I graduated from the Open Seeds Cohort 8 in January 2024. What a pleasure to learn again.
Since leaving Wits, I’ve become very critical about online learning. I often focus on how tech and education became dominated by technology evangelists selling hype or on senior management outsourcing core skills to online program managers (OPM)s. I’ve also had enough of other open practitioners benefiting from my free labour. My grumpiness got channeled onto Twitter. It seemed to me that the formula for learning, in the last decade, had grown stale. Perhaps I got myself into a rut?
Expectation of the programme
Open Seeds pulled me out of my funk and furrow. The OLS leaders, cohort colleagues and my wonderful mentor, reminded me of my earlier enthusiasm and optimism for learning online. There were some like minded academics, that saw digital as a mechanism for thoughtful enquiry (and not just content delivery).
Goals for my project
The project that I chose to work on, was the Open Umbrella (OU). This resources was initially designed with Detken Scheepers from Pretoria University. The initiative emerged after fees must fall. It was also supposed to be used for TVET staff development. I had hoped to make the OU, a place for collaboration, sharing alternative ideas and supporting new practices around digital education. It’s wasn’t a solution. It questioned how physical and digital learning (or hybrid) spaces are configured, are used. Teaching and learning now take place in an age of information abundance. I had hoped that the open umbrella would encourage academics and students to re-imagine learning, foster new skills, enable different capabilities, and let us set new priorities. This was supposed to be where we collaborate across the global (or at least the local) education and technology community. Where we all could be co-creators and curators of knowledge, share feedback and experience with others. In a safe way, where we all are open, considerate and respectful. But there had not been much progress with vision or roll out thus far.
Key understanding
My new mission was to stop developing the resource itself further. My task now, was a call to action among educational practitioners. To gather a community. Whether they identify as educationalists or technologists. I had to begin locating people who wanted to
- discover an alternative like the open umbrella
- curate, engage and annotate resources that were available
- appropriate the eight practice areas, and apply the 5R’s to revise, remix, reuse, retain, redistribute the resources
- make open badges to recognize achievements and progress.
- share this work widely with department colleagues, personal learning networks
- lead and assist with a community of Ed / Techies who are unfurling the open umbrella on GitHub even further
Derek’s new goal
Desired Outcome: The formation of a cohort of digital education champions who can contribute towards making critical use of digital resources and craft quality digital teaching and learning experiences
What has changed?
The sixteen weeks on Open Seeds were a refreshing experience. I had to re-articulate my vision to others. I heard input from notable experts on topics I had not considered. Surprisingly, I realised that Open Seeds had begun to shift my practices. For the first time, I saw the sensible use of an etherpad (what a fabulous alternative to the LMS). As a platform, Slack became a propper “water cooler”—a much more productive gathering point than Twitter.
Since the course has ended, I’ve enjoyed exploring ways to combine WhatsApp, the etherpad, and a framework called Systems Convening with a project I’ve been working on in Malawi. I’ve also tried out the etherpad with Wikipedians in the local public library, run storytelling and showcase events and offered an in-person workshop with University of Johannesburg educators, and all Q and A were on the etherpad (with chocolates as an additional incentive).
What now?
What intrigued me most about the Open Seeds mentorship experience is a question. How do you operationalised this approach, which worked so well in the northern hemisphere, here in higher Education in Southern Africa?
A local vision
I think that all ed techies and instructional designers in an institution can (and should) contribute to developing expertise within a university or school. Instead of starting from scratch or looking to the global north for answers. I think that those who work with this resource, need to build upon a pre-existing course and demonstrate a familiarity with open education resources and open practices. Mentors will guide involved parties through the concepts, processes and techniques in the field guide and apply them to the platform where the course resides. Developers will set the scope, self-identify their immediate challenges and choose to focus on eight practice areas. By the end of the a set mentorship period, I anticipate that developers will be able to
- use open education resources (OER) and be familiar and comfortable with open education practices (OEP)
- share their newly found expertise openly on a suitable platform(s)
- connect with a community of practitioners across other projects, faculties, schools and departments within their university and beyond
- Showcase their work in a public event.
I hope to empower new online education champions so that a community of critical instructional designers and innovative users of education technology can lead, improve, and sustain change. I wish to enable independent people, from all background and identities. Meet regularly over a set period of time (as a cohort) and find others who want to mentor individuals, where they can receive advice and guidance from domain experts.
Derek’s new direction
- Envisioned Process: A cohort of selected developers will be mentored through structured activities drawn from the Open Umbrella and become digital education champions and ambassadors for the platform they are working on.
Gratitude
These are my thoughts about my 16-week cohort and mentorship journey. As you can see, my “sprint” with the Open Life Sci crew has been unusually transformative. I’d recommend this 16 week sprint experience to anyone interested in opening up themselves and their academic practices to critical scrutiny. My thanks to Anelda (from Tlarify), who introduced me to SADiLaR and brought me onto Open Seeds. She also employed me to run a local project called DH OER. I’m extremely grateful to her, SADiLaR team, for a shift in direction. My thanks also are extended to the OLS team, their marvelous example, and Harini (my mentor). For all these efforts. I am grateful.
Below, please take a look at my final presentation.