Introduction to Open Education
Open Education begets open educational resources for all, sharing knowledge, activating cooperation, and provoking further learning. In the context of the modern digital learning environment, Open Education reduces educational inequalities, increases curriculum flexibility, and generally raises the quality of education in reducing educational inequalities. With free and adaptable resources, Open Education ensures access to learning for any person, from any corner of the world, regardless of geographical, economic, or social barriers that may appear.
Understanding Open Pedagogy
Open pedagogy is defined as a practice in teaching and learning in which the students and teachers make new knowledge in a novel way through collaborations and sharing. This method is basically derived from the cooperative sharing among teachers and students. Open pedagogy reveals and illustrates how traditional practice could really become participatory and interactive learning. With open pedagogy, learners become greater contributors than just entities receiving information. This change from an instructor-centered approach to a student-centered approach may significantly increase rapport between the educators and students, developing a more inclusive and supportive learning environment.
The Roles of OERs
Open Educational Resources (OERs) are freely accessible teaching, learning, and research materials available online. It comprises textbooks, lecture notes, assignments, tests and projects. Videos and multimedia contents also form a part of it. Such OERs availability could make a huge difference to the student’s engagements and success profile. By reducing educational materials costs with the help of OERs, education is brought within reach for more significant segments of human beings. Moreover, flexibility in OERs enables these materials to be aligned more closely with student needs at hand and adapted to increase relevance and efficacy within a learning experience.
Open Licensing Explained
Open licensing refers to legal frameworks that allow educational materials to be freely used, modified, and shared. Common open licenses are the Creative Commons licenses, which grant a variety of permissions supporting freely using and redistributing content. Such licenses give educators and students the right to lawfully use, adapt, and share educational resources without being constrained by traditional copyright laws.
An open license makes central the educator’s role in permitting Directors legally to have vast applications of existing high-quality educational resources. Open licenses foster remixing, revising, and redistribution for further use in resources. For example, an open textbook might be remixed by a teacher with local examples and contexts to teach from, making more relevant and effective materials for her students.
Challenges and Solutions
While Open Pedagogy and OERs offer significant benefits, there are some challenges in the implementation:
Quality and Reliability:
- Ensuring that open resources meet high educational standards can be difficult. Educators need to be critical about the quality of OERs.
- A solution can be: a peer review system for OERs can help to maintain quality standards. Educators can work together to create high quality resources.
Funding and Resistance:
- OERs need funding, and some institutions prefer traditional methods.
- Solution: highlight the cost savings and educational benefits of OERs to encourage support. Seek grants and partnerships to provide funding.
Technical and Accessibility Issues:
- Making OERs accessible for all students, especially those with disabilities, can be quite a bit trickier.
- A solution is to develop resources with the universal design of learning principles and offer training to make them accessible.
In conclusions, Open Education, through Open Pedagogy and OERs, makes a call for a more inclusive, flexible, and engaging learning environment. It creates the possibility for better quality in education and allows access to learning by every human being only by adopting sharing, collaboration, and innovation.
References
Hegarty, B. (2015). Attributes of Open Pedagogy: A Model for Using Open Educational Resources.
Bliss, T. J., & Smith, M. (2014). A Brief History of Open Educational Resources. Hewlett Foundation.
Privacy in Digital Learning
There should be an expectation of a reasonable level of privacy within digital learning. The problem is how to define “reasonable.” Regan and Jesse (2019) identified six separate edtech ethical issues related to information privacy, anonymity, surveillance, autonomy, non-discrimination, and information ownership. All of these topics require individual consideration in their own right rather than as part of some general “privacy” heading. For example, the volume of data that personalized learning programs collect on student interactions triggers huge concerns around transparency and consent. That means striking a balance that is capable of ensuring students and parents are aware of how their data is collected will be very important. The schools should also put measures in place to protect the data from access or misuse by students.
Privacy vs. Educational Needs
There are situations where the use of edtech tools might affect student privacy, but is a necessary requirement for educational purposes. Suppose during the COVID-19 pandemic that changed was Burke to online learning; at that time, digital tools were needed to educate students remotely. In those contexts, a fine balance between safeguarding student privacy and meeting the paths of education should prevail. Regan and Jesse (2019) underline how predictive analytics in personalized learning may further limit children’s autonomy, by reducing options based on algorithmic predictions. If schools are to adopt fair, transparent policies genealogically explaining the purposes of collection and use of data, then they will have a say on behalf of parents and students regarding how their data shall be used.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
UDL is a framework developed to support diverse learners within all learning environments. From an initial focus on inclusion of students with disabilities, UDL has moved toward the prevention of all forms of exclusion through multiple means for engagement, representation, and expression. The following are specific ways in which UDL practices can be used effectively within digital learning
- Multiple Means of Engagement: Optimize interest and identity, sustain effort and persistence, enhance emotional skills.
- Multiple Means of Representation: Perception, language and symbols, understanding knowledge.
- Multiple Means of Action and Expression: Interaction, expression and communication, strategy development.
Ethics and Digital Tools in Education
Several ethical factors should be taken into consideration during the selection of digital tools in education and their consequent use: noise reduction, avoiding algorithmic bias, transparency in use of data. According to Regan and Jesse, “policymakers and educators must think beyond the rubric of privacy generally and engage specific ethical issues thru their constituent parts”. For example, EdTech surveillance can alter students’ behavior and expectations of privacy. As such, the ethical use of technology must adopt policies by educators and institutions that most consider the protection of student privacy and data security; independent reviews of edtech tools by third-party experts to identify bias and reduce them; guaranteeing students and their parents are aware of how data will be collected and used.
It is in thoughtfully and comprehensively addressing these many different aspects that we can really begin navigating the complex intersection of privacy, educational needs, and inclusivity within digital learning environments.
References
Regan, P. M., & Jesse, J. (2019). Ethical challenges of edtech, big data, and personalized learning: Twenty-first-century student sorting and trackin. Ethics and Information Technology, 21, 167–179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2
Reflecting on Digital Technologies and Identity
Digital technologies are deeply remaking ideas of self and communities, especially within education. According to Bonnie Stewart, in her podcast on networked pedagogy, networks are part of the very structure that shapes human experience and, therefore, shape identities through constant curation. In online environments, these can be presented and remade in highly dynamic ways. For instance, participating in online courses has motivated me to establish a professional digital identity, separate from my personal one; I keep it with the utmost care according to my educational and career aims. Through blogging, contributing on social media, and collaborating virtually, I have been able to develop a persona in line with my aspirations and areas of interest.
Digital Education Platforms
These digital tools and platforms have increased the learning experience in terms of today’s engagement and skill development. Some, like Moodle, Canvas, and Zoom, greatly contribute to interactive learning environments. For instance, I was able to develop my critical thinking skills through the discussion forums in Moodle with peers. Furthermore, breakout rooms in Zoom initiated collaboration among some selected students in a class in order to create more intimate and focused group discussions. Most importantly, these tools engage students in activities that build on essential digital literacies required in today’s ever-increasingly digital workforce.
The digital tools also provide several ways of representing information and reception. Educational games, virtual simulations, and multimedia create other ways students learn in a more interesting way. For example, Kahoot! can take quizzes and turn them into assessments for the classroom. Inversely, turning assessment into fun by making activities competitive on class helps to keep the children engaged, making the learning stick. Another example is the video responses created by students on platforms like Flipgrid.
Instructor and Social Presence in Online Learning
The importance of instructor presence within online learning is rather well-documented. A reading states it best: “Where’s the Teacher? Defining the Role of the Instructor Presence in Social Presence and Cognition in Online Education“. As has been documented in much research, instructors must be present and active to build a sense of community and improve learning outcomes. This can be done through effective methods such as timely meaningful feedback, regular video updates, and active posting within the discussion forums. The following are many of the actions to be taken in creating a supportive learning environment, increasing student motivation and satisfaction. In my experience, the courses where instructors are present in a strong way bring about higher engagement and deeper understanding of the material.
In summary, the impact of digital technologies and platforms is in educational interactions and community dynamics through identity performances, along with new modes for engagement and learning. This actual role of instructors in sustaining social presence goes a long way to creating an effective and inclusive online learning environment.
Open Learning promotes self-direction and interconnection among students, allows them to learn at their own pace and balance their lives, and offers flexible and accessible education that is adapted to individual learning preferences and rhythms. It enables better collaboration between educators and students and expands the applicability of learning materials, making teaching more equitable and efficient, for example, people around the world can enjoy the same educational resources. Educational technology has developed from simple instruments like blackboards to complex systems like virtual reality, which reflecting both technological and sociological changes,. The advent of the Internet has made education more efficient. Through the Internet, we can see the ideas of different people and communicate with them, and learn a variety of different knowledge. Online courses, distance learning and massive open online courses (MOOCs) have enabled us to enter a more interesting education model, reduce commuting costs and save time. Through financial savings, increased accessibility, and increased flexibility for top-notch instruction, they revolutionize education. Limited teacher resources, uniform content, and a lack of flexibility are all resolved by digital transformation, which offers individualized learning experiences and a variety of learning options. Teachers can encourage positive behaviors and involve students in the learning process when they share educational duties with them and involve them in teaching and learning activities. Better learning outcomes are only achievable with active participation. I use tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet enable synchronous communication, allowing me to engage in live discussions, virtual group activities, and interactive presentations regardless of physical location. For example, during the epidemic, online courses helped us get through a difficult time, allowing us to bridge the distance and receive a good education. When learning a language, I can watch other people’s language expression videos on some online platforms, and comment and interact with them to improve my language comprehension and expression skills. Multimedia teaching can produce excellent audio-visual effects. Because human vision and hearing are the main channels for receiving information, the information obtained is also the largest. For example, some natural phenomena cannot be seen by students due to the constraints of time and space. When we taking history classes, we can intuitively understand some historical events by watching some virtual image and historical video materials, and improve our learning experience and interest. In general, the evolution of open learning theory, the history of educational technology, and learning theory has greatly improved the quality of our education, while transcending space, making learning resources more equal, and improving learners’ interest and efficiency.
My name is Bei Zhao, this is my third year at the University of Victoria. I studied economics. I chose this course because I want to develop my interests in various aspects. I use search engines like Google Scholar or academic databases to find scholarly articles, research papers, and other relevant resources for my studies. I utilize social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter to connect with other person, join professional groups, and stay updated on industry trends and educational practices. I think open and distributed learning platforms make education more accessible to a broader audience, including those in remote areas or with limited resources. These platforms allow us to study at their own pace and schedule, accommodating diverse learning styles and personal commitments. The flexibility of open and distributed learning appeals to me because it accommodates different learning styles and preferences. I can study at my own pace, engage with materials asynchronously, and balance learning with other responsibilities. Digital literacy encompasses the ability to effectively navigate, evaluate, and create information using digital technologies. In open and distributed learning environments, digital literacy supports effective communication and collaboration. And digital literacy equips us with the skills needed to navigate and succeed in today’s digital world, enhancing our ability to learn independently and participate meaningfully in open and distributed learning experiences. In addition, digital literacy enables us to create and share digital content, fostering creativity and innovation in educational projects and assignments. I regularly access digital resources such as e-books, research articles, and educational videos available online. I also engage in online communities and forums to exchange ideas, seek advice, and collaborate with like-minded individuals. I will actively participate in discussions, forums, and virtual sessions within the course. Engaging with fellow learners and instructors will allow me to share perspectives, ask questions, and contribute to meaningful dialogue. I will contribute to collaborative activities and group projects by offering input, supporting teamwork dynamics, and helping to synthesize ideas. Collaboration in an open and distributed learning environment enhances collective learning and fosters a sense of community. I will engage in reflective practices by reviewing my learning progress, identifying areas for improvement, and providing constructive feedback to peers. Reflection fosters personal growth and enhances the learning experience for everyone involved. By actively engaging with and contributing to the open and distributed learning approach in the course, I aim to enrich my own learning journey while also supporting a collaborative and inclusive learning environment for others.
