Open Knowledge and Sharing
So what’s my view of Open Knowledge and Open Approaches to Knowledge Sharing? I love it. If there was a vote, I’d be in. If it was available on Amazon, I’d buy it. I’d tell my friends, colleagues and frolleagues about it. What’s not to like?
Open Knowledge networks and Openess in Teaching and Learning seems to be where we, as teachers in Higher Education, have been heading for some time now, ever more reliant on and connected up by, digital technologies and digital platforms such as YouTube and Twitter and inspired by the free, open, educational websites such as Khan Academy.
Catherine Cronin’s presentation Considering Open Education introduced me to why Open Knowledge might be my kind of thing. It set me thinking about the political aspect of knowledge sharing and openess in line with the work of The United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and reflecting on How Openess Impacts On Education.
Sharing of ideas and resources, always makes me feel good (as long as I’ve got enough to share, that is and everyone else is doing the same). I’m replete, you’re replete. There always seems to be more to go round. It’s like sharing tapas or mezze with friends. I get to order a wider variety of dishes, divvy up the cost, try new tastes, experiment, see what I like, relish what I love. It’s a shared, collective experience. I’m richer in all senses for it.
Tapas and talk — a time for sharing, an innovative dining experience for teachers who want a more open and collaborative alternative to a traditional parents evening, taking shared ownership with parents and students deciding on ‘the menu’ (i.e. what will be discussed in the meeting) and so developing a more democratic and open relationship. The teacher is no longer the only expert or knowledge bearer, everyone is welcome to the table (quite literally) to have their say (and to eat). It’s inspired. It’s collaborative. I love it.
So how does my love for sharing and all things collaborative, fit with my OKHE studies and my new role as Lecturer in Public Health?
Before coming to teach at The University of Manchester, I worked as a freelance teacher for 11 years in Buenos Aires, Argentina delivering courses in Intercultural Communication and prior to that, delivered courses, also freelance, in Early Years Developmental Movement with babies and children on behalf of Sure Start, a UK Government based initiative set up under Tony Blair’s New Labour Government in 1998 to improve child care, early education, health and family support, with an emphasis on outreach and community development with the aim of giving every child the best start in life.
Working at that time (in the late 1990s), I remember feeling much more closed-off as a freelance practitioner, wary of sharing knowledge and resources with other freelancers, aware that my knowledge and expertise were my ‘bargaining chips’ and that sharing my knowledge too freely, could mean I would be left with very little to sell. Peter Suber in his book Open Access reminds us of our privileged position as staff (academic, research, operational and technical) working within a university, that our salaries free us to give away our work.
Sure Start, as a Government funded initiative, allowed me, even as a wary, freelance practitioner to be more open and share my knowledge and expertise with others. This enabling patronage could be seen as akin to being paid a salary by the University and the potential means to reach a wider and more diverse community in keeping with one of the Universities 2020 three core strategic goals Social Responsibility.
I have recently written a module Intercultural Public Health as part of the MPH Public Health (Web-based Learning) Programme, an on-line course attracting UK and International students who are self-directed learners, looking for a flexible course fitting around work and life commitments, with tutors supporting them at a distance using a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) ‘classroom’ which invites students from different corners of the globe to sign into DBs (Discussion Boards), download course material, test their knowledge in formative assessment quizzes, listen to podcasts and watch time-embedded interactive videos created in Play Posit and then be signposted towards other on-line resources as part of an expanding and ever more open knowledge-base.
Confession time
Whilst writing the Intercultural Public Health module and making good use of OERs (Open Educational Resources) and MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses) and excellent Ted Talks, I didn’t once stop to think about openly sharing what I was creating with others. I had in effect (to continuing with the food analogy) made a huge, big, whopping pizza, topped it up with tasty ingredients donated by the generosity of other authors via Creative Commons, given attribution to these authors and then delivered this delicious on-line pizza to my exclusive closed cohort of MPH students who had paid to take this module.
So, am I a hypocrite if I didn’t share my knowledge?
I came across an interesting article listing 16 Reasons Why People Don’t Share Their Knowledge — and what to do about it. The №1 reason being…surprise, surprise… not having enough time. A pragmatic solution is offered “to simply embed knowledge-sharing into our work and processes.” Genius. Now I just need to find out how to do this embedding and get my colleagues (and boss) on board.
Pragmatic not fanatic
Open Knowledge International speaks about being ‘Pragmatic not fanatic,’ arguing there is a case for creating open-tools and non-open tools. As a Lecturer in Public Health with aspirations to become a more open practitioner and share my knowledge more, I am encouraged to see the definition of the Wider Public Health Workforce now includes housing officers, fire fighters and even tattoo artists. A good sign, perhaps, that Public Health as a discipline could be becoming much more fluid and open to working in even more interdisciplinary and collaborative ways, willing to share the knowledge and invite more people to the table. Sounds good to me.
·
