Reflections on OER Journey of the Past Three Years

I deeply believe that knowledge and especially wisdom belong to everyone as surely as the air we breathe so the concept of OER was something that literally "jumped into my heart" in 2011 when I first learned about it through Wikieducator but three years of trying to make the ideal real in my own context has made me realize that it is not as easy as it seems either internally or externally.  Internally I like the idea of sharing what I have worked so hard to learn (especially in life long learning, self-direction, participatory research, and community development) with all and sundry.  I like the idea of folks being able to use these ideas in helpful ways, but I find that I am not so sure about trusting that they won't somehow be warped beyond recognition...like a protective mother, I want to be sure that those who use my "intellectual children" keep them safe and unsullied. (LOL).

I have also found myself up against the question of remuneration for written work.  I am not concerned about my own profit because I am paid adequately by my employer, but I am concerned about others such as my writing partner who depend on royalties as an important part of their income.  I think that people have the right to fair compensation for their work and I would hate to lose that dimension.  This issue becomes more and more important as writing and editing become less a matter of actual employment by publishers or universities and more and more a matter of free-lancing.  I do not want to be part of exploitation of any sort.

Third, long before I ever heard of OER I had a contract with a major textbook publisher who owns copyright to my Community Organizing: Theory and Practice text (McKnight and Plummer, 2014 Pearson Higher Education).   I am very aware of my ethical and legal obligations to Pearson as well as my desire to share many of the core ideas in my text with grassroots community organizing efforts around the world.   I find it personally challenging to work in both the commercial and OER world with organizations that often seem to be in conflict with one another.  I will either be able to mediate between the two worlds and, therefore, help forge the new synthesis in the world of publishing or I will find myself unable to navigate in either world and will then fail to share my ideas with the grassroots community organizers and developers who need them.  I have few if any role models to follow down this path.

In my work as a designer of online courses, I find the use of OER problematic because: it often takes a significant amount of time to find appropriate OER resources, it is hard to fit development of new OER's or modification of old ones into our on-going development cycles, and it is hard to make sure that OER materials meet legal requirements such as the Americans' with Disabilities Act.  Moreover, our current LMS (learning management system) is awkward to use in the simplest of circumstances let alone in importing outside materials.  I hate the constant change in the world of technology and am also concerned by the rapid way "free" technologies so often become "closed".  I am not sure how we are going to keep "open" open.

In addition to the above, I find myself immersed in several overlapping but not quite compatible institutional systems:  the online division of my "home" institution, the institution itself (historically a college known for innovation born in the early 1970's), the broad state system (64 institutions, only one of which has truly innovative and non-traditional) but now is struggling to be internally "open" to things like easy transfer between its component organizations and prior learning assessment credit), and last but not least the wonderful innovative activities of the OERu which I have been part of since its initial meeting in February, 2011.   I have been told that one of my skills is the ability to connect people and institutions productively with one another, but at times the task seems murky...I try to keep my eye on the mission...access to knowledge for all people but it is often hard to really discern how all of these levels relate to one another and how I might help them to build on and discover common ground.

All of these, in turn, must be fit into daily life:  developing and teaching courses, loving my family, advising students, helping students with community development/organizing efforts, providing leadership in my church and taking time to enjoy life and keep healthy...I know that many of you have similar questions and conflicts...but I know in my heart that "All the world's knowledge does belong to all the world's people" so the effort is worth it. 

I would like to find out if my issues resonate with anyone else and how you cope.  All the best to all.

Reflections on Open Educational Resources: Why Do I Want to Protect My Intellectual "Children"

Reflection on my views about openness was revealing.  For instance, I strongly believe that "all the world's knowledge belongs to all the world's people" and feel quite positive about sharing my hard won ideas with everyone, but when I think about others using my materials and perhaps changing them in ways that do not reflect my core values, my heart constricts and stomach clenches.  Even sharing on wikieducator bothers me because someone could go in and change my pages in ways that do not reflect what I truly value.   I find myself caught.  Perhaps I would just as soon not have my name associated with every use of my materials...in which case I found myself wondering if I even want attribution!!!   On second reflection, though, everyone who has ever written or spoken in public has run the risk of misinterpretation.  Perhaps my tasks are to "profess" what I know to be true, admit what I don't know, and engage others in dialogue about things that we can learn about together and we say in the rural US "let the chips fall where they may".

Bridging the Gap between Commercial Publishing and OER

Hello Fellow OER Enthusiasts.   My name is Joyce McKnight.  I am an Associate Professor at the Center for Distance Learning of Empire State College which is one of the comprehensive colleges of the State University of New York in the US.   I have been involved with the wikieducator and OERu communities for about four years.  My special interests are community organizing/community development and developing processes to link students especially in the developing countries with opportunities to gain college credit.   I am senior author of a college textbook Community Organizing: Theory and Practice  which "belongs" to Pearson Publishing, a contract that was signed several years before I knew that the OER movement existed.  My book has two major purposes:  it is a comprehensive textbook for upper division undergraduates and masters' level human services and social work students and it is a handbook for participatory, asset-based community organizing and development.  Because it was published by a well-known publisher (and admittedly has many value added resources because of Pearson), the cost of my book is comparable to that of other college texts and because it doubles as a reference book is hopefully worth the price.   However, I would like to find ways to make its key ideas available to a wider audience...people in real communities around the world who want to work with their neighbors to improve their quality of life.   I am hoping that the OER community can help me accomplish this goal.   I look forward to meeting everyone and learning with you.