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covering Sia's "Cheap Thrills"

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Cheap Thrills - Sia (Cover by Kina Grannis & KHS)

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. . . use post-it notes and pretend we're "learning."

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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Advice for the First Day of Class: Today We Will

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Your classroom will develop its own distinct environment. If you don't make a concerted effort to set the tone, the students will.

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What a voice!

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from the air

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Is there anything better?

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Those of us who are keen on exploring OEP in our work do so because we think that education needs to change. In the higher education sector the divide between research and teaching has become ridiculously wide, and the disproportionate benefits accruing to the research side of the ledger only serve to weaken interest in teaching. Open education almost by definition requires that educators become more deeply involved in teaching and the dissemination of knowledge. This is a good thing, but it runs counter to a culture where teaching is often seen as a necessary evil, one to be avoided or at the very least made as rudimentary and unobtrusive as possible so that it does not interfere with a professor's "real work." But the sense that openness can transform the education we provide runs deep in the open education community, and it motivates many to continue their work.

Stigma

That there is a stigma attached to Open Education strikes many as absurd. But it's true: educators who produce open educational resources often get very little respect or recognition for their efforts. This is related to the general stigma attached to teaching in higher education: research is king, all hail research!

At OEGlobal 2018, some presentations addressed OE stigma. @ProfJasmine has undertaken a study that identified some of the attitudes preventing faculty members from getting involved in OEP. Prestige, image management, and professional identity are the leading causes, which in effect creates what in German is known as a Teufelskreis ("devil's circle"): that there's a stigma attached to participating in OE practices perpetuates the stigma attached to OE practices.

Another related topic was that peer review would help alleviate the stigma. Perhaps this would gain recognition for those who create OER. But how would it help those who practice OE in their teaching? We don't really do much peer review of teaching practices generally. Sure, there's the obligatory classroom observation when someone is up for tenure or promotion, but rigorous examination of teaching practices tends to be highest during the job search, and on a steady downward decline after one is appointed to the position. (There is, of course, a lot of variety from institution to institution, but I think this holds true as a summary of higher ed practices generally.)

That the stigma stems from a sense of a lack of rigor in OE strikes me as generally true. But it's also a sign of ignorance. Those involved in OE content creation know that there is a lot of quality work being done. This stigma can only be countered by making more people aware of that quality work. OE practitioners, especially faculty members, need to share their work, not just among the initiated, but with those who know little about it.

Sustainability

With the amount of discussion around the notion of sustainability, I came to the conclusion that, for many, Open Education is at a crossroads. There is a sense of real growth in the field - the 300+ attendees at OEGlobal 2018, over double the number who attended OEGlobal 2017, is evidence of that. But with growth comes questions: can the growth be maintained? Does the trajectory need to take different directions? Should there be a pause for stocktaking, or should the pace of growth be accelerated?

I don't think there's a need to fear that open education isn't sustainable. But whether it can compete in a landscape where technology and commerce are changing so rapidly remains an open (ha!) question. A key takeaway from the conference, a term that was on everyone's lips, and to which I hope people are paying more than just lip service, was collaboration. Open education thrives on collaboration. Sharing forms the basis of open education, and it is the collaboration built on sharing that will provide the sustainability of this educational approach.

Policy

Top-down versus bottom-up. At first, I thought people were just describing different ways of consuming alcohol. They were attending a conference, after all. But it's really a vexing issue in the OE world. There is a general desire that OE practices be adopted by more people, and that those practices become recognized for their valuable contributions to education. But there is opposition to OE, from publishers who fear a loss of sales, from colleagues who fear a loss in prestige, from administrators who don't understand the point of the whole enterprise in the first place.

That's why "policy" was another buzzword of OEGlobal 2018. UNESCO is considering the adoption of an official Recommendation on open education (you can learn more about that here: https://www.oercongress.org/unesco-oer-recommendation/). Numerous presenters described their efforts to influence or establish OE policy-making at their institutions. The general consensus was that both bottom-up and top-down approaches were required, depending on institutional context and other circumstances. But certainly policy development was seen as key to improving the visibility of OE on the educational landscape and to removing the stigma associated with OE practices.

Movement

There's a lot of talk about the Open Education "movement" at conferences like OEGlobal. Participants were excited about being part of a movement; it gave them a sense of community and belonging, especially in the face of the obstacles that face anyone trying to open up educational practices and make them more inclusive.

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Those of us who are keen on exploring OEP in our work do so because we think that education needs to change. In the higher education sector the divide between research and teaching has become ridiculously wide, and the disproportionate benefits accruing to the research side of the ledger only serve to weaken interest in teaching.

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Another piece found

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The section of the Berlin Wall uncovered in June "looked like any other wall," a Berlin Wall Foundation spokeswoman said. Credit Credit Clemens Bilan/EPA, via Shutterstock

BERLIN - When a neighborhood group on a walk through an overgrown patch of land in central Berlin came across a 20-meter stretch of concrete sprayed with graffiti and covered with vines, nobody was sure what to make of it.

"We started debating and someone suggested that maybe it was part of the Berlin Wall," said Ephraim Gothe, a city councilor for urban development in the Mitte district of Berlin, who was leading the group on a tour in early June.

He alerted the authorities, leading to confirmation that the group had discovered an original piece of the wall's outer defense perimeter, which prevented East Germans from approaching the principal barrier, near the Chausseestrasse border crossing.

The 65-foot piece of the wall went unnoticed for nearly three decades, largely obscured by the construction of the new seat of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, the B.N.D., said Gesine Beutin, a spokeswoman for the Berlin Wall Foundation.

"It's still really covered, although it is surrounded by new houses and people could see it from their windows," Mr. Gothe said on Wednesday.

On Monday, as officials laid wreaths for the 57th anniversary of the barrier's construction, Berlin added the section of wall to the list of city monuments under historical protection.

The newly discovered piece was not part of the barrier on the western side, the section most commonly associated with the Berlin Wall, with its L-shaped foot and circular pipe at the top, Ms. Beutin said.

Instead, it is a thinner, smaller barrier that "looked like any other wall," she said - which also helped to explain why it went unnoticed for so many years.

"Our experts were able to confirm its authenticity based on the materials used to build it and its measurements," Ms. Beutin said. "In addition, there were metal poles protruding from it that were used as lampposts and stones that looked like those from the path that ran through the death strip."

The fragment of the barrier, perhaps the ultimate symbol of the Cold War, is on land owned by a real estate company that manages public properties for Berlin on a parcel of land above where the Panke River is channeled underground.

There are plans to uncover the river and turn the area into a park, into which the newly discovered piece of the wall could be integrated, Mr. Gothe said.

The wall came down on Nov. 9, 1989, and as Berlin residents rushed to tear down a barrier that had defined their lives and divided their families, historians hoped to preserve some pieces for posterity.

On Feb. 13, residents of Berlin quietly marked an equinox of German unity, the day the wall was gone for as long as it stood: 28 years, 2 months, 26 days.

Over the years, as the generations shift and younger people find it increasingly difficult to imagine a world in which they would have been unable to move freely from Berlin to Prague to Vienna, the few remnants of the Berlin Wall have taken on an increasing importance.

"When the wall fell, everyone in Berlin just wanted it to go - they couldn't look at it any longer," Ms. Beutin said. "It took awhile before we were able to say that it was important to preserve parts for history. We need places and objects where we can keep the memories alive."

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Found in the Weeds: A 65-Foot Piece of the Berlin Wall

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BERLIN - When a neighborhood group on a walk through an overgrown patch of land in central Berlin came across a 20-meter stretch of concrete sprayed with graffiti and covered with vines, nobody was sure what to make of it.