By reading the articles included in topic 3, I have more in-depth understanding and ideas on open pedagogy. First of all, I think the most important component of open pedagogy is open educational resources (OERS). Open educational resources is an open teaching material with shared rights. I think this material has many benefits. It is recyclable and has open permissions. This makes it a great contribution to knowledge sharing. In āa guide to making open textbooks with studentsā, Mays points out the link between access to higher education and equality. I have never thought of this view before, but after reading this view, I found that this kind of problem does exist in our stage of higher education. Despite the fact that students cannot accept higher education because of economic pressure, there is still a situation that the teaching materials required for courses are too high, which leads students to give up some courses. Taking my personal experience as an example, there are some courses that I am interested in but not required. If I need to spend more than 100 Canadian dollars to buy textbooks, I may give up this course. If it is an elective course, you can give it up directly, but what if it is a required course? For students who really think they can’t afford these prices, this will be a factor hindering their access to higher education. I think open educational resources can help students solve these problems. Non paper resources can ignore some costs, so that students can choose the courses they want to take at will. This greatly maintains the fairness of higher education to everyone. If I become a teacher in the future, by reading this article, I think I will greatly help my students use open educational resources to ensure that each student will not be unable to complete a university degree due to financial burden.
By reading the design principle 8 mentioned in the chapter ‘design principles for indigenous learning spaces’, I found that open learning environments can help more people in the world understand the culture of indigenous peoples. This is a way to realize the diversification of distance education. Indigenous culture can be disseminated to more young people through an online open learning environment. The most common way of communication is to let local young people spread videos that can represent local culture to a series of video websites and open permissions to everyone to watch. People can learn more about indigenous culture through these online resources. This is an innovative way. Through this open learning environment, people around the world can achieve real cross-cultural sharing.
In short, the reading materials on Topic 3 let me understand the impact of educational communication on students’ personal economic ability and indigenous culture.
Resourcesļ¼
Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017).Ā A guide to making open textbooks with students.Ā Rebus Community.
āĀ Ā ReadĀ Chapter 1: Open Pedagogy
Kral, I. & Schwab, R.G. (2012).Ā Chapter 4: Design Principles for Indigenous Learning Spaces.Ā Safe Learning Spaces. Youth, Literacy and New Media in Remote Indigenous Australia. ANU Press. http://doi.org/10.22459/LS.08.2012
I can definitely sympathize with your experience of spending the usual amount of money on textbooks. I also had an experience that, when I decide to take an elective, I’d first research the textbook required. Then I would keep checking used textbook websites for a cheaper textbook. Only then I’ll register for my electives. Like you said, paper packed textbooks are hardly recyclable; Once one read through it there’s no reason to go through it again. It has no collection value or investment value.
I could not agree more with the āstudent economic pressureā phenomenon that you brought up. As a student, there have been many situations where economic issues have pressured me to choose away from what I want. I would be glad if I could learn what I like at a more affordable cost. However, I am also a supporter of priced education. As a student majoring in economics, I understand the balance between supply and demand, there would only be supply if there is demand and a compensated demand would be inspiring people to innovate more knowledge to contribute. I would say open learning is a great thing but if all learning because open learning where it is free, we would hardly have any progress in society.