Week 2: Find a group to join here!

Why Open?
#1

For week 2, we’re going to start working in groups (and continuing on into week 3 as well). Please use this thread to find a group. Here’s how (copied from the course page for week 2):

  • Please write a short post in this Discourse thread, listing your area of interest in openness (education, data, policy, etc.) and what sorts of things you’re particularly interested in talking about/learning in this course. You could link to your post on “introduce yourself” thread if you want (see the bottom of each post on a thread; there’s a button with a chain link that you can click to get a link to the post).

  • Then, everyone should try to find someone on the thread they’d like to join with in a small group. Please reply to their post and create groups that way. Ideally, each group should have about 3 people (2 is fine). It’ll be a bit messy on the thread, but it should work!

Once you’ve set up a group, please go to the “Groups” subcategory under “Why Open,” and create a new thread for your group. (Click on the blue “Why Open” box at the top of any discussion thread, then on the top menu, click on the grey box next to the blue “Why Open” box and select “groups.”) Or just go there directly from this link! http://discourse.p2pu.org/category/why-open/groups

You will be working on this thread this week and next week. You can work on a collaborative document elsewhere if you wish, but if so, please put a link to that document in your group’s thread, so others can see what you’re working on!

About the Groups category
#2

I like this approach to forming group and have done it in my classes (group ppl up by interest).
I am interested in open education and scholarship. I know Apostolos and Penny Bentley are, too, so I tweeted to them before I read your group formation strategy.

#3

I am here, sort of :slight_smile: I am pretty much taken up until 7PM mountain time each day this week. Most of my “work” for this will be after my EdD obligations are taken care of. As far as Open goes, I am mostly interested in Open Education: the intersection of open teaching, OER, and institutional policies (for instance I was told informally that my institution would frown upon making a previously paid course an “open” course - I haven’t looked much more into this, but I would be curious to see explore such transitions more)

Open pedagogy is also of interest if there aren’t others who are interested in the topic above :slight_smile:

#4

I am one of the facilitators of the course, but I enjoy this course so much I’d also love to participate. I’m on holiday this week, but am happy to join a group and help as much as I can while away. I, too, am interested in open education and open scholarship, mostly, but really…I’m happy to learn in many different areas so if there’s someone who wants to work on something else who’s looking for a group member, I’m happy to do that too.

#5

I’m an academic teacher of English (and a new technologies-freak) long involved in the teaching of academic-level grammar classes. As I believe, even such conventional language content as practical grammar can activate learners if delivered in tune with their preferences and literacy profiles. As I have discovered myself, computer technologies are helpful in bridging the long-lived accuracy-fluency dichotomy, which is my recent research interest. In connection to openness, I am very much interested in OER, to be more precise: in open materials and in open software which may facilitate indtroducing blended learning/teaching.

#6

Hi Maha, I’m happy to join you to continue our conversation re open education & scholarship. I’m keen to add openness for professional learning and creativity with science education.

#7

Open education, self-paced learning, informal community education, alternative education/learning models, affordability and access especially for underserved groups, impact of the all or most of the preceding on education work / academic labor, precarious academic labor advocacy and information.

Introduce yourself here!

#8

I am particularly interested in the use of ‘open’ in higher education. Most of my career has been focused on the non-traditional side of higher ed - helping adult learners earn college credit for professional, military, or self-directed learning.

#9

Hi

I am Phyllis van Aswegen from South Africa and in South Africa we have a massive literacy problem and a large number of people who can simply not afford education and although government is trying to put mechanisms in place to deal with it things just don’t seem to be going well. My am therefore interested in giving those who cannot afford education the opportunity to partake in educational activities and to better themselves. I am also very interested in the concept of education as a “public good” item and that it should therefore at least in a country be provided to students so that students have a more equal opportunity later in life whatever their current circumstances.

#10

Hi, interested in disruptive learning and supplementing earlier models, more as a parent (and not here with an academic or education field or background), but also for my own development. So as a beneficiary.

Stepped into a couple of MOOCs, including #rhizo14 (so recognise some of you), but also some Design examples like whoami and Stefano Mirti (idlab). And I am from a creative arts context and background.

#11

I’m noticing a lot of interest in openness in the context of pedagogy here!

My own interest falls more into the land of open data. I want to better understand the reality of the situation and possible futures behind the massive “Open Data” trend that seems to be sweeping through governments of late. I’m especially interested in the tension between information as a commodity and information as a basic human right.

2 Likes
#12

I’m interested in open education and open educational resources in a “big picture” kind of way (impact on formal education systems, possibilities for resolving economic and social challenges) but for this course I think I’d like to explore ideas around openness in teaching and learning. My focus has always been to help teachers teach more effectively - primarily by helping them teach in unfamiliar environments, using unfamiliar technological tools. Teaching in the open, building courses using OERs - these pose new challenges to teachers in higher education and K-12 and in informal learning environments.
I’m interested in exploring ideas around how openness can affect teaching practice and the potential success of learners. Perhaps we need to practice with steadily increasing degrees of openness?

#13

@SylviaR, Hi Sylvia, I am an academic teacher involved in teaching grammar and what you have written is of my own concern as well. I am very much interested in using OER in my teaching; what’s more I’d like to help my students to move around the new (in Poland) landscape of OER - many of them are even not aware of the term itself. Do you think we could belong to one group?

#14

Hi everyone! I’m one of the facilitators of this course. I agree with @Brittney that there seems to be a lot of interest around openness in the context of pedagogy.

Would those interested in this field be willing to batch in as one group? Thoughts @clhendricksbc?

I’m happy to join in groups that talk about Open Data, OER’s and Free Culture.

:slight_smile:

#15

Sure. I’ll set up a group for us today? Maybe we’ll focus on open educational practices (a term I found on the OER and less used languages blog - http://blogs.eun.org/langoer )

#17

Great! BTW, you won’t believe it but I am a team member of the LangOER project :slight_smile: and you have just mentioned its blog.

#18

My only concern with this is that we might end up with one huge group, and then it might be a bit unwieldy, kind of like the large number we have already? I like the smaller groups because everyone’s voice really stands out and people get to know a few others really well. So I still think having smaller groups than everyone interested in open ed or open pedagogy is a good idea.

But of course, people should feel free to do what makes the most sense to them! If others want to join into a large group, that’s cool too!

#19

Seems that the one huge group is the way this is going. :frowning: I believe I need to go find a Creative Commons group - I don’t have any published papers to protect. Joe

#20

LOL :slight_smile: Even if you had published papers, what would you be protecting them from? :slight_smile:

#21

I agree with @clhendricksbc, smaller groups give participants greater opportunity for collaboration and voice. As a facilitator, I would prefer that groups are no larger than five and three is ideal (from teaching experience). Yes, like @clhendricksbc , everyone is free to do as everyone wishes.