There have been a number of trends, questions and shifts I have been observing. What is the overall value of Open Educational Resources? How do we define them, copyright, or left, evaluate, and continuously improve them? How do we decide what should be open? Who should be financing open projects? How do we more effectively "hook" students up with open resources? Should people simply donate resources or develop hybrid business plans that allow for creating and sharing resources while still putting bread on the table?
I have observed shifts in attitudes around Open Resources and motivational shifts in using them. There has been much conversation in the Management Domain as how to how we effectively curate open, and other, educational resources. How do we use social media such as Twitter to set up networks to distribute and collect resources and ideas on a global scale? How do we then avoid drowning in the "fire hose" of data?
From the perspective of the Affective Domain, why would we want to make this shift in what we do? How do we as educators support Affective Domain shifts especially in the area of social networking?How do we address any reluctance we are feeling? What is the motivation, the value, in making these significant shifts? How do we organize our already busy days to fit this in and is it worthwhile? Will it benefit our students enough for us to devote the energy to make these shifts? Is it worth standing out even more, in many of our workplaces, because of yet another new idea, new concept, new way of doing and being?
In the area of the Metacognitive Domain, I have been noticing what I consider to be self-regulation challenges. How much to blog? How much to Tweet? How much is enough? Is it good enough? Can I make it through this course? According to Wikipedia, "Self-regulated describes a process of taking control of and evaluating one's own learning and behaviour.” Dr. Stuart Shanker, in his Tedx Talks video, talks about how ego depletion or nourishment greatly influences self-control and thus self-regulation. He further goes on to state stress and other negative emotions, as well as too much noise, fatigue or visual over-stimulation can deplete ego. I know this has been something I have been dealing with and have been trying to rectify with activities such as extra stretching, deep breathing, shorter, more intense bouts of exercise and good company. I’ve been wondering all along how my colleagues have been fairing with this?
The other component I have been curious about regarding my own self-regulation is in the area of evaluation. Although I have felt there have been clearly defined expectations of how and when we should be creating artifacts, the depth or volume of creation that is expected has been eluding me somewhat. This lack of clarity has been making my self-regulation more challenging. I have wondered if this challenge is mine alone or if others have been trending that way too?
Whether or not all these questions get answered, it has been an amazing ride learning from and with all of you, my colleagues, in the Online Learning and Teaching Program.
#oltd #OER #edchat #edlearning
Image Attribution and terms
Further exploration:
What the Marshmallow Test Really Teaches About Self-Control
The Role of Motivation in Self-Regulated Learning