Is There Anybody Out There?Communication Tools for OER Practitioners

Sara Frank Bristowsara@salientresearch.net

Twitter:@salientresearch

Open Education 2013, Park City, Utah, USA, 6 November 2013

“Today I’m going to talk to you about…”

Communication Tools for OER Practitioners

1. Starting point: Are we “eating our own dog food”? 2. Brief history of some relevant projects, past and present3. Results of OER communication tools survey 4. OER Footprint: How the world sees us5. Introduce OER Exchange6. Summary and Discussion

Are we eating our own dog food?

Eating your own dog food, also called dogfooding, is a slang term used to reference a scenario in which a company… uses its own product to demonstrate the quality and capabilities of the product.

“Eating your own dog food,” Wikipedia, access date: 4 Nov 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food

Are we eating our own dog food?

Eating your own dog food, also called dogfooding, is a slang term used to reference a scenario in which a company… uses its own product to demonstrate the quality and capabilities of the product.

“Eating your own dog food,” Wikipedia, access date: 4 Nov 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food

SHOULD WE BE? DOES IT MATTER?

UNESCO IIEP OER Community (2005-2009)

• International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) explores OER• “Virtual seminars” (Facilitated e-mail discussions); wiki created as

common space• 650 participants exchange over 2,000 messages

• E-mail discussions summarized (PDF): http://www.unesco.org/iiep/virtualuniversity/forumshome.php?queryforums_id=3

• Summary Report (PDF): “Conversations in Cyberspace”: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001816/181682e.pdf

• The wiki has now been removed

UNESCO/Athabasca OER Mapping Project (2012)

• Physical, geographical mapping of OER initiatives• Same OER mailing list; open doc formats• Weekly summaries emailed in .odt, .doc; posted as html:

http://unescochair.athabascau.ca/oer-mapping-exercise• Final report and resources on OER knowledge cloud:

https://oerknowledgecloud.org/?q=content/world-map-open-educational-resources-initiatives-can-global-oer-community-design-and-build-i

• People just wanted to talk! What is open? Why open? What’s a map?• How can these valuable discussions be preserved?

Communicate OER (2012-present)

• Seeks to improve Wikipedia articles on OER to inform public• F2f & online workshops, School of Open course:

http://enwp.org/WP:WIKISOO

• Outcomes: • “WikiProject Open” forms in conjunction with WikiProject Open Access• Open WIKISOO class to be offered in Univ. Mississipi/OERu collaboration

• Talk pages not a popular vehicle for discussion• And do you know anyone in OER working on Wikipedia articles?

2013 Survey: Top 10 online OER communication tools

For learning about OER

1. Assorted web sites (13%)2. Blogs (12%)3. Member-based mailing lists (10%)4. Twitter (9%)5. Open mailing lists (8%)6. Online conferences (8%)7. Open journals (6%)8. Public webinars (6%)9. Content curators (5%)10. Wikipedia (5%)

For sharing data about OER

1. Twitter (12%)2. Member-based mailing lists (11%)3. Assorted web sites (10%)4. Blogs (10%)5. Open mailing lists (9%)6. Online conferences (9%)7. Public webinars (5%)8. Open journals (5%)9. Facebook (5%)10. Public online classes (4%)

• …But nothing is as pervasive as Face-to-face meetings (23%), Conferences (21%) and Personal emails (21%)!

OER footprint: How the world sees us

• In short, not very clearly• Issues of access and longevity: accepting discussions about OER as OER• How are newcomers learning about OER? (Google)

• UNESCO IIEP? OER Mapping Discussions?• Contents of any subscription-based mailing list?• Twitter archives? • Popular web sites/open journals/blogs!• Wikipedia!

• “I’d like to use OER in my classroom, but I don’t know where to find it”

• To a) learn about OER, and b) use OER, do you need to know already what it is and where to find it?

OER Exchange: a Craiglist for OER

• Built by Salient Research• Low-bandwidth, simple, free &

open tool for use by educators and others• Open source• In beta testing phase –

volunteers please?• http://oerx2.xenlightenment.com/

Summary

• “Public” seems more important than “open”… for now• We could be building a clearer picture of OER• Think about longevity in choosing communication tools• Learn to edit Wikipedia, and fix those /%*#! articles• We are all the early adopters – embrace this role!• View every public discussion about OER as OER

Thank you for coming!Feedback? Questions?

Sara Frank Bristowsara@salientresearch.ne

tTwitter:@salientresearch

Ye olde list o’ links

• OER Exchange: http://oerx2.xenlightenment.com/

• Writing Wikipedia Articles class• Sign up at http://enwp.org/WP:WIKISOO

• UNESCO IIEP• E-mail discussions summarized (PDF):

http://www.unesco.org/iiep/virtualuniversity/forumshome.php?queryforums_id=3• Summary Report (PDF): “Conversations in Cyberspace”:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001816/181682e.pdf

• OER Mapping Discussion• Weekly summaries emailed in .odt, .doc; posted as html:

http://unescochair.athabascau.ca/oer-mapping-exercise• Final report and resources on OER knowledge cloud:

https://oerknowledgecloud.org/?q=content/world-map-open-educational-resources-initiatives-can-global-oer-community-design-and-build-i

Mailing lists du jour

• Open-Education Digest (OKF)• JISC OER-DISCUSS• OER Advocacy Coalition• P2PU School of Open• OER14 Conference Planning List• OCWC lists• ALT Open Ed SIG• ALT-Members• Educause Openness Constituent Group

• COL-UNESCO OER Forum• College Open Textbooks Community• WikiEducator• MIT OCW• OER University (OERu)• OLDaily• Baal• ESOL Research List