Ramblings

Bloviating: to you, from me. Chide me if you will. algot@runeman.org

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Mon, 12 Apr 2010

Remote Contribution

There was a conference at Yale University a few days ago. The topic was Open Education Resources and was sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation. I didn't attend. I wish I could have done so, but I did the next best thing because somebody associated with the conference promoted using Twitter and the hashtag #oerhf to generate comments from those who attended and from people like me who just decided to join in.

You may also want to go to Twitter and look at the full transcript by doing a search of the #oerhf hashtag. My comments will be interspersed with that full record along with the others who made the effort to post on Twitter. My "contributions" are in the order I made them. Looking at the transcript, you will be looking in reverse order. That's the nature of Twitter's process, keeping you up-to-date with most recent posts at the top.

The full conversation is pretty rich, considering that it is composed of posts limited to the maximum of 140 characters at a time. I suppose that one major benefit is that 140 character limits keep one person from monopolizing the conversation with big blocks of text...even though the following list seems like I'm monopolizing, remember it is just my posts, here.

• Digital and Online NOT equal to Open #oerhf 8:55 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• # @christinegeith Where are collaboration skills in the mix of college completion and online skills? #oerhf 8:57 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• @jbapowell, let's hope OER isn't seen as "giving away our national advantage" - wouldn't surprise to hear that negative idea #oerhf 9:07 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• @sewsueme is the "problem" that open can't be restricted or that it won't need to cost for use? #oerhf 9:42 AM Apr 9th via web in reply to sewsueme
• Recommend bottom up incentives: pay goes to school staff to participate in OER devment. Funding from variety of sources incl. Fed$ #oerhf 9:57 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• Rec. bottom up incentives: pay goes to school staff to participate in OER devment. Funding from variety of sources incl. Fed$ #oerhf 9:58 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• Each school/district should have local incentives/foundation in support of OER - pay teachers above reg salary #oerhf 10:01 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• Reputation of school/district rises with levels of support and levels of participation. Good contributors get good rep. Draw students #oerhf 10:02 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• @sewsueme, Free is good. Open is pathway. Value to others, reputation to self. #oerhf 10:05 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• @christinegeith VA Open Ed. Curric. board sounds as much like control as openness. "restrictions developed" open release OR comm. #oerhf 10:20 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• @sewsueme Can't money spent at state level to vet textbooks be used to vet OERs? Again, a repute issue. Good stuff will rise to top #oerhf 10:37 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• OER + ebook not= piracy. #oerhf 10:39 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• Learning beyond textbooks + learning beyond classrooms = learning beyond expectations. #oerhf 10:45 AM Apr 9th via Echofon
• @sewsueme - "open" doesn't necessarily carry the "free to use, adapt, mashup, etc." either. Ref Software Freedom vs. Open Source #oerhf 2:19 PM Apr 9th via Echofon
• @sewsueme Wise licensing might be one of main functions of state vetting process of OERs. #oerhf 2:21 PM Apr 9th via Echofon
• OER licensing needs careful attention to preserve contributors' reputations while encouraging localization and flexible repurposing #oerhf 2:24 PM Apr 9th via Echofon
• Wow, odd answer re:Wikipedia/OER. What "qualifies" something as a learning material? Does a professor need to say/write/... it? #oerhf 2:32 PM Apr 9th via Echofon
• My own teaching took children outside to observe living plants and animals as educational resources. Not textbook or video. #oerhf 2:33 PM Apr 9th via Echofon
• @jbapowell, for one who wasn't there, can you give 140 word summary of OER messaging breakout? Thanks. #oerhf 3:18 PM Apr 9th via Echofon
• #oerhf I explore, I learn, I produce. Need to always emphasize the full sequence. Tests are poor assessments of production. 10:39 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf Innovation --> Pilot Project: "I'm being studied. I matter. I work harder. I succeed." Institutionalize that! 10:51 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf OERs are a "one-to-many" form. That's the ultimate scalability. Single OER may not be for all, but there's no access limit. 11:21 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf OERs are not "sharing a textbook with a classmate". The sharing isn't a physical limitation. Rich opensources are peak of scalabilty. 11:25 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf OERs are a component of an economy of abundance not scarcity. Need to clarify "value" in economy of abundance. 11:27 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf OER "problem" is perception that it does NOT cost much -> less valuable than scarce "high quality" materials. 11:35 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf OER cost comes from taking on the building of a curriculum from disparate parts. Is that a teacher's role or a politician's? 11:37 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf The older a student gets, the more valid it is to be the chooser of curriculum. Note: at 63, that's how I do my learning. 11:39 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf It is taken as "given" that an adult chooses the curriculum for young students. Will that model "fail" in the Internet world? 11:42 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf How many educators - any level will fight losing control of the curriculum composed of Internet + OER/abundance. Educators as guides? 11:44 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf How does "Time on Task" fit when the curriculum isn't locked in for the year? How does a standardized test even begin to fit? 11:45 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf Learning is normal for children. Many reasons lead to choice of "curriculum". "Learning to learn" means enjoying making curric choice 11:55 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf "We know best" of adults choosing curriculum and its timing overrides childlike eager learning at some point in ed process - for most 11:58 AM Apr 10th via Echofon
• #oerhf Possible biggest OER challenge is mixing abundance + eager learning + curriculum control --then assessment 12:11 PM Apr 10th via Echofon

Twitter and Conferences

No it isn't the same as being there.

Still, it is better than I expected. Twitter is letting me keep abreast of a meeting on Open Education Resources going on right now at Yale. One of the people I follow on Twitter is attending and I got her tweet about an hour ago. Her tweet used the hashtag (#) #oerhf which many others are also using as they report and discuss the conference.

Because people are familiar with Twitter (relatively speaking) it may be easier to get remote participation going for meetings with this tool than with other tools. It is easy to set up a Twitter account. It is easy to get to a Twitter page. It is easy to post a short comment. The hashtag "system" makes it easy to get to the shared conversation without worry about using multiple reply addresses.

If you want to take a peek, go to Twitter.com and search for the hashtag. Use the whole tag including the hash mark/number symbol: #oerhf You can also find out more about the conference at a Cloudscapes link.

One quirk that needs to be taken into consideration: People retweet so their own followers will get benefit of comments seen as useful. If retweet includes the hashtag, then some comments get repeated many times. While a quirk, it is also a measure of usefulness/value as seen by the retweeters.