[Oer-community] A reflection

Mark Bullen mbullen at col.org
Wed Nov 14 16:07:57 MST 2012


Helen:
I'm glad you asked that question because I have also been struggling to
understand what the practical outcome of an OER map would be, how it
would advance the "movement" and how it would help practitioners - the
teachers who are trying to locate, evaluate and integrate OER into their
teaching. The benefits that Susan lists all make sense to me but I guess
I don't fully understand what the map would actually be. Is it, for
example, intended to be a kind of meta-repository? I share your concern
about investing a lot of energy in trying to devise technical solutions
without a clear identification of the problem. 

Mark.


Mark Bullen, Ph.D.
Education Specialist - eLearning
Commonwealth of Learning
1055 West Hastings, Suite 1200
Vancouver, BC, V6E 2E9
CANADA
1 604 775 8261

-----Original Message-----
From: oer-community-bounces at athabascau.ca
[mailto:oer-community-bounces at athabascau.ca] On Behalf Of Lentell, Helen
M.
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 1:57 PM
To: oer-community
Subject: Re: [Oer-community] A reflection

Dear Colleagues

Interesting conversation. But I am reminded of a comment made some years
ago in the distance learning community, it was this: if technology is
the answer what is the question? Following on from this:  if mapping
OERs is the answer what is the educational problem we are trying to
address?  

Best wishes 

Helen

Helen Lentell
University Fellow in Distance Learning
Centre for Labour Market Studies
Ken Edwards Building
University Road
Leicester LE1 7RH
UK

helen.lentell at le.ac.uk
________________________________________
From: oer-community-bounces at athabascau.ca
[oer-community-bounces at athabascau.ca] On Behalf Of Susan D'Antoni
[susandantoni at gmail.com]
Sent: 14 November 2012 17:10
To: oer-community at athabascau.ca
Subject: [Oer-community] A reflection

Dear Colleagues,

This has been a most energetic start to our discussion of mapping the
landscape of OER initiatives.  To see this OER community spring into
action again is such a pleasure after being in contact with many of you
since 2005.

And like our colleague, Saul Fisher, I too was at the 2002 meeting at
UNESCO when the Term Open Educational Resources came into being and like
him "find the progress in OER over the decade "beyond my wildest hopes".

Maps are "powerful representations for creating, representing and
visualizing open knowledge" (Ale Okada) but no, there has been no
decision taken anywhere that we will create an OER world map (Sandra
Schosn concern).

In the discussion so far, there have been a number of points made about
the potential benefits of a visual map of the OER landscape - such as -

*   serve as a gateway
*   make more initiatives visible beyond the well-known ones
*   identify initiatives operating in different languages
*   help find OER
*   identify the OER community
*   foster new collaboration and cooperative efforts

But there have been some concerns expressed - such as -

*   it is a big task so it needs to be a simple map
*   it needs to be self sustaining
*   It is tempting to collect too much data
*   it needs to be carefully structured and organized
*   we need to define or classify initiatives

The point about sustainability and the need to keep it simple are good
points to bear in mind.  I had the privilege (because I was not trained
as a statistician) of working at Statistics Canada, a fine statistical
agency.  I learned a lot, but one thing that stuck with me was the
extremely high cost of collecting information and the importance of
"essential" data, not "nice to have".  It truly is a temptation to want
more and morre information.  But if we aimed to describe the global OER
landscape, then the amount of information to begin building an OER world
map might best be what we consider absolutely essential.  Discipline!

Let's keep the two lists of pros and concerns in mind as we continue
this train of discussion.  Then let's move on to considering what
essential information might be for an initial mapping exercise.

Lovely conversation,

Susan

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