As I reflect on this week’s journey, I am struck by the sheer number of Open Educational Resources there are in this world. As an Instructional Designer, one of my responsibilities is to provide direction to faculty on available resources they may incorporate in their courses. One of the reasons I am interested in this … Continue reading Pre-cMooc Week Reflections
Tag Archives: openlearning
Looking Forward
This week for Open Learning ’18, I’m to expound on these two questions…
- What do you hope to get from Open Learning ’18?
- What do you hope to contribute to Open Learning ’18?
Well shoot, if I knew that I probably wouldn’t be here. Okay… breathe… Just be honest…
What do I want to “get” from OL18? Well… everything. Am I asking too much? Of course I am, but it’s what I want.
I have found myself in a unique situation on my current campus. I’m leading the Open Education Task Force for the administration and trying to generate discussion to see where we want to go as a campus. While I know the basics of OER and how it functions, I have no real experience with it beyond my own teaching where I have “borrowed” ideas, activities, and in class materials for my own use. I have had the great pleasure to work with some fabulous people who were always willing to collaborate and talk though how they did things so peers could benefit and adapt their idea for their own use. When I started this is what you did as a good colleague, but I don’t think any of us saw it as OER, although essentially it was, it’s just moved online. I know nothing about how librarians fit in, how web components fit in, how to generate excitement for OER, or how to garner support. I’m essentially hoping to get some great ideas I can take forward on my campus in an area where I feel inept.
Contribution? LOTS of questions. I essentially feel brand new to this and I have quite a bit to learn. I want to be effective on my campus, but I need more information, guidance, and expertise to feel comfortable in this arena. So I’m going to be leaning on the MOOC to help me learn. What I will give you, is a new voice to question how you got to where you are, what is good or bad about OER, and general inquisitiveness about anything you bring up. I’m looking forward to the discussion.
What I Want to Learn: #OpenLearning18
”Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
– Ben Franklin
I am excited to be involved with #OpenLearning18 because it offers the experience of sharing ideas with likeminded individuals who are interested in improving learning. What I want to know is how others are incorporating both the concept of open learning, as well as the tools of open learning, into their work. I want to know how others think open learning will (or could) impact education at all levels.
What I hope to contribute to #OpenLearning18 is a willingness to share, participate and ask questions (sorry, I am a novice!) I hope to encourage, and to be encouraged, to find new ways of applying the concept of open learning to improve my teaching and promote sharing among colleagues. I am looking forward to this experience with all of you!
-Sherry
Pacing myself
Ok… I did my very first tweeting today.
In the morning I played along with #DigitalGaurdiansEg Twitter Scavenger Hunt and that wasn’t so bad. People posted pictures and other people guessed what the pictures were. I didn’t get to the party until late, so for me the asynchronousity of it was an easy way for me to learn the ins and outs of replying and loving something. I also got to learn the “tabs” for keeping up with content.
Then came the afternoon live tweeting with the #OpenLearning18 group… Oh my… I’m so out of my depth. I felt unsure of what to do in the beginning and as we progressed I felt that I couldn’t keep up. Understand… there were only like 8 of us, but it felt like 80 to this novice. I muddled through and think I did well enough in the end. I didn’t try an original post, but I did lots of replying and (to my mind) supportive commentary.
After the chat was over, I went back to the pre-syllabus, and remembered seeing Sue Erickson’s post about surviving and thriving. I re-read it and bullet 4 struck like lighting. I don’t have to be on every post, comment, or blog. I get to choose, I’m not supposed to do everyting… Wow.
I know for some of you this will sound crazy, but for me this concept is profound. It was recently commented by my co-worker that I don’t say no to anything I’m asked to do. As a librarian and contentious employee, why would I say no to a request? If it’s in my power to help, I help. If it’s not, I find someone who can. I have always been this way and it works for me.
So for me this translates to… As a student why would I not do all the work? I have always been an overachiever who read the syllabus and some of the material before the first day of class. I tried to get assignments, readings, and homework done early. I was that student in class that had the orderly binder of all the materials annotated a week before it was discussed.
In this setting, I have to teach myself not to do it all. I need to remain flexible but focused so I don’t overwhelm myself. I have to choose my path which may be the through the woods and not on the road everyone else is on. And I have to learn that that’s okay.
Open Learning
My first post should be about why I started this blog… so …
I’m joining http://openlearninghub.net to collaborate with other professionals on “open.”
- Open learning
- Open education
- Open access
- Open collaboration
I’m hoping to learn and share where we go and how we get there.
Open Learning Initiative 2018
Greetings!
My name is Susan Thomas and I am from Northeast Missouri. I am an Instructional 
Designer at a beautiful, public liberal arts college – Truman State University.
Before working in higher education, I was an Instructional Designer and Instructor in the corporate sector for over 15 years. Prior to that, I was a teacher in the public school system. I hold a Masters of Science in Education, with a specialization in Instructional Design for Online Learning from Capella University in Minneapolis, MN.
I have experience designing a wide variety of courses, including Instructor-Led, Hybrid, Blended, and both synchronous and asynchronous online courses. As part of that process, I recommend Open Learning Resources, and I am very interested in all the Open Learning Initiative has to offer!
OpenLearning – First Post
I am not sure what I will be posting here for this category, but this is a start . . .
My First Blog Post Ever
Welcome to A Life of Learning and my first ever blog post! I am starting this blog because I am preparing to participate in #OpenLearing18 and thus I am trying to be more…open. Being a private person, there is a big part of me that would prefer to simply stay off the grid, and up until recently, I have tried. (Just ask my friends who have finally stopped hounding me to use Facebook!) However, my second career of being a research and user experience librarian has brought me to more fully understand that learning occurs everywhere–through experiences, people and across all sorts of media formats. I am excited to enter into this new experience with #OpenLearing18 in order to learn about new ideas, new ways of learning, as well as new ways to become more open myself by participating with open technologies. And the journey begins…
-Sherry
OPEN LEARNING: A Connectivist MOOC for Faculty Collaboratives
From February 4-March 29, 2018, I will be participating in Open Learning ’18, a cMOOC designed to explore all the “opens” (open educational resources, open access, open pedagogical practices, open and participatory cultures, etc.). Learn more on their website: http://openlearninghub.net/
This post was created to test my openlearning category’s RSS feed.