In the new year, I saw an advert for OER 2019 (https://oer19.oerconf.org/#gref). I had recently registered to complete my CMALT qualification, after a librarian friend and colleague of mine had mentioned she was currently completing hers and I thought it sounded like a great way of reflecting on my role and the current work I was doing. I also feel a bit as though I already cross boundaries in this area. I started my working life as a library trainee in a university library, transitioned to school librarianship and then into the digital learning space. Throughout all of these roles, I have always been interested in and involved to varying degrees in projects which explore the themes of openness, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. I’m aware that at times I use some of those phrases sloppily, in a non-specialist way, but I appreciate the complexity that sits behind these ideas and their importance.
In my current role, I lead online learning projects across the GDST, and this includes the partnership we have with MOOC provider FutureLearn. I am currently working on two MOOCs- one covers Girl’s Education and the other looks to build teacher confidence with digital tools. Working on these projects, delving into the world of rights clearances and releasing resources under creative commons licensing, ensuring we use platforms and tools which are accessible globally (which challenges so much of our reliance on tools provided by large tech giants such as Google) and that images and video content are all fully accessible, I have dipped my toe into the waters of the open education movement. But this landscape is a changing one. When we partnered with FutureLearn in 2016, our courses were completely free to the user- we ensured, and still do, that all our materials are downloaded and available for reuse but the monetisation of MOOCs and the move to provide degrees on these platforms have fundamentally affected the foundations of these organisations.
So it was with this background and experience that I excitedly, if slightly cautiously, arrived at the beautiful National University of Ireland, Galway for two days of debate, challenge and insight from colleagues working with, interested in, and responsible for open educational resources. The theme for this year’s conference was ‘recentering open’ and it quickly became apparent that for many old-timers and for those who had been immersed in this work for many years, there was a need to get back to basics.
The opening keynote by Katie Bowles (https://twitter.com/KateMfD) definitely addressed this desire. Her talk was titled, ‘A quilt of stars: managing time in the expanding university’ and boldly tackled some of the darker issues facing universities by questioning their purpose and foundations. She argued that universities are changing at such a rate that there will be little room for open practice and that the constant need to measure, to track, to analyse in the higher education sector meant it was completely incapable of living in the present. She tackled issues such as the casualization of labour and spoke about the need for universities to care for their staff and their students. This introduced one of the key themes for the day for me- student voice and the role our students can and should play in shaping education provision.
The middle section of the first and second days comprised of a series of workshops and lightening talks showcasing the work of colleagues from across the world. I’d like to share a few ideas that stayed with me from these talks. One was the idea that we must define open in terms of reciprocity rather than redistribution, which was explored by Dave White from the University of the Arts. Openness has to be, ‘an opportunity for global social exchange and collaborative knowledge construction, not the commodification and marketing of local expertise.’
It struck me, and clearly many colleagues who I spoke to, that only by understanding open in these terms does open practice have a chance of surviving as institutions face tremendous financial and resource pressure. Another talk that struck a chord was Lisa Donaldson’s case study into her work at Dublin City University on using eportfolios. The question and answer session raised some interesting questions about transition between school and higher education and the (currently missed) opportunity to strengthen links between these two sectors to create authentic and meaningful experiences for our students.
On Thursday the workshops were rich sources of information and I really enjoyed hearing about the work of colleagues from around the world. Two sessions focussed on teacher education, a theme particularly relevant to my own work. Julia Hengstler (https://twitter.com/jhengstler?lang=en) spoke about introducing trainee teachers to open source software and some of her observations really chimed with my own. There was a tendency for the cohort to feel they had to ‘master’ a technology when what was really of benefit during these sessions was time to explore through a scaffolded and purposeful activity. Drawing on her experiences of working in teacher education, Diane Watt (https://twitter.com/Literacies2013?lang=en), explored the introduction of an online literary anthology project into her course. This gave a fascinating insight into the confidence of young professionals to create and share OERs and their fundamental reservations around their professional reputation online. Her closing words that education is ‘messy’ is a good and timely reminder that it’s in the messiness that the real learning often takes place.
For me, the highlight of the conference was the panel discussion which gave a voice to women working in the global south in open education. The poise, clarity and elegance with which these women spoke was humbling and enormously powerful. Bringing home truths closer than is comfortable, Judith spoke about some of the barriers she’s encountered in her work, reminding the audience, ‘Africa is not a country’.
I would fully recommend OER to anyone with an interest in the field. The knowledge exchange, the networking, as well as the formal sessions make it a rich, varied and interesting learning experience. Thank you to the organising committee and to everyone involved in making the event such a great success.
I left Ireland feeling reassured that there are a ‘constellation of pathways’ to explore in open education. It is not a one size fits all, linear approach, rather it is a tangled, messy web of culture, history, politics, economics and so much more than we can and should all be contributing to.
Follow-up
Many of the sessions at OER are live streamed or recorded (link to https://oer19.oerconf.org/participate/remote-participation/) and, as you would expect at a conference with this theme, colleagues shared with great generosity and enthusiasm. To access conference resources and to read more about OER 2019, please visit https://oer19.oerconf.org/#gref
To find out more about the GDST’s online courses please visit https://www.gdst.net/article/innovation-and-learning-gdst-courses-2019
Written by Amy Icke
Online Learning and Innovation Manager at the Girls’ Day School Trust
@digitalGDST
CILIP London 