To be completed by Thursday, January 6.
Watch the video below, in which Robin DeRosa and Rajiv Jhangiani introduce the idea of open pedagogy. The video is about one hour in length. The first three minutes are an introduction to the webinar series; you can fast forward to 3:12 if you would like to skip that part.
In the comments section below:
- Tell us what jazzes you about open pedagogy. What confuses you?
- Write a paragraph describing open pedagogy to a colleague.
The things that jazz me about this: The possibility of engaging learners in an authentic way. Also, access (broadly writ)–beyond textbook costs–increasing access to knowledge and enhancing learning. I am learning that Open Pedagogy is a democratic project, related to social justice–because it’s about giving students access to knowledge, yes–but also access to knowledge creation (students participate in the “creation, revision, and expansion of knowledge”). I love the idea of moving away from disposable assignments–assignments for assignment purposes only–and allowing learners to find a greater purpose and see value in what they are doing.
I think Open Pedagogy is not clearly defined. The definition is (being) co-created, but it is a place where theories about learning, teaching, technology, and social justice “enter into a conversation with each other and inform the development of educational practices and structures.” A key part seems to be the 5 Rs: retain, reuse, remix, revise, redistribute. And, at the heart of it is the commitment to accessibility, learner driven, connected learning. Learners are contributors, and transformers of knowledge. The idea is that learning is an active process–that fields of knowledge are in motion–and that learners can be in a dialogic process where they contribute and receive knowledge.
The things that jazz me about this: the never-ending possibilities of open education. These are the new frontiers of knowledge creation. I feel energized to use open education with students and work towards creating a more humanizing discourse about crime and justice.
My confusion stems from OERs – types, limitations of licenses. I feel I constantly need to revisit which materials are OER and which aren’t.
To me, open pedagogy is about the accessibility of materials and knowledge. It is about challenging the stale information contained in static textbooks. It is about changing the conversation about so many issues in my discipline.
The development of open pedagogy benefits from the opportunities of the digital knowledge era, which is in line with the concepts of convenience and low-cost education. Open pedagogy has become a new field, and it is still developing and changing. At present, there is no consensus on the definition of open pedagogy. The open pedagogy is mainly an open education practice, which enables students to actively and repetitively use resources and networks in the learning process, and improves students’ self-management, creativity and teamwork ability.
The definition of open pedagogy includes the creation process, reuse, re-modification and re-recombination of open educational resources. For example, use social networks to interact and learn together, and build an open teaching practice model in the knowledge learned. The open pedagogy comprehensively and specifically uses a combination of different resources, emphasizing learning participation and improving students’ active learning in teaching activities.
The term, Open Pedagogy defies any form of static definition. Just as the adjective ‘open’ means, the term is open to different interpretations based on the educator’s vision for teaching and how he or she relates to or interacts with the constituent factors in the environment, including teaching and learning theories and being responsive to the needs of students. The vision for teaching is in flux, constantly changing as a result of the interaction with the surrounding elements, which are neither static.
What inspires me about Open Pedagogy?
What inspires me about the approach is the open access it provides for learners. The educator designs a course in such a way that students, regardless of their economic status or physical abilities, have equal access to knowledge. This feature is applicable to the BMCC context, where some students may drop or fail a course because of lack of textbooks, limited time to access class content, and sometimes lack of study skills.
What confuses you?
What confuses me about the approach is where to start and how to adapt teaching practices. For instance, how can the learning outcomes be adapted to needs of students when they are pre- determined by the department?
When explaining Open Pedagogy to a colleague, I might say that Open Pedagogy is an approach that empowers the educator to be in constant conversation or interaction with key elements in the environment, including theories of teaching and learning, technology, and the quest for social justice. Frequent conversation with the elements will shape the educator’s vision and practice. A key feature of Open Pedagogy is access to education, which is not only limited to college affordability, or course materials, but also removing barriers that obstacles to student success.
I am interested in designing open pedagogy, how to carefully design the specific methods, activities and evaluation system of open teaching, so that the teaching focus is prominent, the teaching content is concise and easy to understand, and the evaluation can truly and comprehensively reflect the teaching and learning effects. I would like to learn and explore how the application of open pedagogy can combine students’ autonomous learning with instructor’s guidance, stimulate students’ learning enthusiasm and creativity, and achieve the best teaching and learning effects.
Open pedagogy has changed the traditional education model, it advocates students to actively participate, think independently, actively explore under the guidance of the instructor, and analyze and solve problems through teamwork, mobilize and develop students’ autonomy and enthusiasm for active learning, stimulate students’ interest and creativity in learning. Open pedagogy makes better use of social education resources, makes learning activities truly based on students’ independent activities and independent exploration, and provides the greatest space for students to think, explore, discover and create, and develop their learning potential, cultivate their independent learning ability, enable students to master relevant knowledge and skills, acquire innovative ability, and maximize the learning effects.
What gets me jazzed about open pedagogy is the potential to engage students in creating their own definition of value for their education. While I know the material is valuable through my own paradoxes and paradigm, having the learners engage in the learning in a way that makes it valuable to them is the ultimate goal. Education needs to be fluid but not all educators are trained or aware or willing to be that jellyfish and go with the flow of the students’ interest.
What is open pedagogy you ask?
Take what you know about a flipped classroom, where the class discussion is led/driven by the students and instigated by the questions posed by the instructor, and take it one step further. Not only are you, the instructor, guiding the conversation through instigating questions to push the learners to consider all aspects, but you’re also providing an opportunity for those learners to create/define the value of the lesson through their investigation facilitated by your questioning. The difficult part of this is, as the instructor, having to be skilled enough to keep the conversation within your intended outcome/path while at the same time ensuring that the students feel invested with a sense of ownership over that very path. It is a lot like jazz (if you like jazz). You have to be able to play off of one another while still creating a pleasant sound that all can appreciate in their own way. For a pop-culture reference, the class would almost look like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGdz2rMbTIM – everyone has their own song that plays off the next group’s song – all different styles but everyone just wants to make music.