{"id":5050,"date":"2023-11-12T22:06:01","date_gmt":"2023-11-12T20:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/?p=5050"},"modified":"2026-02-16T11:49:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T09:49:50","slug":"unfurling-the-open-umbrella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/unfurling-the-open-umbrella\/","title":{"rendered":"Unfurling the Open Umbrella"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\" src=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/8026724727_944f74b99f_o-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5070\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/8026724727_944f74b99f_o-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/8026724727_944f74b99f_o-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/8026724727_944f74b99f_o-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/8026724727_944f74b99f_o-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/8026724727_944f74b99f_o-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/8026724727_944f74b99f_o-1568x1043.jpg 1568w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">&#8220;Red Umbrella&#8221; flickr photo by Jonathan Kos-Read https:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/jonathankosread\/8026724727 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-ND) license<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I find myself, once again, in the midst of yet another inconvenient ed-tech storm. Currently, a tempestuous AI cloud, has cast a dark shadow. Its \u201cbluster\u201d has exacerbated existing ICTE challenges and blindsided many schools and universities. Prior to AI, the tempest rolled right through my windows. It saturated my families home screens. Unexpected campus closures led nervous administrators to enable Zoom University and it&#8217;s partner &#8211;  Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) (Hodges. 2020). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Zoom-Professional-Development.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Zoom-Professional-Development.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-85abcc63-37c8-43f2-aee0-786cf8bcfdc0\" href=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Zoom-Professional-Development.pdf\">Zoom-Professional-Development<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Zoom-Professional-Development.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-85abcc63-37c8-43f2-aee0-786cf8bcfdc0\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This two and a half year downpour of webinar after webinar, undermined years of research in online education. Well thought through practices and theories were replaced with a poor substitute for the classroom and the LMS. Before that, in my home country. A Twitter hashtag #feesmustfall, created a high pressure system of student and academic activists. Who sought (legitimately) to gather their efforts on social media and decolonize the curriculum. But there efforts were quietly hijacked by OPMs. Promising to extend access and opportunity, while gutting internal capacity by outsourcing. Their extreme disruption still leaves its trauma stamped on higher education. A decade ago, the forecast for the future was all MOOCs, promising to make higher education more accessible to the masses. The New York Times is still getting it wrong.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My point? AI, ZoomU, OPM\u2019s and MOOCS. Four examples of the vast and deadly rot that has rained down and seeped into the universities infrastructure. Induced and supported by vast FAANG monopolies. That prefer to buy out the competition and remain under regulated. The ongoing \u201censhittification\u201d of digital education (Doctrow)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/umbrella\/\">Open Umbrella<\/a> is my (and a few other collegues) small imperfect response to these massive rigs. Its an attempt to gather critical educators. Who see the ongoing attempts of big tech (and political actors). Who wish to make platforms to reconfigure governance and frame public education as a new asset class (Willimanson). This call to unfurl the open umbrella, is a call to those who still wish to use tech to collaborate, co-design, educate. But would prefer to remain independent of the big tech\u2019s rigs, clouds or administrator&#8217;s convenient STI. Techies, educators, hopepunks. Outliers in the fediverse who see through the hype and attempt to steer themselves , classes and their technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead of being shaped by networks and connectivity and its assumed global benefits to all in education. And being underprepared for the capricious weather forecasts, supplied by Big Tech and their VC seeded clouds, offering alternative intelligence, virtual classrooms, a social learning environment, unfettered access to knowledge. Or the techno determinists influencers. Who want change, but who are unashamedly techno deterministic. The open umbrella seeks to offer shelter to those who wish protection from the many disruptive clouds, its seeders and associated storms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Open Umbrella consists of a self evaluation tool, field guide and open badges. A team of educators can use the Open Umbrella to \u201cprotect themselves from the storm and resist it\u2019s shaping effects. The Open Umbrella remains a nascent initiative that offers an imperfect shield with eight panels. The umbrella ribs creating a scaffold for collecting open education practices.  And then adapted and developed for their their own customised course. While being recognized for their efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This <strong>Unfurling the Open Umbrella<\/strong> workshop is more than just an attempt to question and evaluate the benefits of technology in education. Its also an attempt to be weather ready. Instead of being underprepared for the next storm. The open umbrella can assist  those who wish to be pro-active and ready for the next disruption. To pull together and decide on alternatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether it be LLM\u2019s and its anthropomorphising of chat, surveillance capitalism, checking on student participation. Or social media, gaming out attention spans. The open umbrella offers alternatives to those who have been disrupted. A space to gather together and collaborate on teacher or evidence led options<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">References<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bender, E.M., Gebru, T., McMillan-Major, A. and Shmitchell, S. (2021). On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. FAccT &#8217;21. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Birch, K.&nbsp;(2023)&nbsp;Assetization as a mode of techno-economic governance: Knowledge, education and personal data in the UN&#8217;s System of National Accounts,&nbsp;Economy and Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Doctorow, Cory (2023). &#8220;As Platforms Decay, Let&#8217;s Put Users First&#8221;. Electronic Frontier Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., &amp; Bond, A. (2020). The Difference between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning. EDUCAUSE Review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Morozov, E. (2013) To Save Everything, Click Here \u2013 The Folly of Technological Solutionism. New York: PublicAffairs<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Williamson, B. (2023) The power of edtech investors in education<br>https:\/\/codeactsineducation.wordpress.com\/2023\/11\/03\/the-power-of-edtech-investors-in-education\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I find myself, once again, in the midst of yet another inconvenient ed-tech storm. Currently, a tempestuous AI cloud, has cast a dark shadow. Its \u201cbluster\u201d has exacerbated existing ICTE challenges and blindsided many schools and universities. Prior to AI, the tempest rolled right through my windows. It saturated my families home screens. Unexpected campus &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/unfurling-the-open-umbrella\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Unfurling the Open Umbrella&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-5050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-file","tag-feesmustfall","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5050"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6297,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions\/6297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}