[Oer-community] In fields like OER -- Shouldn't we eat our own dog food?

Wayne Mackintosh wayne at oerfoundation.org
Tue Oct 12 03:37:20 MDT 2010


Hi Theo, in response to your questions / issues:

<Fear of loss of copyright>

Open content licensing does not necessarily mean that academics and
educators loose their copyright. For instance, Creative Commons licenses are
based on a culture of permissions. The creators of OER can retain their
copyright but license their work by providing a number of permissions -- eg
reuse, modification etc. on condition that downstream users acknowledge
their sources. So no loss of copyright ;-)

<Loss of income>.

With reference to the creation and reuse of educational materials -- the
salaries of the majority of educators working at tertiary education
institutions at state funded institutions are indirectly paid by their
respective governments. I don't see that producing teaching materials as OER
will result in a loss of income for educators.

On the contrary, I think OER demonstrates a commitment to the core values of
education to share knowledge freely -- we should celebrate this.

Some tertiary education institutions might suggest that they will loose
competitive advantage by opening up their materials. I'm not aware of any
research evidence that shows a decline in student enrolment at any given
institution using OER resources as part of their curriculum.  In reality, I
think students choose where they will study based on the reputation and
quality of learner support provided -- not the prescribed texts or learning
content in courses.

<fear of breach of copyright>

This is a real concern -- most educators are not well versed in the
complexities of copyright. In the near future, we are aiming to address some
of these concerns by developing guidelines and free online workshops for
educators around open content licensing. If you're interested in helping us
out in addressing these concerns -- feel free to join this project involving
OCWC, OERF and Creative Commoners. (See:
http://wikieducator.org/Open_Content_Licensing)

<fear of error>

That is a normal and reasonable concern.  It relates to the notion of
"learning to share".  In reality very few of us have the skills to produce a
perfect product without repeated revisions cycles drawing on feedback from
our peers.  In real life we all start with a draft concept, and improve as
we go along. So developing OER using open peer-collaboration models is
normal and quite human. We just need to get better in supporting each other
in dealing with these legitimate fears. In real life -- its OK to make
mistakes, its a part of a natural learning process :-).

<fear of perceived quality>

This is also a concern in the real world. However, as professional educators
we can produce high quality results. We have the power and autonomy to
produce high quality resources. Quality is equally important in both closed
and open models. Why should the quality of OER be any different?

Great questions -- as professional educators, let's work together in finding
the solutions!

Cheers
Wayne




On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 10:08 PM, Theo Lynn <theodore.g.lynn at gmail.com>wrote:

> How do we overcome some of the problems Sudhakar mentions:
>
> - fear of loss of copyright
> - fear of loss of income
> - fear of copyright infringement
> - fear of error
> - fear of perceived poor quality
>
> Many academics I have spoken to in relation to open courseware, and in
> particular those who have never contributed OER, cite fear of infringing
> copyright and also negative perceptions of quality and even errors in
> materials. This fear of judgement is a major barrier.
>
> If we know why people don't open up resources, then we can address.
>
> Are there other barriers/solutions?
>
> Rgds
>
> Theo
>
>
> _____________
> Dr. Theo Lynn
> Director, DCU LINK Research Centre
> Dublin City University
>
> t: +35317006873
> e: <theo.Lynn at dcu.ie> <theo.Lynn at dcu.ie>theo.Lynn at dcu.ie
>
>
> On 12 Oct 2010, at 08:18, Wayne Mackintosh < <wayne at oerfoundation.org>
> wayne at oerfoundation.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Sudhakar
>
> On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 7:26 PM, Sudhakar Agarkar <<s_agarkar at hotmail.com><s_agarkar at hotmail.com>
> s_agarkar at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> In India I am engaged in developing open educational resources for
>> schools. I am focusing on all three stakeholders namely students, teachers
>> and parents. I am finding it difficult to get suitable material for my
>> project. There are only a few persons who are ready to share their
>> manuscripts. A large majority are concerned with the copyright and the
>> honorarium that they would get.
>>
>
> The OER Foundation <http://wikieducator.org/OERF:Home> is more than happy
> to help where we can, and we can connect you with educators in India who
> share your objectives.
>
> There is an impressive and active WikiEducator community in India (see:
> <http://wikieducator.org/India> <http://wikieducator.org/India>
> http://wikieducator.org/India) fostering the development of OER. The
> Indian chapter was formerly launched by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan (see
> <http://wikieducator.org/India/wikieducator_launch><http://wikieducator.org/India/wikieducator_launch>
> http://wikieducator.org/India/wikieducator_launch) father of the green
> revolution and honoured by Time Magazine as one of the top 20 most
> influential figures in Asia (<http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/cover1.html><http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/cover1.html>
> http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/cover1.html). I
> encourage you to connect with the WikiEducator OER team in India (<http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_Indian_Ambassadors><http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_Indian_Ambassadors>
> http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_Indian_Ambassadors).
>
> The OER Foundation provides free online training to educators around the
> world who want to develop wiki skills for OER development through the
> Learning4Content initiative. The next workshop starts on 20 October -- see
> <http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C46/Register><http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C46/Register>
> http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C46/Register and
> feel free to spread the word.
>
> In New Zealand, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education the OER
> Foundation is working on a project to build a national OER commons for the
> school sector (see <http://wikieducator.org/OERNZ><http://wikieducator.org/OERNZ>
> http://wikieducator.org/OERNZ). All our planning documents and resources
> are freely available under open content licenses and you are most welcome
> (and free) to reuse, adapt and modify these for supporting OER in the school
> sector in India.  The OERNZ Newsletters may help generate a few ideas (see:
> <http://wikieducator.org/New_Zealand_Schools_OER_Portal/Resources/OERNZ_News><http://wikieducator.org/New_Zealand_Schools_OER_Portal/Resources/OERNZ_News>
> http://wikieducator.org/New_Zealand_Schools_OER_Portal/Resources/OERNZ_News).
> All these Newsletters are available in open file formats which you can adapt
> modify and reuse for your own purposes.
>
> Cheers
> Wayne
>
>
>
>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:25:44 +1300
>> From: <wayne at oerfoundation.org> <wayne at oerfoundation.org>
>> wayne at oerfoundation.org
>> Subject: [Oer-community] In fields like OER -- Shouldn't we eat our own
>> dog food?
>> To: <oer-community at athabascau.ca> <oer-community at athabascau.ca>
>> oer-community at athabascau.ca
>>
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> Congratulations to Susan and team at Athabasca University for continued
>> support of this OER forum and community.
>>
>> In the corporate world "eating your own dog food" is when a company uses
>> the products that it makes - the idea being that "if you expect customers to
>> buy your products, you should also be willing to use them". (See Wikipedia -
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food.)
>>
>> Notwithstanding the phenomenal progress of the open content and free
>> culture movements over the last decade, OER still has a long way to go
>> before it is mainstream practice in the formal education sector. Paul
>> Stacey's suggestion of encouraging institutions to use and remix OER created
>> externally is a good one because it will teach organisations the value of
>> sharing.
>>
>> In the OER world we are still in the early learning phases of our own
>> capability maturity. We now need to shift from the notion of "sharing to
>> learn" to "learning to share". "Sharing to learn" focuses on the core value
>> and purpose of education -- that is, to share knowledge freely.  However,
>> "learning to share" is the real challenge but also the "competitive
>> advantage" of OER ;-).
>>
>> As movement, if we a serious about nurturing the development of
>> sustainable OER ecosystems on a global scale -- I think we should start
>> "eating our own dog food". That is, as individual OER projects fostering and
>> promoting openness, transparency and collaboration through self--organising
>> and open systems.
>>
>> The OER landscape is characterised by project silos with very little
>> collaboration among OER initiatives. There is a high level of redundancy and
>> duplication of core resources used to support OER projects. For example,
>> funding proposals and grant applications are typically developed under
>> all-rights reserved copyright. Core policy documents and strategic meetings
>> associated with OER projects happen behind closed doors and not very
>> transparent.
>>
>> IMHO, our strategic point of difference (when compared to closed models)
>> must be our openness.
>>
>> Shouldn't we as the OER movement be more open and start eating our own dog
>> food? What can and should we collectively be doing to leverage our openness
>> for the benefit of society?
>>
>> If we are serious about real social change let's make a shift towards open
>> philanthropy (Here I'd recommend reading Mark Surman's ideas on the concept
>> of open philanthropy -
>> <http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/open-philanthropy-and-a-theory-of-change/><http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/open-philanthropy-and-a-theory-of-change/>
>> http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/open-philanthropy-and-a-theory-of-change/
>> )
>>
>> Cheers
>> Wayne
>> --
>> Wayne Mackintosh <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg>, Ph.D.
>> Director OER Foundation <http://www.oerfoundation.org/>
>> Director, International Centre for Open Education,
>> Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand.
>> Founder and elected Community Council Member, Wikieducator<http://www.wikieducator.org/>
>> Mobile +64 21 2436 380
>> Skype: WGMNZ1
>> Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg
>>
>> _______________________________________________ Oer-community mailing list
>> <Oer-community at athabascau.ca> <Oer-community at athabascau.ca>
>> Oer-community at athabascau.ca
>> <https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/listinfo/oer-community><https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/listinfo/oer-community>
>> https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/listinfo/oer-community
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Wayne Mackintosh <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg>, Ph.D.
> Director OER Foundation <http://www.oerfoundation.org/>
> Director, International Centre for Open Education,
> Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand.
> Founder and elected Community Council Member, Wikieducator<http://www.wikieducator.org/>
> Mobile +64 21 2436 380
> Skype: WGMNZ1
> Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Oer-community mailing list
> <Oer-community at athabascau.ca>Oer-community at athabascau.ca
> <https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/listinfo/oer-community>
> https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/listinfo/oer-community
>
>


-- 
Wayne Mackintosh <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg>, Ph.D.
Director OER Foundation <http://www.oerfoundation.org/>
Director, International Centre for Open Education,
Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand.
Founder and elected Community Council Member,
Wikieducator<http://www.wikieducator.org/>
Mobile +64 21 2436 380
Skype: WGMNZ1
Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/private/oer-community/attachments/20101012/1ea881b3/attachment-0001.html 


More information about the Oer-community mailing list