Elearning in open source education

Final report
The report is available on request from thebrentc...[at]...gmail.com

Introduction
This is a report of work in progress (as part of a formal course). Please refer to the linked documents and references for more information.

Summary
A review of a range of education initiatives, analyzing pedagogies and teaching/learning roles to test the concept of 'open source education' i.e. open source ideas from computing applied to education. A further focus is on uses of e-learning.

Abstract
The open source approach is very successful in computing where there is collaborative production of 'open source' software, free to use, modify, adapt and distribute. It is argued that there is great potential in applying the open source principles and methods to education (Dillon & Bacon 2006; Staring, Titlestad & Gailis 2005). A significant implication is how teacher and learner roles may be reconceptualised to enhance collaboration (Dillon & Bacon 2006; Staring, Titlestad & Gailis 2005). There are some commonalities with ‘alternative’ education ideologies for example radical pedagogy, and educational concepts like constructivist and learner-centered learning (Dillon & Bacon 2006; Smith 1996; Wright 1989). This research aims to explore this concept of 'open source education'.

The study performs a qualitative literature and internet review of example education initiatives analyzing their pedagogies, open source elements and uses of e-learning, followed by a focus group to begin identifying pedagogical and e-learning ideas or methods from such approaches that can be valuable for teaching and learning.

The investigation successfully identified strong evidence of open source influences and elements in a variety of projects, sometimes explicit, but also reflected in open democratic organisation, collaboration and calls for participation. “Facilitation” is a strong theme with initiatives providing structures and processes to help learning. The distinction between teachers and learners is de-emphasised, but the teacher concept is often similarly manifested as a "facilitator" role that participants fulfill.

Specific pedagogical emphases include collaborative learning, lifelong and informal learning, learner-directedness, critical thinking and practical learning.

Wiki technology is popular and other common e-learning uses include discussion boards, community blogs, mailing lists and document repositories, often taking submissions. Some publish journals or newsletters and there are also many face-to-face events.

The study concludes that there is value in developing ways of organising, teaching and learning informed by both the open source movement and education approaches embodying these principles, and that social technologies like wiki can significantly enable this.

Selected references
Dillon, T., Bacon, S. 2006. Opening education. The potential of open source approaches for education [online]. Available: http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/opening_education/Open_Source_report.pdf [accessed 02-06-2008].

McGettigan, T. 1999. What is Radical Pedagogy? Radical Pedagogy 1 (1).

Smith, M. K. 1996. Ideas. Key concepts and theories in informal education, lifelong learning and social action.

Staring, K., Titlestad, O. & Gailis, J. 2005. Educational transformation through open source approaches.

Wright, N., 1989. Assessing radical education. Milton Keynes/Philadelphia: Open University Press.

Some Examples
These are the projects I've looked at in some detail so far:

Autonomous University of Lancaster         http://www.knowledgelab.org.uk/AUL

Copenhagen Free University          http://www.copenhagenfreeuniversity.dk

exco|experimentalcollege   http://www.excotc.org

Free Floating Faculty           http://www.kristinask.net/Freefloatingfaculty.html

Free University of Los Angeles      http://www.freeuniversityla.org

Highlander Research and Education Center        http://www.highlandercenter.org

The Independent Art School           http://www.independent-art-school.org.uk

manoa free university          http://www.manoafreeuniversity.org

MeineAkademie      http://www.meineakademie.tk

Minciu Sodas           http://www.ms.lt

mobilised investigation       http://manifestor.org/mi

New University Coop           http://www.newuniversity.ca

Olympia Community Free School  http://oly-wa.us/freeschool

Pirate University       http://www.pirate-university.org

School of Everything      http://www.schoolofeverything.com/

Seattle free school   http://seattlefreeschool.googlepages.com

Toronto Anarchist Free University  http://anarchistu.org

The Travelling School of Life          http://www.tsolife.org

University of the Third Age         http://www.u3a.org.uk

University of Openess         http://uo.twenteenthcentury.com

Vidya Ashram           http://www.vidyaashram.org

Wikiversity    http://en.wikiversity.org

Other Examples
These have been discovered post review

OpenLearn   http://openlearn.open.ac.uk Informal University in Foundation    http://www.jackie-inhalt.net/ Factory School    http://www.factoryschool.org/

Appendices
The Open Source Definition

Some technologies

Free School Activity

Presentation
www.slideshare.net/thebrentc/elearning-in-open-source-education

version2

Other projects
Education and collaboration

Developing Wikiversity through action research

FLOSS/FLOSS and education

Some Links
Wikipedia:Edupunk