To me, Open Education truly allows for a greater learning experience. Education has always been a social status that creates a divide between the educated and the “uneducated” (although, clearly this is problematic as others’ education may be equally as valuable, if not more, but does not fit the criteria of schooling, or what scholars deem important).
Students should not be limited to their institution’s ability to afford the funds for up-to-date education materials. At the undergraduate and graduate levels, I have found the use of textbooks (especially their cost) to be wildly problematic. I often wonder if professors get a kickback from some publishing companies, as many of their resources are from the same publishers or authors throughout a course.
I have heard the excuse to avoid Open Ed resources because of credibility and fake news concerns, yet, I also know of a University of Regina professor that went to great lengths to disprove and argue COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic. So, it begs the question, are ALL “credible” resources truly credible? It could be argued that Open Ed could be the way to help (dis)prove some information that we have access to in our day-to-day lives and within the scope of our graduate studies.
The sharing of resources that are discussed here, and from Dean Shareski‘s “Sharing: The Moral Imperative,” are a new way of thinking about the information and dismantling the hierarchy of Knowledge as Power. Sharing of information is incredibly powerful; for instance, if you ask a teacher of 30 years with higher education, vs a newer teacher with higher education who the quote-unquote “better teacher is” – the knowledge a senior teacher has acquired, used, and shared over the years is far greater than what can be taught in a university classroom. Take internship in the undergrad process for instance. The sharing of that information in the practical setting of a shared-experience classroom is far greater than learning through a lecture. What textbook could properly encapsulate all of the required knowledge that can be learned through the sharing of teaching knowledge? Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion for graduate studies, however, it does challenge some ways of rethinking and reimagining the education system.
The fact that many universities are making some adjustments to their programming and including Open Education ideologies and pedagogies means there is some credibility and usefulness for Open Ed and open source communities. As Aaron Swartz believed that all information should be free, and thus Jstor was born, so too can other institutions push for more open access to information, as many university institutions already use Jstor.
The students that we teach in our classrooms today can greatly benefit from growing up in a more open educational experience. Education no longer belongs to the elite, and thus our students may flourish in our classrooms and beyond by accessing a system of Open Education
Thanks for reading!
Dalton Danaher 
I really like the video you posted – it is easy to understand and summarizes the idea of Open Education well. Got some great ideas from your post. I 100% agree with the knowledge and expertise gained during internship. I learned so much by having to do, and to collaborate with other teachers. I do think that the experience can be a bust for others if they are placed with a teacher who is not as open to sharing. Thanks for your post.
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I was lucky enough to work with some pretty amazing people over the years and learned a lot about collaboration. I like working together as a team and coming up with some pretty awesome lessons, units, and activities. I also appreciate sharing the load so to speak and being able to focus on one component or two rather than 100 doing it on my own. I wish that there were more opportunities to learn about true collaboration and have ample times to put it into practice with the people around me. I appreciated your post, and it gave me a lot of great ideas!
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It is really great when there is PD time set aside for collaboration. The pandemic has halted face-to-face meetings which is really too bad – I miss meeting with my grade-like peers and discussing what we are doing in the classroom and bouncing ideas around.
In January, my co-grade 7/8 teacher and I are teaming up with the grade 7/8 teachers at another school in the system and doing a large-scale connected piece centered around Dystopian novels. Very exciting to get the chance to team up with other teachers again (albeit digitally!)
Glad the post gave you some ideas! 🙂
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