OCL4Ed 2014

Access to education is a fundamental human right and UNESCO considers this essential to exercising the other human rights. The micro Open Online Course (mOOC) on open content licensing (OCL4Ed) is contributing to the inevitable outcome in the future where open education will be taken for granted by all education institutions.   Be part of the open content licensing and make a difference.


Creative Commons/Flickr

The OCL4Ed introduces the concepts of open education, copyright and Creative Commons is a contribution from the OER university collaboration and the UNESCO-COL OER Chair network in widening knowledge and capacity development in support of the global open education movement. The course is freely available for anyone with an interest in open education with options to earn certificates of participation or formal assessment for tertiary academic credit. The course guide provides and overview of the course and assessment options available for participants.



Open content licensing for educators is a free micro Open Online Course (mOOC) designed for educators who want to learn more about open education resources, copyright, and creative commons licenses. This course will help you to:

• Reflect on the practice of sharing knowledge in education and the permissions educators consider fair and reasonable;
• Define what constitutes an open education resource (OER);
• Explain how international copyright functions in a digital world;
• Distinguish the types of Creative Commons licenses and explain how they support open education approaches;
• Acquire the prerequisite knowledge required by educators to legally remix open education materials and help institutions to take informed decisions about open content licenses;
• Use social media technologies to support your learning;
• Connect with educators around the world to share thoughts and experiences in relation to copyright, OER and Creative Commons.

 
It has been a great pleasure to be among the facilitators together with  Professor Wayne Mackintosh, founder of OER University,  and UNESCO/Commonwealth of Learning Chairholder in Open Educational Resources and Professor Rory McGreal, also UNESCO/Commonwealth of Learning Chairholder in Open Educational Resources. He is a professor in the Centre for Distance Education at Athabasca University– Canada’s Open University based in Alberta, Canada.

 

The course has gathered participants from all over the world and it has been great to follow all the work discussed, blogging nad commented in different ways in the OCL4Ed course during those weeks. Thanks a lot for very interesting discussions, in blogs, tweets, etc. Thanks for sharing knowledge, experiences, thaugts etc.


Sharing is caring, caring is sharing!
Best Ebba

Rhizomatic Learning - The community is the curriculum, week 4

Weeke 4 Are books making us stupied

The challenges for this week in the very interesting course on rhizome learning, the community is the curricula:

• Are books making us stupid? 
• Have they always? 
• What has the medium of print done to learning? 
• What are the implications of this objective distance? 
• How does it impact what we believe is valid in our society both inside learning and outside of it? 

I will argue that any kind of media has its benefits and limitations
The nice thing with social media is that it easy to be connected, it is easy to be on track, it is easy to be in a community, it is an often gente and generous athmosphere, everyone is willing to share and to be part.

Of course some limitations are that it can be barriers for those who are not digital skilled or not very socia. Being not very social is not just due for socail media, and on Internet of course
There can be limitations that everything is so fast with social media, you los sometimes time for reflections, further consideration, and second thoughts

With books and printed material there are benefits in some ways, it is solid in one way, but on the other had as soon as a book is printed, it is old, and imagine it takes appro 1 year or even more to publish, print etc. This is teh same with Journal articles, with the review system etc. On the other hand they are more sustainable

The printed word is solid, it cant easy be changes, the oral word can be changes in teh same time it is said

As the saying is

Carve praise in stone, write criticism in sand

Rhizomatic Learning - The community is the curriculum- Week 3

This week is about how to embrace uncertainty in learning




I  will argue that the more you are wondering about, and the more  curious you are and try to discover, the more you learn. Learning is not about questions and answers, nor about right and wrong. Learning is rhizomatic, serendepedy and uncertain. You don´t really know where you end up, but you need to know your goals and your own directions, The way forward is however not just straight on...

As Cormier is emphasizing in this videoclip it is very much about

• Orient
• Declare
• Network
• Cluster
• Focus

If you learn those five steps you might learn most everything, and I agree that those five steps facilitate uncertain learning. You have to embrace uncertainity, and find ways which are reachable. It i also important to give up power approaches, you have different approaches and can share,

Rhizomatic Learning - The community is the curriculum Week2

Rhizomatic Learning - The community is the curriculum

During this week we had to reflect on indepencence ans freedom, and how to "force" independence .

A challenge which is delicate, however, for me it is very much similar as to raise children, but in an educational settting and formal learning how can you do it then.

I liked very much Daves start of this week:

"I’m hosting a party, not trying to tell you what or how to think"
and further 

"The most important part of your choice is figuring out what is going to fit into your life better. The more you figure out what you’re taking this course for, where you will be when you check in to see what people are doing – the better chance of you having a fruitful experience."
 
We are some 300 people in the course in the course so far and we are invited, promoted, encourage to work at diferent places with our reflections, like:
at the P2P site
at the course siteP2P   the course site
Even  on:
Facebook Rhizo14
Twitter #rhizo14, I also use my own #EbbaOssian @EbbaOssian

Google+

Blogs, I use my own http://e4qualityinnovationandlearning.blogspot.se/

Dave has the nice approach to say about Course objectives
"Just kidding. There aren’t any. You can have personal objectives. You can have group objectives. But I’m not creating objectives for anyone."

and also:

"What you should do in a given week?
Try to forget everything you know about ‘traditional education’ and imagine that you are going to camp for 6 weeks. "

cc openedu

I really reflect on the idea with learning and education as a camp, people are coing for different reasons, people have different goals. I will try this  approach fpor my next course
 I do like the serendepity way of learning

Rhizomatic Learning - The community is the curriculum

One of the two MOOCs I have reg for and started now in the beginning of 2014 is

Rhizomatic Learning - The community is the curriculum,  P2P University. 

Course leader is Dave Cormier, who also coined the word MOOC.

I realy love this course and its title. Rhizomatic Learning- the  community is teh curriculum
and as  Dave says: "Doing this course I've put together a blog post to give you a sense of 'where' the course is happening and what you might like to do as part of it."  In the info about the course it starts with "Your unguided tour of Rhizo14". I really just live the approach.
Rhizomatic learning is a story of how we can learn in a world of abundance – abundance of perspective, of information and of connection. A paper/location based learning model forces us to make decisions, in advance, about what it is important for students to learn. This was a practical reality – if we were going to have content available for a course, it needed to be prepared in advance. In order to prepare the content in advance, we needed to prepare the objectives in advance. And, given that we know what everyone is supposed to learn, we might as well check and see if they all did and compare them against each other.
What happens if we let that go? What happens when we approach a learning experience and we don’t know what we are going to learn? Where each student can learn something a little bit different – together? If we decide that important learning is more like being a parent, or being a cook, and less like knowing all the counties in England in 1450? What if we decided to trust the idea that people can come together to learn given the availability of an abundance of perspective, of information and of connection?


I  really love and I am really dedicated to the rhizome way of thinking and learníng, In my dissertation on Benchmarking in higher edcuation- lessons learned from interantional projects, I argued for a rhizome model of quality enhancement, actually I have the rhizome theory as a frame of reference in my research.

 the work by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari use the term "rhizome" and "rhizomatic" to describe theory and research that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in data representation and interpretation. In A Thousand Plateaus, they oppose it to an arborescent conception of knowledge, which works with dualist categories and binary choices. A rhizome works with planar and trans-species connections, while an arborescent model works with vertical and linear connections.

As a model for culture, the rhizome resists the organizational structure of the root-tree system which charts causality along chronological lines and looks for the original source of 'things' and looks towards the pinnacle or conclusion of those 'things.' A rhizome, on the other hand, is characterized by 'ceaselessly established connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and social struggles.' Rather than narrativize history and culture, the rhizome presents history and culture as a map or wide array of attractions and influences with no specific origin or genesis, for a 'rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo.' The planar movement of the rhizome resists chronology and organization, instead favoring a nomadic system of growth and propagation.
"In this model, culture spreads like the surface of a body of water, spreading towards available spaces or trickling downwards towards new spaces through fissures and gaps, eroding what is in its way. The surface can be interrupted and moved, but these disturbances leave no trace, as the water is charged with pressure and potential to always seek its equilibrium, and thereby establish smooth space.


Deleuze and Guattari introduce six principles:

• 1 and 2: Principles of connection and heterogeneity: any point of a rhizome can be connected to any other, and must be
• 3. Principle of multiplicity: only when the multiple is effectively treated as a substantive, "multiplicity" that it ceases to have any relation to the One
• 4. Principle of asignifying rupture: a rhizome may be broken, but it will start up again on one of its old lines, or on new lines
• 5 and 6: Principle of cartography and decalcomania: a rhizome is not amenable to any structural or generative model; it is a "map and not a tracing"

 

The very first task in this course is to reflect on

Use cheating as a weapon. How can you use the idea of cheating as a tool to take apart the structures that you work in? What does it say about learning? About power? About how you see teaching?

This is  really a challenge as such. Knowledge has always build on what others are doing of course one has  to give recognition to teh one/s who create thíng, but is it always easy to know who was teh firsst one, A lot of knowledge is so called common knowledge, and as such always has benn known.  By cheating you can learn a lot as well, you just have to know how  you can use it and what it means.  It is strange there as alway been some strange opinion that knowledge ahs to do with power. Some know more than others, and as such have "higher" status.
It would be nice, if an assignment in HE should say to students , cheat as much as you can, and tehn discuss waht we can learn about it. ONe thing for sure, is how to deal with Creative Commons, Copyright,  referrie rules, acknoledgement etc . Could be a nice starting point

I think with a rhizome mindset, sharing is caring, and caring is sharing. Together we gain knowledge and experiences and learn to network

 #rhizo14

@EbbaOssian


 

Happy New Year 2014

Soon 2013 is coming to its end and soon we will write 2014!
What will 2014 bring to us, and what kind of questions will we deal with  concerning learning and educuation in 2014.

 With the wisdom of hindsight we all know that  2012 was the year of MOOCs. Many of us in the edcuational sector also learned that during 2013, something happened with the general awareness of the consequences of incraesed digitalization and learning online. Suddenly it wasn that suspicious to talk about e-elearning, flipped classroom, Open Edcuational Resources (OER), creative commons, MOOCs etc. Almost every international and, in some countries, also national, conference with self-respect had MOOCs and OER in their conference themes. Even many Universities in the world, so even in Sweden started to at least investigate the possibilities to offer MOOCs. In  Europe already376 are offered, and the European MOOCs Scoreboard was launched. Euroepe offer now almost half of the MOOCs offers from the states. Many promising blog posts, research, initiatives was also launched during  2013. Ine very good summary of teh MOOC development is the BIC Research Paper 130 The Maturing of MOOC. 

The European Commission launched also the intitiative on Opening up Education' to boost innovation and digital skills in schools and universities.
First it was of interest that they really emphasizes OPENNESS, with stating that "Opening up education means bringing the digital revolution into education. Digital technologies allow all individuals to learn, anywhere, anytime, through any device, with the support of anyone" Furthermore they stated some recommendations:

review their organisational strategies

exploit the potential of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

stimulate innovative learning practices such as blended learning

equip teachers with high digital competences

equip learners with digital skills

think about how to validate and recognise learner’s achievements in online education

make high quality Open Education Resources  (OER) visible and accessible

During the year OpenupEd by EADTU was launched, a uality label for MOOCs  and the promising MOOC quality project by EFQUEL was carried out.

Learning Analytics have also been very much discussed during the year.

Even other abbreviatiosn as MOOC has been seen on the horizon , like just to mention some:

MOOCC, MOOPS, MOORC, mOOC, SOOC, BOOC, ROOC, DOOC. Although one of the hottest and latest is SPOCs

The 24 September 2013 Harward Univdersity launched their SPOCs

"Keep up, keep up. If you've only just caught on to the concept of online university courses called Moocs, then you're in danger of falling behind again.

Harvard, one of the world's most influential universities, is moving on to Spocs - which stands for small private online courses. Nothing to do with Star Trek and sombre Vulcans, but plenty to do with ambitions "to boldly go"."

So for 2014 I will like to see how we can learn from the hypes in 2012 and 2013 and really focus on RETHINKING education and its somewhat unfashion pedagagy, infrastructure, linear learning offers and to really keep up with all possibilities the digital evolution has brought to us. Society is today rather far ahead, thanks to teh digital agenda. Let us bring the digital agenda into education as well. Let us discuss and think learning instead of technology and tools. Let us try to bring a more rhizomatic perspective and  approach to learning

Let us for 2014 work on  the consistencies of all those open initiatives!
All of us can do something to make a difference for 2014!
At least this will be mine promise for the new year to come
What is yours?

REFLECTIONS ON THE ANNUAL EFQUEL INNOVATION FORUM 2013, BARCELONA 25-27 SEPTEMER 2013

The  EFQUEL Innovation Forum 2013 was held this year at the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona 26-27 September 2013. The conference theme Refocusing Quality of e-learning attracted more participants than ever and from many continents. The conference was a great success and being in the programme committe it was a nice and busy time both in the planning process and during the conference. I was also happy to be elected to the board of EFQUEL and I am  looking forward to be even more involved. I also did some disseminatiion on social media during the conference.

Just during the conference, on the 25th September EC launched  Opening up education to boost innovation and digital skills in schools and universities. It was pretty good timing as the aim of the conference  was  refocusing quality, not jsut for e-learning, as the e in e-learning is more and more fading out, but instead to focus on quality issues on open education as such, and what openenness really mean, such as open educatinoal practice and culture (OEP)  and MOOCs.

Refocusing Quality of E-Learning

Refocusing Quality of E-Learning attracted more participants than ever. The theme of the conference

Some impressions:

• The major European higher education organisations, like ENQA, EUA, EURASHE and ESU were all strong contributors and emphasized the importance of openness in education, and thus new  quality approaches are needed, likewise new business models not at least for higher education are required. They also stressed the fact that how open is open and what does it really mean to be open and to offer open education for all. Furthermore they emphasized that  it is not just a question to develop technology and pedagogy. Now it is time to develop organisaions at all levels and likewise not just focus on academics but rather on mid and senior management level and rectors level. Now when there are new actors in the market, who gives new influences for education, as MOOC, quality, collaboration and competiton gives new roles and doesn´t fit into old business models. It waas also agreed that the e in e-learning more and more is faded out and we need to look at learning as such and qualitative learning environments and to look at quality more prospective and internatlly, with peer to pee, self-evalutaion, benchmarking etc than to look for quality assurance mechanism and retrospective quality.

• Ranking, an issue  which is very important for higher education both regarding education and research. As students today can apply to which university they want around the globe, ranking is important to recruit students, more over ranking play an important role for university collaborataton and competion as such. Now more comprenhensive ranking systems has been highlighted such as the U-Multirank. Multirank is a new university ranking for higher education institutions of all types, from all parts of Europe and the world. It is user-driven, and examines instituions´ performance across a wide range of higher education missions. First results from over 500 institutions will be published in 2014. U-Multrank compares not only research perfomance but also teaching, knowledge transfer, international orientation and regional development, and will now also look at  "openness" in a wider meaning. 

• MOOCs was widely discussed during the conference, not at least as MOOCs are seen as driver for changes, not just for all on-line  learning, but also in so called traditional educational arenas. During the last 6 months me and my board colleagues Ulf Ehlers, (President EFQUEL), and Alastair Creelman (Linneus Univeristy, SE) run the MOOQ Quality project. 12 interntational experts where asked to write  a blog post on 1500 words with theire views on MOOC and quality. The blogpsots where published each week during 12 weeks. During the Conference we run a three session MOOCathon.  The first session was a briefing about the MOOC Quality project, followed by a learning cafe with 5 selected projects and where participants were asked to write keylearnings, The second session was on the recommendations from the blogposts. The third session was a presentation by Yves Puin, IPTS  and on EC Opening up edcuation. Most people where at the MOOCathon for the entire time, some opt in and out as in a MOOC:) There will be follow ups from this session, first a final blogpost from us and hopefully an article as well.
• 
  
• 

•  Another intersting presenation was on the POERUP project. POERUP (Policy OER Uptake) aims to study the end-user–producer communities behind OER initiatives. By comparing in-depth European case-studies to selected non-European ones we will refine and elaborate recommendations to formulate a set of action points that can be applied to ensuring the realisation of successful, lively and sustainable OER communities.

There is a ScoopIt site from EIF2013where many of the presentations can be found.