Discord and Mastedon as places where this can happen. I hope to see that further through the OER23 conference backchannels too. Once platforms move behind paywalls more people will be excluded from participation and the existing inequities are further widened. I am therefore placing a call to arms for those who are active in this space to consider the ethical implications of their actions. We have much to lose. On a personal note I will also continue to support and advocate for the work of the Internet Archive as a means of protecting years of recent history mediated through social media platforms.