One of the MOOCs that I enjoyed was “Web Storytelling” by Alan Levine aka Cogdog. Therefore, I decided toattend another presentation by Alan entitled “True Stories of Openness”. The title intrigued me because I thought the presentation was going to be more about open education in the form of the MOOC movement. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was about being open to learning and sharing your learning. The purpose of posting to this blog was to share my learning which I have not found easy. Alan spoke to a number of barriers people have about being open and I have experienced many of these. Some of the barriers he spoke to were the following;
- Lack of confidence – We believe that our “stuff” is not good enough to post. This is more focus put on the product than the process. Alan says he wants to know the process from the development of the idea to the outcome.
- Feeling judged by those viewing your ideas.
- Afraid to be wrong.
- Not feeling like your idea is an original one. Alan says that there are no original ideas and suggests looking into “Everything is a Remix”.
- Openness is not a default.
I must admit that many of these barriers have permitted me from truly sharing my experience on this blog. What I feel the most is that my stuff is not good enough. Why would I write if it is being judged or bothered to be read at all? At times, I many treat this space as a journal or a reflection of my learning. However, I am very cognisant of the fact that this is a course requirement and the quality of my work is being judged. So how do all those bloggers out there willingly share so easily? Most importantly, how do teachers open up their classrooms by sharing their experiences online? I truly admire those who are able to be open and share. As teachers we are in control of our classroom and not many come into our class to judge our practice. There may be others whose classroom doors are closed to prevent any sharing or openness.
Alan also spoke about openness not being the default. He goes on further to state that we don’t want to share because we do not want others to steal our ideas. It is not about content but rather having an open attitude. One cannot teach openness, it must be experienced. I think that I have a long way to go in breaking down these barriers to being open and sharing. At the same time, I feel that I am not alone with respect to these barriers. There are little steps that I can take in my journey to that point of true openness. Little steps such as commenting on another person’s blog or responding to a tweet on Twitter are a couple of ways. I have experienced connecting with someone on Twitter when I thanked Cogdog for pechaflickr. I told him that my kids absolutely loved it. He responded immediately with a few questions. Now this is not an amazing story compared to those that were shared during the MOOC session but I completely understand Alan’s statement, “If you never share anything, you will never have one of these amazing stories.”
One amazing story that stood out for me was the one in which a teacher spoke about his own experience being bullied as a high school student. He wanted those who read his story to understand that it was about making it through the experience. He received so much feedback from young students in similar situations who said that his story made a difference in their lives. His openness and willingness to share may have changed a situation for a young person.
I do not believe in anyway that what I share will turn into an amazing story but maybe it will make someone smile or make the day a little easier.
