Open education is something that I find both exciting and fascinating. I think that it is a way to take away the financial restrictions and other barriers that lots of people face and put the emphasis back on education. I think that only good things can come from this form of education, and the possibilities for improvements are endless.

One category of openness that excites me is looking at open participation. By removing the restrictions on courses more people would be able to participate, which would provide a higher diversity of students in the courses. I think that there are so many different perspectives out there that we can learn from, and by opening up who can take the courses you are allowing a greater difference of opinions, experiences, and understandings which will lead to a more enriched course. The most important and impactful things I’ve learned haven’t been from some old professor who has been teaching the same way for 40 years…

I also loved learning about open permissions. I had heard about creative commons licenses, but never really understood what they were. I think that by using openly licensed materials, we can encourage our students to engage and create more meaning from the information. This also means that the information we are interacting with is constantly growing and improving. I love the idea that anyone can take something, make it their own, make it better, and then share it to the world so that they can benefit as well. I think that this greatly reflects the teaching profession in general and should, therefore, be mirrored in the information we choose to interact with.

Furthermore, I think that open pedagogy is the very basis of good teaching. I agree with Jesse Stommel in this article, in that we want our students to be creators of knowledge not just consumers of it. Especially in today’s world, when technology is changing faster then we can keep up, it is incredibly important for our students to be able to take control of their learning and make meaning for themselves. I think that BC’s new curriculum goes hand in hand with open pedagogy, as we want students to take responsibility and be leaders in their education.

Overall, I agreed with a lot of the categories of open education. I think that information is constantly changing, and having open education allows us to better keep up with the changes taking place. I think that it eliminates the financial burdens and other barriers people may face and focuses on fair and open education for all people.

 

Photo Source: http://acreelman.blogspot.com/2018/06/open-educational-resources-still.html