How have our 523 explorations made you feel about the future of open learning and how it might impact your career? Remember that our course scope includes emerging trends in social, open, flexible and mobile learning, so you are welcome to blend how and where you believe influence will occur.
Please share your thoughts, and take the time to peruse and recommend especially important thoughts contributed by peers.
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In my candid opinion, anyone who thinks open learning is a threat to the teaching career may need to alter their thinking about teaching (from my elementary perspective). If the only teaching occurring in class is didactic, without exploration, opportunity, or inquiry, then children are not getting what they need to grow and succeed. Life is about choice, and so should education, it is still the teacher’s job to tailor the options so students choose beneficial activities, in addition to guiding, building relationships, providing feedback, and a plethora of other things teachers do for their students. In these ways, open education is just another opportunity for teachers to improve education, if they learn it, embrace it, and implement it.
Open Learning is an opportunity. So much time in school is spent giving assignment outlines with attached rubrics that tell the students exactly what it is that they need to do to pass. Those that just want the pass will go for the bare minimum. Those that want to surpass the masses will aim for the extending column. Then there are those that forget the outline and rubric even exist and at least put their name on whatever it was they created. I think about the last group of students often. How do I engage them? How do I get them interested in what they are learning?
The best moments in my classroom are when I give my students the freedom to choose. Whether I label it Genius Hour, Operation Genius, or Life Skills, there is so much learning that can happen that doesn’t have to come directly from the curriculum or an academic source – instead, it’s a lot of YouTube, WikiHow and Pinterest. Does it always work? No. There will be those students who take it as an opportunity to play games, or create memes, or distract their friends by messaging them on Teams. These are often people from the last group of students I mentioned before – eventually, they do get to work. There will also be those students, more than I ever expect, that don’t know how to start a project where the topic is not chosen for them because they’ve never been given the opportunity (I relate to these students. If there are no guidelines, I often feel overwhelmed by the possibilities). In the end, there is so much pride in their accomplishments and new experiences/skills that they want to show everyone, and keep learning more about it.
A large part of this open learning in my classroom is reaching out to other people that are ‘experts’ in their field, finding a mentor within their community if they can. My students are still fairly young, so I am not encouraging them to talk to strangers on the internet (though I do tell them to look at forums and blog posts to learn from other people’s experiences), but to talk to the adults in their life to see if their interests sync up and if there is someone willing to take them on. The more comfortable they are with the person they have chosen as a mentor, the more vulnerable they might allow themselves to be and the more they might challenge the status quo in the subject of their choosing. This is about learning how to becoming part of a global community to further their exploration and advancement in a common interest.
Open learning is interesting to think about when it comes to our future as teachers. Although I think open learning is a natural progression in a world of flexible mobile technologies, internet, and increased access, we have discussed why it’s not the perfect cure-all for future education. During our mobile forum, we had a group create an OER on MOOCs where they discussed the advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps open learning will impact more mature learners, but I do see value in smaller classes, in-person classes, and the involvement of teachers. Especially for younger students, those that can use support, or that need a more focused environment. I can say that I would have really struggled in an open learning educational context when I was younger. Now, if I’m pursuing something that interests me, I think I could learn a lot.
I think the answer to this question is much larger than my personal context. I have embraced open learning over the last decade purely out of necessity. In my world the resources to teach Robotics were written for post secondary and industry level applications; they were totally inappropriate for high school students. So what do you do? You turn to the crowdsourced and DIY resources online and use some critical thinking skills to assemble something that looks like a coherent course. In doing this I came to the realization that I didn’t have any special skills or training for this type of learning. If I could do it, why couldn’t my students? To take this beyond the personal context I want to ask a question: what happens to traditional education when it stops addressing the needs of society? If students can only learn from a curated “textbook” style course, can they survive in a world of algorithms? Is it more important to know how to read the textbook page perfectly or would it be better to have the skills to parse one million Google search results for the truth? Open learning is a shift that many schools are struggling with (and many are embracing) and I suspect that those places that consider it a “fad” may find themselves left behind in the near future.
I can’t wait for open learning to take off. The way classes are delivered have been stagnant for centuries. If we want to improve learning outcomes, we need to be open to change. We need to consider alternatives to how students want to learn and how new methods of instructional design can incorporate technology into the learning environment. Typically, pandemics last between 3 to 5 years. Covid 19 – will not be the last pandemic. No institution can survive on online emergency teaching. This point in time is the make or break point in education. I know how I want to change the status quo, but what will you do about it? How will you promote needed change?
In my opinion, open learning means being flexible. As an educator, the instructional methods, learning processes, and accessibility is constantly changing and open learning provides opportunities to critically analyze the resources, perhaps challenge current teaching practices, and improve skills with basically no limitations. It can be overwhelming but it also means learners can pick and choose what they want to learn anytime, anywhere, and in any shape or form. I think open learning is what aligns with the idea of lifelong learning and demonstrating accountability.
I see open learning as much more of an opportunity than a threat. I think schools and Ministries need to provide more open-learning opportunities and recognition for students (BC does a particularly poor job of this). Unfortunately, there is still too much focus on money in education to allow students to truly pursue open-learning that will be recognized. It would really help smaller schools and districts that can’t provide the opportunities themselves due to lack of resources. The fact that in order to receive credits, you still need to be taking courses that are paid through districts prevents many students from being able to pursue their interests because only the most internally motivated students, especially high school students, will pursue open-learning if they’re not going to get recognition for it. Embracing open-learning and allowing students to pursue courses and online learning, even if it doesn’t look like a typical course with tests and assignments, should be allowed, encouraged and recognized. The more opportunities and diversity of options we can provide, the better the reputation of education will become and the more people will recognize the value of education.
I think that open learning enables people to continuously improve their skills or even change directions in their career. With so many open, free, online resources, everyone has the opportunity to learn about topics they are interested. You no longer need to go through a formal education program to gain the knowledge or skills for a certain job. I think it means more flexibility to pursue different interests. I feel more enabled by open learning than threatened. I’m more confident that I will be able to gain the skills I need for a career change. I think open learning gave me confidence that I can gain the skills I want from open education resources and participate in an online, global community.
Open learning is an opportunity given to all of those who want to enhance their learning opportunities in any field that they are interested in. I appreciate the fact that not all learning has to go through a formal education system. There are a lot of learning resources out there, it gives the chance to students to better understand the subject that they would like to learn.
As an educator, I somehow feel intimidated by open learning. If there are so my open learning opportunities out there for students to learn at their own pace, will teachers still be needed?
Hi Silvia, I just wanted to add on to what you’re saying with regards to the ability for learning to be more personalized… open learning definitely allows for an individual approach to learning for our students as well as the ability for them to explore personal interests and skill development. The variety of ways to access information, audio, visual, text, that mobile learning offers even further helps to individualize the learning process. This also applies to professional development as educators; we can find a variety of sources around something that we would like to develop as a teacher and then apply that understanding to our practice.
As many have said throughout the course, teachers will still be needed but in a different way than what people traditionally think of when the hear the word teacher. Students of all ages benefit from having someone help to facilitate a learning process – be it to develop the skills needed to find appropriate open learning sources to curating relevant and reliable information. In addition to this, teachers help to challenge thinking along the way by asking questions, even if it is on a topic that the teacher is unfamiliar with. They provide support in the process of learning. Teachers are facilitators in a student’s learning journey.
Open learning to me gives the students more flexibility to learn what they want, and go about it the way that the find is interesting to them. I think in regards to my career, open learning would change the way I teach as I would be more of a supporter and monitor rather than standing and delivering the lessons. Open learning is exciting to me as it allows students to own their learning and be more accountable.
The aspect of open learning I appreciate the most is that it is learner-centred. It shifts the focus away from accreditation and more towards merit, meaning starting from any point, if you wish to become an expert in an area you can access the resources required and put in the time and effort to achieve your goals. In looking at the world of “micro credentials”, and the shift to a more standards-based approach to learning and assessment, I think we will see job postings that look for a wide range of focused skills and knowledge rather than a macro scale degree or specific program. We will also see many paths to demonstrating that mastery, and hopefully the ability for a learner to advocate for their understanding in whatever form best suits them.
In terms of my career, it makes it incredibly easy to be a lifelong learner, as I can constantly find small areas I can improve and grow. I think it also means I need to spend more time learning for myself how to evaluate and connect to quality learning opportunities, both for my own development, and to support the learners in whatever learning community I am supporting.
My wondering is how we can encourage individuals to access open learning resources but how they can also be transformed from cognitivist to more social cognitivist or constructivist and interactive. Even the most goal-driven people may struggle in open courses without peer/instructor support or interaction.
Open learning offers so many more opportunities to work in education without “working” in education. Formal institutions are no longer the gatekeepers of knowledge and while I may work in a formal institution now, my career in education could easily pivot to YouTube content creation, grant-funded OER creation, ad-supported online course design, or even just consulting for organizations making their own open learning resources. I’m sure we all know plenty of non-educators who offer courses or educational YouTube videos for free as a promotion for their main business.
This plethora of avenues gives me a greater sense of freedom in my work life. I love the fact that I can make a living in so many different ways and that I don’t have to be married to working a “job job” at a formal institution.
Hi Anne, that is an interesting point about pivoting your job. Students need to realize that they should be flexible with their learning, which allow them to be flexible in the future. I liked your outlook about the job market. It is encouraging to discuss open learning as wealth of opportunities for learning and employment. I think the current outlook is to be a lifelong learner and open learning provides everyone with that opportunity. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
With our changing world, there seems to be more contract work than ever on the job market. This means people will have to deal with the uncertainty of finding a stable job AND the ability to expand their career choices. With open learning, people are able to access information they were not able to get before. Opening learning is especially important for students when they are unsure of their interests. Getting the exposure of different material and information gives students a better sense of what they would like to focus on in the future.
As for me, I’m exploring opportunities in learning design and relevant courses online (i.e. Coursera) let me trying out new things at the comfort of my home. Having said that, I do find open learning can be a threat to our mental health, especially when one feels there’s no end to learning. It is great to have the resources and knowing one can freely explore the topics one is interested in. However, it could be exhausting to feel one has to keep going because it is now the norm and the expectation. The biggest difference would be internal motivation versus external one.
Learning does not take place within the classroom alone, rather learning is from, with, and for others globally. We need to prepare students for a globalized world and for jobs that do not exist as yet. As technology and economic globalization render the traditional lines of jobs obsolete and the economy is increasingly driven by knowledge and creativity. Future workers will need to be life-long learners and teachers will need to recognize that learning happens across a continuum of thought and experience. Therefore, what open learning means to my career is that I need to transform my teaching practice to a future paradigm of education. For me, open learning is an opportunity, a necessity in a connected and globalized world.
Hi Ram, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I feel the same way. I only teach primary but even at this level I have realized that we need to start getting our students ready for a world “that does not exist yet.” That being said I have tried to change my way of teaching them from basics to get them to own their learning by telling me and sharing with each other what they want to learn about, how they will go about learning that and what can I do to support them. I tried this last year and it went over their heads as many were not ready for that “freedom.” I hope to try this again in September and have better success with it this next go around.