Open Textbook Meetup: ECA Recap
Apr 30
We tackled the Big Questions about Open Content at the Eastern Communication Association conference (ECA) conference this weekend–here’s the recap.
Thanks to all who came out to talk about Open Content in the Classroom at the ECA conference, on Saturday, April 28, 2012. Flat World author Jason S. Wrench graciously hosted (thanks Jason!).
Attendees were:
Jason Wrench
Cameron Basquiat
Pete Galarneau
Anastacia Kurylo
Matt Martin
Andrea Pampaloni (LaSalle)
Thomas Jewell
Joan O’Hara
Michael Boezi
Vanessa Gennarelli
Becky Knauer
Event Goal
Our goal was to bring together folks who were interested in using open content in their classroom and facilitate a conversation. We know there are a lot of questions about open content, and it’s important to dispel myths, to challenge each other to try something new, and to share best practices. Flat World Knowledge is but one element in the movement towards open education–the movement is bigger than us. We wanted to have an event to spark those conversations. And an event it was!
Open Content Speed Dating
Each “couple” was given 2.5 minutes to introduce themselves and have the following conversation:
1.) Name one experience you’ve had with open content.
2.) What’s one question you have about open content?
Folks were prompted to scoot over one chair when the time was called, but no one wanted to get up! So I could tell people were getting into good conversations. It quickly materialized that we needed to ask, “OK, so what is open content?” We split off into two groups to explore the answer:
“Open 101: Introduction to the Big Ideas of Open”
“Open 200: Advanced Topics in Open Education”
Breakout Groups
“Open 101: Introduction to the Big Ideas of Open”
- What’s an open license? Michael Boezi, Flat World VP of Content, walked through the basics of the Creative Commons license.
- What’s the difference between reusing software and reusing content? How are these experiences the same and different? How can reusing content save you time in preparing for class?
- What’s it like to use a piece of open content? Understanding that open content is intended for reuse.
- How can I set the terms for my content? Scenarios for redistribution and reuse of your content. Open is about setting your own terms.
“Open 200: Advanced Topics in Open Education”
We discussed several of the hot-button issues of open education.
- How do you teach students that attribution is important? Students with different cultural backgrounds can pose a teaching challenge in this regard.
- What are the bootstrapping issues in remixing a textbook? Is it unity of voice in the author? How much of the textbook are we going to just plain accept with the book, but not actually assign? How much effort do we put into changing the book to what we want?
- How do we overcome copyright struggles with our instructional materials? To what extent have educators always “acted” as if content was open?
Takeaways
As a team, we realized that next time we need to start from the beginning. We love to talk to folks about their content and the idea of open–they are curious about it! So we’ll start our conversation there.
Attendees! If there’s something I left out or needs clarification, please jump in. Thanks for coming!
Related articles
- Open Textbook a Smashing Success, by Professor Ruggerio (flatworldknowledge.com)
About Vanessa Gennarelli
Vanessa works at Peer 2 Peer University, teaching others and making the world a better place. A former FWK employee, VMG is part efficiency Czar, part content strategist, all moxie, and she loves thinking through the features of projects and finding novel, lightweight solutions.
