Thursday 24 May 2012

Activity Seven - Open Education Resources and Philosophies.

Hi everyone early in the year I completed learning for content a free open education resource within Wiki educator and I would recommend it to everyone. I became an apprentice level 2 which meant I learnt all about Wiki's their development, formatting, open resource content and issues such as copy right and intellectual property.
Open education practices provide the opportunity for extensive collaboration and of course do not have the same financial restrictions as traditional qualifications. This depends on what you consider 'free' to be as I know time is a precious commodity and internet connections and technology needed to engage are still not cheap!
Within the school of midwifery we have a site called  midwifery junction
"Junction is defined as a place where two or more things come together and connect. The principal aim of this website is to connect midwifery educators, midwifery students, practising midwives, childbearing women and anyone else interested or involved in our midwifery programme.
The Midwifery Junction hopes to build partnerships and develop communities by providing mechanisms for communication, networking, learning, reflection, and developing practice. The website provides access to a wide variety of resources including a ‘digital toolbox’ for those wanting to build confidence in using various digital technologies for learning and communicating"
http://www.midwiferyjunction.co.nz/

I believe that if more content can be developed onto this site more midwives will recognise Otago Polytechnic as a leader in midwifery and select us for their post graduate studies. Providing free modular study here with professional recertification points especially for those that support undergraduate students will certainly enhance industry relations ongoing.
Regards Fiona

2 comments:

  1. Fiona I really like the sound of the professional website used for supporting midwifes. I was unable to find the digital resources - perhaps these are only available on log in? How relevant do you find the website for supporting your professional practice, and how often do you access the site?

    An open education community where resources are free relies on a particular philosophy of openness and sharing. So as you mention, the commodity of time is what is given to the community as well as the resources and knowledge that each participant carries with them. This philosophy is unspoken, and it can take a while for people to get the gist. For example, practitioners may take what is free, and use it in a closed learning environment but if they create material and share it on open sites such as youtube, slideshare, myplick, flickr, wikieducator, then they are giving back to the open community. Have you a sense of how others in your profession feel about doing this?

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  2. Hi Bronwyn
    Yes you do need to register as a midwife user in the midwifery specific educaiton section. You should be able to access midwifery juction and then join as a consumer though? There is general information displayed on the main web page. I have not needed to access the education modules for recertification points myself as I have accumulated plenty with postgraduate study. I am sure to create more education material on the site using it as a participant is a useful exercise to test how user friendly it is. Midwives are very media shy due to confidentialty issues and I believe the like the closed forum security. I will have to ask my colleagues more about how they feel about open material. Regards Fiona

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