Group Admins
Description
Crucially, the field has lacked coherent definitions of ‘open’, and too often tended towards optimism, advocacy, and conviction, rather than a critical understanding of what openness might mean for education. Moreover, it is the vagaries of the term itself that have allowed it to be attached to other ideas so readily: to notions of self-directed learning and cohesive community interaction; and to technology and the presumed capacities of the digital networks that enable educational activity to take place. In these ways, ‘open’ has too often accounted for the assumed ease with which educational hierarchies can be horizontalised, and economic and geographic barriers can be dissolved (Knox 2013). But more than this, openness has too often assumed that institutional structures, financial constraints and distance are the only issues preventing the instinctive and effortless uptake of self-directed learning. It is precisely in this way that an uncritical championing of openness fails to adequately analyse educational closures (Edwards 2015).
This presentation will draw on work published within a special issue of the journal Learning, Media and Technology which asked for critical approaches to open education. It will explore where we are now with ‘the open’, how we got here, and the obstacles and openings we now face as scholars and practitioners who have a stake in shaping its futures.
References
Edwards, R. (2015). Knowledge infrastructures and the inscrutability of openness in education. Learning Media and Technology. 40(3). pp. 251-264.
Knox, J. (2013). The Limitations of Access Alone: moving towards open processes in education. Open Praxis. 5(1). pp.21-29.
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fionam joined the session Open education: developing a critical approach [1042] 8 years ago
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debbie_baff joined the session Open education: developing a critical approach [1042] 8 years ago
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joined the session Open education: developing a critical approach [1042] 8 years ago
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mmaley joined the session Open education: developing a critical approach [1042] 8 years ago
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cfriedrich joined the session Open education: developing a critical approach [1042] 8 years ago
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kjensen joined the session Open education: developing a critical approach [1042] 8 years ago
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Sharon Boyd joined the session Open education: developing a critical approach [1042] 8 years ago
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Catherine Cronin joined the session Open education: developing a critical approach [1042] 8 years ago
