Athabasca University, Faculty of Health Disciplines, Edmonton, Feb 2014

Open Scholarship: Social Media, Participation, and Online Networks

George Veletsianos, PhD Canada Research Chair

Associate Professor School of Education and Technology

The world is complex and the future is unknown

Society embraced increases in connectedness, participation, and openness (Wiley & Hilton,

2009)

Historically, educational institutions have reflected the societies which house them

How can scholarship (teaching, learning, research) reflect connectedness,

participation, and openness?

Gist of the argument

Connectedness and Networks

Participation & Participatory Cultures

•  A guiding belief. A value that lies on a continuum.

•  “open entry for study” to “open resources” to

“open teaching” to “open participation” (Weller,

2013)

•  In terms of content, “open” allows users to reuse,

revise, remix, and redistribute (Wiley, 2009)

Openness

A research paper, textbook, or book published under an open access license

A syllabus or learning activity published with an open license

Teaching an open course

Source code, blog posts, photographs, essays, and so on.

Examples

Open practices may

“broaden access to education and knowledge,

reduce costs,

enhance the impact and reach of scholarship and education,

and foster the development of more equitable, effective, efficient, and transparent scholarly and educational processes”

(Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2013)

Opportunities

Learners, faculty members, staff, and administrators need to develop an understanding of openness, participatory cultures, and digital literacies.

Technology both shapes and is shaped by practice.

Technology is not neutral & has embedded values.

New dilemmas (e,g., information management)

New business models

Openwashing (Wiley 2013; Weller, 2013; Watters, 2013)

Challenges

From digital/open scholarship…

to Networked Participatory Scholarship

“The practice of scholars’ use of participatory technologies and online social networks to share, reflect upon, critique, improve, validate, and further their scholarship” (Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2012)

Networked Participatory Scholarship

•  What happens in these environments? •  What do learners & educators do?

What are open networks like?

•  Using online networks to create and disseminate knowledge

Networks of knowledge creation

“I made it [Facebook] this hybrid space ... and sometimes it's really annoying. … I keep thinking I should be writing or looking at data, and I'm doing this! … I think that I created the conundrum that I live in now.”

Networks of tension

•  Caring for one another online •  Congregate, learn from each other,

support each other, and commiserate over work, education, and life challenges.

Networks of care & vulnerability

Networks of conflict and circumvention

•  Academics routinely post their papers online

Networks of conflict and circumvention

•  Academics routinely post their papers online •  Elsevier takedown notices (late 2013)

•  Scholars already have systems/tools in place to circumvent restrictions –  Innocuous

•  Institutional repositories •  Publishing under Open Access

– Not so innocuous •  Pirateuniversity.org •  Thepaperbay.com •  Dropbox links •  #icanhazpdf

•  Expression of identity online appears to consist of a constellation of acceptable identity fragments.

(Kimmons & Veletsianos, 2014)

Fragmented networks

•  shaped their participation in social networking sites in a manner that they believed to be “acceptable” to their audiences,

•  viewed this participation to be a direct expression of “identity” or their sense of self,

•  felt this expression to only represent a small “fragment” of their complete identities.

•  Online participation = real & fragmented= NOT a facade

Fragmented networks

•  Scholars and students making activities/practices transparent

Transparent networks

•  Scholars and students making activities/practices transparent

Transparent networks

What does all this mean for our institutions?

•  What would our courses look like if we shared more? – What if “sharing” and “open” were the default,

and we “closed” was the option?

“Sharing:” A literacy to teach/embrace

The  open  web  is  a  

monstrous  place  

The  open  web  is  a  

wondrous  place  

Perceptions of the Web

•  Activities/assignments should ask students to produce material (e.g., content, products, tools) that can benefit local communities and society.

•  Students as producers, not simply consumers of information & knowledge

•  These materials should be published online under open licenses – E.g., e-books

Courses as participatory cultures

What does “open” look like in health disciplines?

Thank you!

www.veletsianos.com

www.veletsianos.com/publications

@veletsianos on Twitter

veletsianos@gmail.com

These slides: www.slideshare.com/veletsianos