fredag 7 mars 2008

Week 1. Response to “OER: What they are and why do they matter”


As a newcomer in this field I was surprised over how vast OER is and how it is connected to areas I didn´t think of. Some of these areas include politics, economy and the copy write law – all somehow some kind of background factor to open educational resources. But I also found it striking and wonderful that there are a lot of people who want to do something for society without political or economical reasons in first hand.

An interesting point sated was that the field of education is in a sense unique, that by contributing with knowledge there are no losers – but everybody can gain from it - David´s statement “…knowledge is inherently a non-rival good. In this view, knowledge is, indeed, a public good.”

As one new to the field of open sources, I started wondering about things as how reliable was the material? Is there someone controlling it or is everyone responsible? There are probably a lot of people wanting to do good, but don’t have as much knowledge as they should – or how about if someone deliberately wants to sabotage? On page 26 Tuomi defines tree levels of openness, who defines/or controls these specific levels? These are probably quite naïve questions and thoughts, but with no prior knowledge and experience…;)

Even so, without prior experience in this area, I still am amazed about how OER will transform the educational field, and how the individual probably becomes more and more responsible for one´s own learning processes and the continuation of learning. Learning isn’t something you do in restricted areas and forms, but a part of everyday life – therefore it is interesting to see how we relate to informal learning and how we can “show our informal knowledge” for example in applying for a job.

And last, Tuomis text (page5) “Cognitive technologies will be used to repair defects in learning styles and to compensate the effects of aging” was a mind opener. It seems like we still limit online learning to meet but a few learning styles - it will be interesting to see (or be a part of) this development.

4 kommentarer:

Erkan Yilmaz sa...

Hello Annika,

>Is there someone controlling it or is everyone responsible? There are probably a lot of people wanting to do good, but don’t have as much knowledge as they should – or how about if someone deliberately wants to sabotage?

see my comment on Luca's page here
see also the questions at the end of this post

Erkan YILMAZ

annika sa...

Thank you for your comments Erkan. Your way of using the course page was enlghtening! As a person not at all familiar with OER, this is the reason I´m taking the course!

Erkan Yilmaz sa...

Glad to hear this. Please keep in mind, there are several ways to use the technologies we got offered. When I see my Wikiversity blog, sometimes I feel like I should change this and that. But then I think again: where do I take the time to do that also ? :-)

being not familiar: well I guess you just have to dive in and then all will come naturally. See you around,

Erkan YILMAZ

Teemu Leinonen sa...

Hei Annika.

Thank you for your post. I really liked your point "that there are a lot of people who want to do something for society without political or economical reasons in first hand". This is an issue that is not discussed that much in the field. To handle these topics we should be aware, not afraid.