This week’s readings were very interesting and taught me things I’d never have the chance to learn without taking this course. As I refer back to the course learning outcomes, in my opinion, #4 “Examine and reflect upon the potential for equitable access for all learners in online and open learning contexts” is one of the most important to remember. I believe this is the most important learning outcome because of the findings we have made as a group for our Digital Equity & Perspective project. For Example, There are many “longstanding and unresolved issues regarding Canada’s colonial history and Indigenous peoples, especially their histories, culture, language, education rights, and access to various resources.” Our group’s persona was named  Isla who would be classified as having a low socioeconomic status, as she’s a single mother supporting her children on a single income. By having limited financial resources, distributed learning is often favorable as it sometimes makes use of open (free) learning resources. Not only do open resources attempt to break down barriers to education by addressing issues of affordability and access, but they also serve to greatly enrich the public knowledge domain. 

Ryan’s introduction for the week allowed me to instantly relate to what he was explaining, especially on the topic of confusion between “open” and “distributed” learning. When I look back to my first discussion post in the course and my description of what I believe “open” and “distributed” learning to represent, I almost laugh at my answer! From weekly readings to discussions with my group and other members of the class, my knowledge on the topic of learning has sprouted and grown in multiple ways. It makes me appreciate the time and effort we’ve all put into learning this course.

The most interesting information I learned from the “Open Pedagogy” reading was the 5 R’s used with the topic of OER’s or acting as ingredients to the knowledge. Reused, Retained, Redistributed, Revised, and Remixed are all 5 present within the reading. Open Educational Resources, in my opinion, are the future and what should be available. From what I learned in the readings, the benefits of an OER are much more than a closed resource. On this topic, The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “higher education shall be equally accessible to all.” The authors of the reading go on to state that the chances of earning a college degree heavily depends on a student’s family income. To me, this is a horrible truth within the educational system. The use of OER’s would help combat this issue and add more value to a student’s life. 

 

Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community.

Open license – Creative Commons. (n.d.).https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Open_license