Openness

Hi! I work as Learning Technologist in the Manchester Medical School designing and developing learning activities and materials to support the school’s various programmes.

Due to the nature of my work I’m particularly interested in the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) and MOOCs and enjoyed the differing perspectives offered by both Martin Weller and Ian Hutt during session 1 of OKHE.

Image by kittyz202 on Flickr released using Creative Commons Licensing (CC BY-NC- 2.0)

I’m also interested in what happens to the concept of openness when money interests become involved (such as the current state of MOOCs). I actually wrote a paper on MOOCs as my assessment component for The Changing Landscape of Higher Education module (paper title: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): What are they and what role will they play in the future of Higher Education?).

Image by catspyjamasnz on Flickr released using Creative Commons Licensing (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

I’m looking forward to exploring the concept of openness further through the remaining face-to-face sessions.

Side Note: Although not specifically related to HE, I think the current debate around whether Apple should hack into one of their own products to provide information to the FBI is fascinating. My take on it is that they are being closed (saying no) in an attempt to be open (or more specifically not allowing the state to potentially monitor people going forward which could result in less openness). Hope that makes sense…..no? Oh….nevermind…