Open teaching first then open learning

Background

It took a while before I was tasked again to meet our instructional design students in a course. For several years most of my interaction was with the information system students. Hence, I found renewed excitement and see this occasion of taking over the Social media and education course for one trimester as a chance to test the ideas I advocated in the teacher training I delivered outside my department.

I designed the course in the following fashion: First, there is the review of the various learning models. Then a grasp of how they personally experience learning. Then I move to the recollection of how technology was used and how it is being used in education (http://www.slideshare.net/mobilemartha/social-media-in-higher-education-ver2 ) This becomes the take off point to the discussion of what Web 2.0 was and what is Web 3.0 now. Hopefully after this, I intend to rejoin the discussion on social and personal learning, connectivism and the other open learning models.

Open teaching

Part of the inspiration of this term’s course is to model the experiment of Alec Couros (2010). He ran an open graduate course in the University of Regina. The open graduate course admitted registered and non-registered students who were willing to participate. The course introduced open education philosophies, social media tools and applications for the students to use, and encouraged participation in digital portfolios/personal blogs, collaborative wiki resource and a digital project applied in the professional context.

Two weeks after I have started the course and designed the content, I have decided to model Couros’ open teaching. “Open teaching is described as the facilitation of learning experiences that are open, transparent, collaborative, and social.” (Courios, 2010, p. 115)  It also emphasizes the “support to the critical consumption, production, connection and synthesis of knowledge through the shared development of personal learning networks.” (ibid.)

My course will only permit a registered or enrolled student. But I will encourage, even permit negotiations of topics and projects the students (in teams) will work on, resource and reference materials to use and to be shared in class.

So far I was successful in the last week activity– they defined and characterized web 3.0. They took time to contribute their own insights and work on the topic they have selected. Hopefully this will also anchor the project they will do at the end of the course.

It is not enough to just introduce and test many new web tools and applications. I intend to introduce PLE, personal learning environment, as an open approach and strategy. It is my belief that open teaching leads to open learning as well. And we will have more time to become acquainted to our own personal learning.

Reference: Couros A. (2010). Chapter 6 Developing personal learning networks for social and open learning, Emerging technologies in distance education.