Visualising Open Education

The two articles by Weller and Anderson were interesting, setting out a range of ideas on the meaning of 'open education.'  As I read through the two articles, I had a visual image of the Open Learner standing in the centre - at the heart of their own learning practice, drawing what they need in order to enable them to meet their own learning objectives...

The Open Learner draws on two main sources to inform their learning - Big OER (produced by the Open Scholar) and Little OER (created by the Open Producer).

They draw from these two streams, mixing (or 'curating') according to their needs, and then using this platform to engage and perform in their world.

So no two people going through the same learning process will have identical experiences, as they will each draw on different OERs, according to their needs, and engage and perform, according to their purpose in learning.

Getting Ready to Start this Open Learning Experience

This is the day before the Open University's Open Education Course officially begins, so I've created this new blog to track my learning process and reflection.

This is an interesting experiment for me - to participate in an Open Course (what I want to think of as a MOOC, or at least as having sufficient MOOC-like tendencies that I can draw lessons!), to reflect in public as I proceed, and to make an effort to follow along with the assigned readings and assignments.

let's see how this goes!

I've been involved in education in one way or another for more than 20 years.  I've worked in adult education, primarily in professional roles relating to professional development and leadership/management development in non-profit/social change organizations and public-sector organizations.  I've served both internal and external audiences, and designed customized and standardized courses.

While my early training and experiences were in face-to-face learning, I've had a long interest in complementary forms of learning.  As a consultant to organizations in the field of change, I've given attention to learning organizations, communities of practice, knowledge management, collaboration, and virtual work.  Working with global organizations, with operations in more than 140 countries, we looked for ways to make learning more accessible and timely to staff in small offices, without the cost of expensive travel.  I've been involved in designing and running webinars for more than 10 years, and have found some ways to make them interactive and interesting.

Open Education, or MOOCs, appear to me as a really interesting concept - the potential of tapping into top-class content from a variety of locations, and designing it into integrated programs that promote reflection and application.  So I'm interested to participate in this offering from the Open University, and to see what I might learn from this experience that I can integrate into my work with my clients on the design and delivery of their learning processes.