Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
Sir John Daniel continues his discussion of extensions of open education. He begins, "the Open Educational Practices movement, developed by Germany's Ulf-Daniel Ehlers and the UK's Gráinne Conole, struck me as a bit flaky." He offers two reasons: first, "innovating on too many fronts at once scares off students," and second, "radical innovations in higher education must be accompanied by particularly robust frameworks of accreditation and credentialing in order to reassure the public."

But perhaps if the extension were endorsed by the right people, it might be acceptable. Daniel finds this person in the form of Jim Taylor, and in particular (though he doesn't cite it directly) this paper, which describes an extended model of open learning. But the main thing, for Daniel, is to keep the old guard in control. "Implicit in my own vision for the Open Educational Resource University is that it is not a new stand-alone institution seeking its own accreditation, but rather an umbrella organisation for participating institutions with longstanding reputations and accreditation." See the related logic model proposed by OERU.

I honestly don't see why it's flaky when Ulf-Daniel Ehlers and Gráinne Conole (or any of the rest of us) do it, but not flaky when Jim Taylor proposes it.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 12:19 p.m.

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