Paradigm shifts we need in open and online learning post COVID-19
Maha Bali, PhD @bali_maha
Associate Professor of Practice, Center for Learning & Teaching, American University in Cairo
Co-founder, Virtually Connecting
Co-facilitator, Equity Unbound
السلام عليكم Salam Alaikum
Photo by me: flame tree visible from my window
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How are you feeling today?
(stretch if you need to)
(I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well and that you’re feeling hopeful today)
The Journey for Today...
How COVID-19 made me rethink a lot of what we considered to be “good practice” in open/online learning… and how it surfaced the importance of some aspects of it.
But I also asked on Twitter!
Been in eLearning since 2003 -
17 years helped prepare me for Covid, but I have also had some paradigm shifts
What has been a paradigm shift for YOU? Type in chat or on Twitter
Socioemotional digital literacies are essential
Recognizing the need for socioemotional digital literacy
(Selwyn, 2020 &
Cleveland-Innes & Campbell, 2012)
Expressing care online!
Remember how asynchronous requires time management & autonomy from students
(More difficult during pandemic and for younger students)
Building community was always possible online…
But it became more important than ever because of the trauma & physical-distancing
From Research to Useful Practices
Given the choice between doing *research* and doing work that is *needed* by people, I chose to spend August creating community-building resources for teachers who don't know how to do so online
https://oneheglobal.org/equity-unbound
Ideas of How to Make the Most of Sync Time
Importance of semi-synchronous third places
Although asynchronous learning is more accessible (infrastructure, time) - synchronous works better for many of those who can access it (socioemotional, lower cognitive load)
Importance of Equity Literacy
All the dimensions of social justice: economic, cultural, political
(work of Nancy Fraser - applied to Framing Open Educational Practices
article by Bali, Cronin & Jhangiani)
Example: Wikipedia editing
What are some examples of pedagogies that can empower/privilege one group in one context while disadvantaging others?
Context is necessary:
The same action/intervention may privilege one marginal group while disadvantaging another
Bilingual doodle by my daughter below
The ways economic injustice can influence cultural injustice - e.g. Indigenous populations in Canada
Context is everything in global communication - note the use of “North” here
Equity vs Equality
“Equity vs Equality” flickr photo by MN Pollution Control Agency https://flickr.com/photos/mpcaphotos/31655988501 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license
Not everyone wants an apple...
“Equity vs Equality” flickr photo by MN Pollution Control Agency https://flickr.com/photos/mpcaphotos/31655988501 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license
Maybe someone needs care more than apples today...
“Equity vs Equality” flickr photo by MN Pollution Control Agency https://flickr.com/photos/mpcaphotos/31655988501 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license
Importance of “Parity of Participation” (Nancy Fraser)
“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.”― Desmond Tutu
(I would argue: I want us to create our
own menu, choose our own ingredients!)
How do we do this?
Intentionally Equitable Hospitality
Intentionally Equitable Hospitality
You are a “host” building the space Hospitality is your responsibility - Whom do you involve/listen to? How do you make each person welcome?
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Intentionally Equitable Hospitality
Set your intention. Walk the talk. It won’t happen automatically, so you need to set the intention - it is not enough to say “oh, I didn’t realize”
Intentionally Equitable Hospitality
Recognize that if you intend to be hospitable to ALL students, you need to pay attention to the inequities faced by EACH student
How do we research this?
Whose stories and on whose terms?
...autoethnography is a powerful tool for exploring the ambiguities and uncertainties inherent in Internet usage and for exploring how online and offline sites are connected in contingent and flexible fashion. It also cautions against unthinking pursuit of a “complete” understanding of such a phenomenon, and counsels researchers focusing on complex online/offline phenomena to embrace the sense of uncertainty and “good enough” assumptions that permeate the experience of navigating such territory.
(Hine, 2015, 34% on Kindle)
See also: Bali, M. (2020). Doing autoethnography on the internet. In A. Herrmann (ed). The Routledge International Handbook of Organizational Autoethnography. Routledge.
Categorization allows us “neither [to] identify nor nurture the parts, the vital parts, of the other that transcend category... the other is never fully knowable”
(Yalom, 1989, p. 185, Love’s Executioner)
Example: Egyptian schools assigning “projects” instead of exams sounds like great pedagogy...
Bozkurt, A., et al. (2020). A Global Outlook to the Interruption of Education due to COVID-19 Pandemic: Navigating in a Time of Uncertainty and Crisis. Asian Journal of Distance Education.
… except neither teachers nor students had ever done this before, and were unprepared to suddenly learn how to do it
Opportunities for “Glocal” & “open” professional development
No Size Fits All
Collaborative Autoethnography
(Gachago, Pallitt & Bali, 2020)
Today - Terry Anderson
Giving choice via multiple pathways?
See Crosslin, M. (2018). Exploring self-regulated learning choices in a customisable learning pathway MOOC. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 34(1), 131–144.
as cited in
Bali, M. & Caines, A. (2018). A call for promoting ownership, equity and agency in faculty development via connected learning. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education.
Examples:
Whose Labor?
Respect for teachers/professors who managed to go online with little or no preparation for this… and in traumatic times with additional family/psychological pressures.
How much agency & support did institutions offer teachers to:
lecturers get some recognition for the burden of shifting online, but truly, it is the invisible administrative staff who are keeping the ship afloat.
Czerniewicz, L., et al (2020). A Wake-Up Call: Equity, Inequality and Covid-19 Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning. Postdigital Science & Education. DOI: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42438-020-00187-4
Affective labor: educational developers caring for teachers so they can care for students
Importance of Centering Our Values
Technologies can reinforce, reproduce or amplify culture of surveillance, control and inequalities
Which of your values became central?
Type in chat or on Twitter
Are we preparing learners for the world AS IT IS, or are we preparing them to be agents who can imagine the world AS IT COULD BE?
Maybe not really paradigm shifts...
The importance of hope
(And its complexity)
On a personal note, we are still hopeful, we cling to hope, although we know that this hope is fragile. It is also an angry hope, because we, as with many of our colleagues, are at the forefront of this pandemic and are dealing daily with the impact of the glaring inequalities our society and our institutions are steeped in. Hope sometimes feels wrong, in particular when we feel we are supporting a broken system to survive with our feeble attempts at saving the unsavable. Hope feels torn, because we are uncertain of what is right and what is wrong.
Czerniewicz, L., et al (2020). A Wake-Up Call: Equity, Inequality and Covid-19 Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning. Postdigital Science & Education. DOI: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42438-020-00187-4
Hope is dogged, because we nevertheless continue our work on a daily basis. Hope is resilient and collective because as communities, we do find ways to cope, but hope is also compromised because we know with every move we make to support some, we leave others behind. Hope is critical because we keep calling out systemic injustices, but hope is also insistent because it is impossible to give up as long as possibilities exist for equity-oriented change.
Czerniewicz, L., et al (2020). A Wake-Up Call: Equity, Inequality and Covid-19 Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning. Postdigital Science & Education. DOI: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42438-020-00187-4
Thank you
@bali_maha
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