Week9_Openness

=**Week 9: Openness and Transparency** =

**Overview** In order for connections to form, openness is important. But how open? Is there such a thing as too open?  Should all content and materials be freely available? What value does a university gain from keeping research "closed"? What about teaching? Should that be open as well? Transparency is related to openness. Openness is most often related to content. Transparency, in contrast, involves making our learning explicit through forums, blogs, presentations, podcasts, and videos. Throughout this course, I've made the statement that "when you are transparent in your learning, you are teaching others". Most people, however, are uncomfortable taking the risk of posting half-baked ideas publicly. Trust and personal sense of security is important for learners. Learning is an act of vulnerability. Given the somewhat intense flame-wars that arise online or the rude level of discourse (have a look at the comments of any popular YouTube video) in forums, feelings of vulnerability trump participation. **Readings** > **Seminars**
 * George Siemens, [|Free and Open Source Movements]
 * George Siemens, [|Open Source Content in Education]
 * Stephen Downes, [|Open Education: Projects and Potentual] (slides and audio)
 * George Siemens & Kathleen Matheos, [|Open Social Learning in Higher Education: An African Context] (video)
 * Stephen Downes, [|The Future of Open Educational Resources] (video)
 * Alan Levine, [|Amazing Stories of Openness]
 * Stephen Downes, [|Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources]
 * Stephen Downes and David Wiley, [|Downes-Wiley: A Conversation on Open Educational Resources] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">

Thursday, 8 pm Eastern Time. Elluminate: []

See time zone conversions ([]) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Activities** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;"> Your final project is now three weeks away from submission. At this stage, consider sharing your work with others for feedback.