By David Wells, editor at Surviving the OU

I’ve been snowed under recently with OU work so it’s been difficult finding the time among TMAs and “life” to write blog posts. Sounds typical – I’m caught in meta loop where I haven’t had time to write about my OU experiences because I’m too busy working on the module that I’m supposed to be writing about 🙂

Anyway, quick recap of recent weeks in more of a formative manner.

Week 11: The impact of OER on pedagogy

Introduction by Martin Weller: “This week you will examine the pedagogy and approaches to teaching used in open education.”

Study objectives for the week:

• the impact of abundant content
• connectivism as pedagogy for online courses
• rhizomatic learning
• how to take into account learner experience when designing a connectivist course
• the advantages and disadvantages of specified pedagogies.

Activity 17: Student co-creation – De Rosa reading on open textbooks.

Activity 18: Theory of connectivism and its critics. Connectivism is a theory developed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes about how and where to find information being more important than just knowing it.

Activity 19: Devising a course with a strong connectivist approach.

Activity 20: Exploring Rhizomatic learning. See video below.

Week 12: Using technology to support open learning

Introduction by Martin Weller: “This week you will explore the types of technology used in open education, and why they have been adopted.”

Study objectives for this week:

• the relationship between technology and pedagogy
• which technologies are effective in open education
• the Digital Visitors and Residents framework and how it applies to your own context.

Activity 21: The chicken and egg conundrum – technology and pedagogy inter-relate. The relationship between technology and pedagogy.

Technologies in open education. Blogs, links and embeds, social networks, VLEs and other technologies.

Activity 22: An open education technology

Activity 23: Mapping visitors and residents – Marc Prensky (2001) coined the term ‘digital natives’ arguing that the younger generation is immersed in technology when entering education and they have a different understanding and relationship with technology than the ‘digital immigrants’ who have to learn it. David White has rephrased the idea more successfully as ‘digital residents’ and ‘visitors’. This describes a range of online behaviours and the same person can operate in resident or visitor mode for different tasks.

Week 13: Preparing your TMA02

Martin Weller (again): “You are now at the end of Block 2. The main focus this week is on completing TMA02, so there is only one activity.”

Activity 24: Reflecting on openness

TMA: A report proposal detailing the benefits, risks and general recommendations around adopting an open education policy in an organisation of the student’s choosing (real or fictitious). 

For more of the latest course updates on social media: https://twitter.com/hashtag/h817

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