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Hello Alastair, Markus, Brian, Terese, Marieke and everyone

There is always a danger of stretching any metaphor too far, but here, nevertheless, are a couple of further thoughts about 'learning parks'.

1. The very first parks were, I think, English deer parks, which had (according to Wikipedia) "walls or thick hedges around them to keep game in and people out." This sounds rather like schools, colleges and universities, which seek to keep the 'game' of learning to themselves and only allow access on their own terms to those whom they deem suitable to be allowed within the walls. Control of the park remains very much in the hands of (to use your words, Brian) "established major players [and] open to consume only in approved ways". The most obvious contemporary example that comes to mind is the extreme competitiveness of entry to 'better' universities.

2. Then in the nineteenth century we saw major developments of public parks, around the same time and for the same reasons as public libraries, museums and state-funded schools were expanding. But what makes parks, libraries and museums different from schools is that nobody tells you what to do when you are there. As long as you do not behave in a way that inconveniences others you may use what is on offer as you will, and in the case of museums and libraries you can do this by yourself or ask for some sort of guidance or guided tour. I agree Alastair with your implication that we need skilled teachers - but perhaps the teacher needs to evolve to be more like a librarian or museum guide, responding to the expressed needs of the would-be learner rather than imposing a prescribed curriculum. This bottom-up tradition of the teacher/learner relationship has, of course, been around for over 100 hundred years in the Nordic Study Circles model. And for a contemporary example of an 'open' park-like learning environment that meets your requirements, Alastair, for access, safety and support, we should look at the various makespaces/hackspaces that are appearing. (Cambridge Makespace is in fact open 24/7 subject to certain health and safety requirements.) Are there any makespaces/hackspaces yet in Germany, Markus?

Terese and Marieke, you have both raised a hugely important issue: "Who will pay for the park?" "How do you marry monetisation and openness?" It is surely naive to think that the future of education will be business as usual but with open resources sort of stuck on to traditional institutional models. Who gets paid in the learning park, how and for what type of service are questions I believe we have barely started to examine.

Best wishes

Terry


On 09/03/2015 14:54, Marieke Guy wrote:
[log in to unmask]" type="cite"> Teresa's mention of the BBC made me think of RES - which some of you may not be aware of:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/connectedstudio/events/res.html

"The Research and Education Space (RES) is a new platform of linked open data catalogues from a wide range of online educational resources. RES aims to significantly improve access and use of these resources for teaching, learning and research."

The BBC is an interesting example given their current situation and the charter renewal that's looming.

How do you marry monetisation and openness is something I think about quite a bit these days - I'm working on a project that is looking at this in the area of cultural heritage. It all still feels a little awkward but I think we have to learn to deal with it...and deal with it in better ways.

Even open parks have coffee kiosks which contain products that are there for the buying...

Marieke

On 09/03/2015 12:34, Bird, Terese M. wrote:
[log in to unmask]" type="cite"> 
Hello Markus,

In the UK we have the BBC which, to my knowledge, doesn't offer their material CC-licensed. But they do helpful things such as offer their programmes to universities so that students can freely watch/listen to them, in the form of an online platform (BOB). Also, the BBC collaborate with the UK Open University in lots of ways, and the results are made available in platforms such as FutureLearn MOOCs and iTunes U. These are not very open platforms in the strict sense, but they are free and attractive and pretty much accessible. So...

Is this a mixture of park and shopping mall? Do we have to compromise because otherwise who will pay for the park?

Friends, as part of Open Ed Week, tomorrow morning (Tuesday 10 March) at 9am UK time I will be speaking about institutional collaboration on MOOCs and also MOOCs for credit Two aspects of an impossible dream, perhaps? It would be great to 'see' you in the webinar which is happening on behalf of the eMundus EU Project.
 https://unir.adobeconnect.com/unirresearch

Cheers and looking forward to more open conversations esp this week!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terese Bird
Educational Designer and SCORE Research Fellow
Department of Medical and Social Care Education/Leicester Learning Institute
University of Leicester, 
University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK 
T:  +44 (0)116 252 5763
E: [log in to unmask]


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On 09/03/2015 11:09, Brian Kelly (work) wrote:
[log in to unmask]" type="cite"> The comments about the downside to parks are particularly relevant in a UK context - the recent announcement of the garden bridge across the River Thames in London.

As described, for example at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/064d7296-7a43-11e4-8958-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Tsvp6vz1
Billed as London’s answer to New York’s High Line, the Garden Bridge has been presented as a new public park spanning the Thames, an opportunity to stop and take in the views, free of traffic and framed by trees. What could possibly be wrong with that?

Almost everything, it turns out. The extravagant, organic design by Thomas Heatherwick topped off by a canopy of green is eye-catching. But what is it for? It links Temple on the north side of the river with the South Bank, two areas which do not particularly need linking. It is being proposed as a public park – but is it?

This might provide a good metaphor for the downsides of open education and open access: control by established major players; open to consume only in approved ways (registration in advance; limited number of participants; detrimental effects on existing valuable infrastructure; focussing on easy (and profitable) areas rather than addressing considerations such as inequality and widening participation;  etc.)

So although I'd agree with the sentiment "it is a big bad world out there in the open area of the web (more like a wilderness park)  but the way forward is in offering skills and understanding to teachers and learners so they can share and explore safely" I'd also add that there's a need to understand how existing players will seek to usurp the benefits.

Brian Kelly


-----Original Message-----
From: Open Education Special Interest Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Markus Deimann
Sent: 09 March 2015 10:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fwd: A 'public park' of learning?

I also like the metaphor of a public park very much and I think this is the way Open Education should move forward to. By paralleling the development from the analogue world with more and more shopping malls in which there are only customers allowed to stroll as long as they buy something we can enhance the importance of OER.

As the article is arguing public media may be a good starting point. In Germany, for instance, we have a new educational TV station (public) with only copyright protected material. It will be interesting to see how they react to the demand of transferring their material into OER.

Is anybody aware of similar situations in other countries?

Best,
Markus



Am 09.03.2015 um 11:07 schrieb aclark:

Interesting article Terry - thanks for pointing it out.   I think a
park in an interesting analogy - Parks are not totally benign places 
(John Lennon was shot dead in a park) but do offer opportunities to 
access lots of free resources but in fact they are not equally 
accessible but determined :

 * ability to reach the park in the first place
 * feeling safe in the park
 * having some idea of what to do when you get there.

Although these things are partly determined by the park itself  a big 
part is played by the physical resources and skills and knowledge of 
park users.

My conclusion: Yes, it is a big bad world out there in the open area 
of the web (more like a wilderness park)  but the way forward is in 
offering skills and understanding to teachers and learners so they can 
share and explore safely. (Am I naive?)

Alastair Clark




On 08/03/2015 10:42, Terry Loane wrote:

Hello friends and colleagues

By coincidence (I think) the start of Open Education Week sees an 
interesting article in today's Observer Tech Monthly 
(http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/05/digital-public-space-britain-missing-national-institution).
Jemima Kiss's article is highly critical of the internet as it 
currently exists, and talks of the need to build a

    /Digital Public Space [that] would be, in principle, equally
    accessible to anyone regardless of status or income... operating
    in the interests of users and not of the ecosystem itself./

Jemima makes no specific mention of education, but it seems to me 
there is a clear parallel between what she is imagining and what 
truly open education might look like. At one point she asks:

    /Rather than the internet as shopping mall - defined and dominated
    by commercial interests - how could we build the public park of
    the internet?//
    /

So here is a question from me for the start of Open Education Week:

    /Rather than further and higher education as shopping mall -
    defined and dominated by institutional interests - how could we
    build a public park of learning?//
    /

Any thoughts?

Terry Loane




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