David Wiley writes about the benefits of open teaching in an article for the Chronicle's Wired Campus.
Wiley recounts his experience having his students post their assignments in open blogs. He writes:
"By changing their homework assignments from disposable, private conversations between them and me (the way printed or e-mailed assignments work in students’ minds) into public, online statements that became part of a continuing conversation, we realized very real benefits".
From there he moved to putting his syllabus and course materials on open platforms, drawing curriculum only from open sources, to finally inviting non-matriculated learners into his course environment.
I'm not sure we need to go so far as to have non-students participate in discussions (as our time to read and interact with paying students is precious), but I do believe that learning is amplified by openness. At the very least we should find ways to make our course designs and material as open as possible. Using publicly available curriculum is a great way to bring this about.
Whenever and wherever possible students should have the choice and option to publish their work to platforms that are both publicly accessible and will have a life after the course. What we want is for the students to continue creating and publishing once the course is done.
The argument about active learning seems largely over. We have reached a point of consensus about the efficacy of active learning, and the gap between the traditional lecture (knowledge is scarce format) and authentic learning. I'm betting that the next conceptual (and technological) shifts will be around openness.
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