Workshop delivered to Athabasca University's Faculty of Health Disciplines (Edmonton, Feb 2014). Focuses on online learning strategies, emerging technologies, the current status of higher education and online online education, open scholarship, social media, and what the future of higher education may hold. Part 3: Open Scholarship: Social Media, Participation, and Online Networks

1. Open Scholarship: Social Media,
Participation, and Online Networks
George Veletsianos, PhD
Canada Research Chair
Associate Professor
School of Education and Technology
Athabasca University, Faculty of Health Disciplines, Edmonton, Feb 2014

2. Gist of the argument
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?

3. Connectedness and Networks

4. Participation & Participatory Cultures

5. Openness
• 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)

6. Examples
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.

7. Opportunities
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)

8. Challenges
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)

9. 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)

10. Networked Participatory Scholarship

11. What are open networks like?
• What happens in these environments?
• What do learners & educators do?

12. Networks of knowledge creation
• Using online networks to create and
disseminate knowledge

13. Networks of tension
“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.”

14. Networks of care & vulnerability
• Caring for one another online
• Congregate, learn from each other,
support each other, and commiserate over
work, education, and life challenges.

16. Networks of conflict and circumvention
• Academics routinely post their papers
online

17. 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

18. Fragmented networks
• Expression of identity online appears to
consist of a constellation of acceptable
identity fragments.
(Kimmons & Veletsianos, 2014)

19. 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

20. Transparent networks
• Scholars and students making activities/
practices transparent

21. Transparent networks
• Scholars and students making activities/
practices transparent

22. What does all this mean for our
institutions?

23. “Sharing:” A literacy to teach/
embrace
• What would our courses look like if we
shared more?
– What if “sharing” and “open” were the default,
and we “closed” was the option?

24. Perceptions of the Web
The
open
web
is
a
monstrous
place
The
open
web
is
a
wondrous
place

25. Courses as participatory cultures
• 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

26. What does “open” look like in health
disciplines?

27. Thank you!
www.veletsianos.com
www.veletsianos.com/publications
@veletsianos on Twitter
veletsianos@gmail.com
These slides: www.slideshare.com/veletsianos