Are commercial textbooks high quality because they're expensive? What kind of review process do they actually go through? How do we rate quality anyway? What factors are considered important? What matters is student learning and student success. Writing, editing and design will have an impact on that. So will accessibility and cost. I imagine it is relatively easy to compare textbook A to textbook B and decide which is better based on content and presentation. It would be more difficult to determine if textbook A is $100 better than textbook B, or if students would derive $100 more of value from it. Due to CC permissions, OER can be modified to fit the needs of an institution, a department, an instructor, and a group of students. They can be continually modified to improve student success.

How up-to-date are commercial textbooks? There is an investment of time and money that goes into revisions and printing new editions, so publishers don't want to do that any more than necessary. They also have a vested interest in eliminating the market for used books, so there is a financial benefit to updating editions frequently. Faculty can OER whenever they please, due to the Creative Commons permissions. Some may see this as a drawback, if they would rather have someone else be responsible for keeping materials current. I can see benefits to building the updating process into a course though. Students could look to current research, events and issues to see how they intersect with course subject matter, and be charged with proposing revisions. This type of an assignment would have them actively thinking about the relevance of what they're learning, how they are learning it, and how to get ideas and concepts across to others. Students would gain experience in managing their own learning processes at the some time as they learn the course content.

I like the concept, but I don't see how to make it happen.

the cynicism and polarization we see today

"Abysmal brute" is a term of elitism, as is the expectation that they should die for the vision of the revolutionists. Is the relationship any different than he one between Jackson and the mill?

Some students at UMW put together a video about this a few years ago, where they asked random people about the internet and the web. It is interesting to hear how some really bright people struggle to articulate definitions and distinctions. I see it as a reflection of our society and culture - so many of us don't understand what we have in the tools we use on a daily basis.

History, sociology, psychology, philosophy - all of these lenses are important. Engineering and economics without humanities leads to Skynet.

Six years later, do we worry less or more? At what point does it become structurally unfixable?

Improving society could improve the internet. Whichever ends one approaches it from, the effort to improve has to be active and intentional. A laissez faire approach accentuates the negative as much as the positive.

I'm not sure that monetization was something that the creators of the internet were considering. It's at the heart of capitalism certainly, but that's something that came to the web later.

On one hand, transparency lets us see what's wrong. On the other, bringing the dark and underground out into the open changes the nature of what is considered acceptable speech.

and growth gets stunted when people are not free to build upon their culture. seems like this could be an economic argument for openness.

essentially says "you bought it, you own it." Vendors in some cases prefer to lease rather than sell - creates an ongoing revenue stream, and allows for ongoing control. Transition to digital media facilitates lease over sale.

one definition of open ed

A telephone is a personal device, or in the case of the old school landline, a family device. We get to exercise some control over it, although it can also be used to spy on us. Online social spaces, mostly, are something different. They are not our spaces, under our control, but environments built so others can profit off of us. Where we can be "happy, and controlled."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Politics_(book)

divide and conquer. Currently reading The Iron Heel, which describes similar strategies, based on profession rather than race.

cited by 40 as of 1/31/18: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=15027297725367499583&as_sdt=5,33&sciodt=0,33&hl=en

look into: https://www.ippr.org/files/2018-01/cej-managing-automation-december2017.pdf

note the plateaus

need to consider how this relates to info lit

like this emphasis - generating questions is a key IL skill

interesting how this section discusses info lit without using the term. The concepts are all interconnected.

definitions

Certainly an info lit issue. The Information Has Value frame puts heavy emphasis on other people's info, but we also need to be conscious of the value of our own

I wonder how their commitment to partisanship compares to their commitment to Wikipedia.

as did Weinberger: https://books.google.com/books/about/Too_Big_to_Know.html?id=PkLuAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false

media consolidation since the 90s plays a big role here.

One problem is people spend much more time and attention outside of educational curricula. The messages from family, friends and media tend to take precedence.

a real understanding of and commitment to info lit is key here.

preserving digital materials won't just happen.

didn't used to be unusual for the library to be in charge of AV - old services coming back in a different form

library as student success center

which leads to a drop in ref stats, hiding the work we do.

Is this really a pivot? Libraries collect books TO support students.

This points to the value of a broad based liberal education. One needs to see and understand the dots in order to make connections. "Informed perspective" suggests informed learning and info lit.

History currently dominates the best seller list. Is this just a fad? Or does it show a real and popular interest in the subject?

Great point. Information literacies are for everyone, and we all need to continually develop our own to keep up with evolving modes of communication. Should we be evaluated by people who can only evaluate traditional publishing?

Not accessible because they're written for small audiences of specialized experts, and also because they're typically paywalled and off the radar of society at large. That inaccessibility makes it easy for others to distort research and science for political purposes - see the shrimp on a treadmill

I wonder if ds106 could be part of this? Could we take academese and translate it into internet vernacular? And use that idea as the theme of the course?

Love this point. Open has been trying to skirt the formal structures and roles for generations as well.

Of the five important questions listed here, this is the low-hanging fruit. Cost is a major barrier to access, so it makes sense that it's Q1. But the other Qs point to things that are so much more beneficial and empowering.

Does this impact the quality of the news people receive? News on a phone would have less depth, and possibly trend towards clickbait. Is it more personalized, more subject to algorithmic interference?

This bears further investigation. Is it low by historical standards? If so, might it be a result of marketing efforts by media outlets, as they try to distinguish themselves from the competition?

In the online environment these sites and articles are mixed together as if they were equivalent. When we encounter newspapers in stores, they are generally not adjacent to tabloids.

That second thing is the major problem - the attitude that money matters and people don't. Truth becomes a casualty. Humanity becomes a casualty. It manifests itself in the precarious employment situation and the opioid crisis as well as the media.

Need to look into this book. The cultural shift (text->image = logic->emotion) is an interesting idea, but I'd like to see how it is argued.

The key point to me here is that open is about what you can do, not what you can get. Open resources matter because they enable open practices and open pedagogy.

This is talking about information literacy in a broad sense.

Been thinking about this from the infolit angle for a few years. Info is easy to find and access, and a little less easy to filter and evaluate. What matters more is creativity - what we can do with info, how we can connect it, what we can make out of it - all of which is impeded by copyright and enabled by openness.

another black box that needs to be opened

Transparency is an important part of openness that I don't see discussed much in the OER community these days. If we replace an expensive text with free OER there is a great financial benefit for students, but the process of developing and selecting the OER remains something of a black box to the students. But if the students are involved in that development and selection, that process becomes transparent. Students can learn the process as well as the content, and build powerful learning skills, and an increased level of educational independence.

take charge of their education

Etexts have an advantage in the annotation department in that they're not limited to the marginal space. Annotations can be as lengthy as they need to be. They can also be organized through tags, and thus easily searched. They can contain hyperlinks and be hyperlinked, tying texts together. I wonder how many people are taught, in any meaningful or systematic way, to use digital texts. And if they were, how would that change this dilemma.

Does this relate to Perry https://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/perry.positions.html ? I wonder.

Education, in a broad sense, is the pursuit of truth. If we support the pursuit of truth, we are not neutral.

This could mean that students are lacking in info lit skills, or that a minority of faculty have unrealistic expectations

makes me think of Bruce's Six Frames, "Learning to Learn" http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.11120/ital.2006.05010002

an example of how literacy is a continuum. People immersed in a discipline are hardly "info illiterate," but how and why info is organized is a discipline in itself

good way to get the most bang for the buck. Also puts OER on the radar for the most students, which could serve to increase demand.

TPS as metacognition - worth trying out. Would have to budget time for it. Could we combine it with something to capture data? connect to qualtrics or google forms

research on how ideas spread through social media

they could also be seen as different facets of conventional literacies. I see relationships with the ACRL Framework

I need to think about how this relates to the long-running discussion of truth and the Framework

The truth that one comes to through this process is not the veracity of things being discussed, but rather an understanding of how different sides discuss things, their perceptions and priorities.

good - not limited to OER - open to learner input and control

I like this idea. Opens ways to connect info lit

This is where history is important. OER has only been a part of open ed relatively recently. The broader vision of open ed has been around for at least 45 years.

I tend to talk about it in entirely political terms, highlighting the difference between the purpose of copyright as written in the US Constitution and the purpose as practiced today.

interesting to hear about how this is framed in other cultures. People here take similar tactics, but the cultural resonance is different.

info lit connections

Is this a problem with media literacy? Or does it stem from a mindless bias against Wikipedia? The problem described sounds like literacy taught poorly.

Some people have been advocating for information literacy, but I have not seen evidence of a societal demand. In my experience, info lit is regarded as something that would be nice to have as part of the curriculum, if there was time and as long as someone else is responsible for it. We've spent 40 years trying to get it on the radar of faculty and administration.

I'm not sure of the basis of this characterization of information literacy. It makes it sound as if we assume a mantle of papal infallibility, and it seems to ignore the complexities of info lit.

Bas-relief by Vela referenced in The Twenty Days of Turin.

Book and statue of author referenced in The Twenty Days of Turin.

There are issues of ethics that are not discussed here. Experts may have conflicts of interest. Experts may mislead or deceive, if they see a benefit to doing so. It seems to me that this behavior is becoming more acceptable, or at least that it has fewer consequences. The distrust then is less of expertise than of the expert.

open ed

The web a basic communication platform these days. Understanding how to use it is as important as understanding how to use a word processor, yet it seems to be outside the curriculum in most places.

Which is why we need DoOO, which requires some digital literacy even as it builds it. I wonder what protections and rights are provided to the indie web though.

Interesting point - information literacy is "too big to know." One response has been to define it down, others would fracture it into multiple literacies. While it may be necessary to break it down to make it manageable, the larger view is important too.

These learning skills are all part of info lit.

I see this as a call for information literacy - relates to Bruce's Learning to Learn frame

interesting that some of the criticisms of infolit re fake news are addressed here - questioning authority & personal biases

Discussions of the ethical dimensions of info lit tend to revolve around intellectual property and plagiarism. They need to go far beyond this, to privacy, truth, freedom, etc.

I see this as connecting to both open ed and DoOO.

Some of the criticism of the Framework come from people who want prescription. There is an advantage to having the weight of the ACRL backing up instruction librarians. Some want official standards and outcomes, rather than to have to define, write, and sell them on their own.

an open education approach, similar to what Resnick discussed

also echoed by Papert

This makes me think of Papert in *Mindstorms *- Learning is unfortunately limited by the intersections of systems of schooling and technology, and the limitations of each amplify those of the other.

A few people have been arguing recently that information literacy is something along the lines of a "clever trick," but I think it is very much connected to the larger ideas framed out here. Information comes in many forms and flows through many channels. As we grow in our understandings of those forms and channels, we become better able to use information to deal with life's challenges. We augment our intellect.

We have invested much in improving technology, but the whole set of interacting components includes people and their ideas as well. This is why we need to value humanities and social sciences - technology with humanity and ethics gives us Skynet.

A few people have been arguing recently that information literacy is something along the lines of a "clever trick," but I think it is very much connected to the larger ideas framed out here. Information comes in many forms and flows through many channels. As we grow in our understandings of those forms and channels, we become better able to use information to deal with life's challenges. We augment our intellect.

I like the multiple meanings one can find in "spirit should be elevated." Not just happier, but better as people.

It was meant to be about humanity and empowering people, rather than technology putting people out of work.

In this application, the CRAAP test is a starting point for class discussion, as the students think through the relative merits of the various resources they they had found.

I wonder about the thought behind this criterion. Some of these are unrestricted domains, and as such don't say anything about the source, but there appears to be a high percentage of confusion about this. see RFC on domain reqs.

Sad, but unsurprising. It would be interesting to know what went through the TV people's heads as they missed the entire point of the story.

I always liked the door metaphor for open, because it suggests decrees of openness, from open just a crack to wide open. And a wide open door can still be an obstacle to people in certain circumstances. So it can be a boon or it can be a tease. It is not as simple as it might seem.

That's an understatement. I wonder if information diet is an issue here - i.e. avoid the sites that serve us crap.

I would say that this is information literacy. Traditionally, we have promoted a rather narrow view of IL, which is part of the problem.The ACRL Framework may be a step in the right direction.

Librarians should work at developing some expertise in these areas, so that we can provide advice and assistance as well as space.

I think one lesson we've learned over the past four years is that the Coursera/Udacity model doesn't really work. But MOOCs come from opening up f2f courses - the value of open perhaps is not in what the course gives away, but in what it can draw in, what the larger online community adds to it, and what the class gains from connecting to that community. The connected courses model is worth considering.

ds106

I think any good course would do this. The deeper you look, the more there is to see.

This is where MOOCs come from.

Lifelong learning is essential for everyone, not just liberal arts grads. People in healthcare or engineering have to be able to adapt to changing times and technologies just like anyone else.

Starting off with revisionist history is a problem. It is no secret that the movement goes back more than four years, and the lessons of the near past are important for this article.

This relates to Bruce's Frames - different people have different understandings of what IL is.

Interesting distinction. It is more effective to engage in the practice of IL than to teach about IL.

make it more than just a library thing.

concise but narrow definition. compare to Claremont's

understanding information channels and how they operate is a significant part of IL

yet info lit is so much more - metaliteracy

Creating and communicating information are vital parts of info lit - parts that libraries should embrace

Information comes in many forms and flows through many channels. It is important to understand the grammar and syntax of the forms, and the functions and workings of the channels, in order to understand the information.

behind closed doors, not in the open.

makes me think of "code is law" and the algorithms that run so much of the web

Openness, or transparency, could go a long way to reducing inequality - closing the divide.

Good questions. Is information literacy as ill-defined as the open in open ed?

Piketty pointed out that the diffusion of knowledge was a driver of economic growth, although not as much of an equalizer as might have been hoped.

Over the past 20 years, the web has become a basic communications platform, and multimedia a basic form. We need to know them like we need to know keyboarding and MS Word.

Blacksmithing? That is awesome! The talents people bring to this class never ceases to amaze me.

There are a lot of great open-source (free) programs for creative work: GIMP, Paint.NET, Audacity, Scribus, Blender... While there might be a learning curve, the tools open up many expressive possibilities, and the price is right. Open source tools are worth investigating.

We develop skills through trial and error and reflection and analysis - looking at what worked, what didn't, and why. So it's okay if what we make isn't as good as we'd like it to be, as long as we learn something from the experience.

like this model and the progression it represents. It might be interesting to compare it to imposter syndrome. Identity represents a level of confidence in one's abilities, confidence which can be independent of ability level.

three definitions

I suspect its claim came from its legal department, whose mission is something other than education. Similar to k12 IT depts locking down iPads - their concern is security rather than learning.

perhaps a transformation is necessary here. To many (too many), education means grades and scores and standardization. Capacity for self-directed learning is more important and difficult to quantify.

This is the heart of the open ed/info lit connection. If the perception is that students go to school to be taught, the more important goal of learning how to learn is so much more difficult to achieve. But fostering lifelong learning means ceding some control over what is to be learned to the learner.

I think it can, but does higher ed want it to? Does anyone other than the open evangelists? The attempts at transformation in the 70s failed pretty hard. Maybe we need to transform teh public vision of what education looks like.

love the extended list, esp. "open for discussion/debate" Most definitions don't get past "free." "Open to competition" is an interesting thought. Open to cooperation would be more ideal. What would the competition be? For-profits?

To the "unskilled," the what and how may be a big hurdle. Skills seem prerequisite to literacy here.

from OER to OEP and open pedagogy

However, current laws impede growth and prevent progress in science and useful arts.

Interesting that transliteracy is at the heart. Information comes in may forms and flows through many channels. Transliteracy. IMO, recognizes the multiplicity.

I've been wondering for a long time about ID, UbD and the like as they fit in with open educational practices and open pedagogy. It seems like they're closed in a way, in that the the goals, the way they're defined and the means to getting there are all defined for the learner. But if we really want to help people grow and be all they can be, we have to cede control to the learners, so they can start to define their own goals, and find out how to set their own paths.

in line with the Barth definition

compare definition to Barth

that progress is a result of technical abilities (literacies) as well as permissions

open patent

again connecting to the Value and Authority frames

all of which are information literacies look to Belshaw

participation in the information ecosystem as a way of developing information literacy

info has value - owning/controlling your own space & identity online constructing identity - constructing authority

This is an information issue, not a digital one. understanding how info flows through different channels, how new channels impact the nature of information,

Some situate info lit here. It makes it easy to instruct & assess, but the other three matter just as much if not more. Number 2 is vital - asking good questions is where it starts, and formulating questions is a creative and information skill that is valued in the workplace, and seen as lacking in education. Number 5 is entirely within the librarian's field of expertise. Number 6 may belong to the disciplines in part, but it is a place to connect with them.

integrate IL

This definition/description limits IL mainly to finding & evaluating. Why aren't using and creating and communicating in the mix?

all of which are more important than content - how and why over what

would like to see these expanded upon

what you make shows what you can do far better than an abstract grade

put everyone in charge of their own learning

Consider all the ways this ties to the ACRL Framework

concept mapping works here - a type of visual literacy?

connects directly to DoOO

Parker Molloy's story might work here.

hands on experience with creating media would be useful