Emerging Leadership in Developing Quality OERs

EDDE 804: Leadership and Project Management in Distance Education

Presentation March 7, 2016Matthew Bingley and Rosemarri Klamn

Presentation Content

Part I The Problem: Lack of Quality OER in the Developing World

Part II Emerging leaders and the Capabilities Approach

Part III Strategic Considerations

Part IV The MOOC

Part I: The Problem

“ Quality education is one that develops whatever capabilities society and individuals have reason to value……paying attention not only to the means for realizing a quality education but to the

cultural norms and values that either enable or stifle the development of these capabilities for different groups of

disadvantaged learners” – Tikly & Barrett, 2005, p. 19)

The Context

Nations in the developing world often show … • A lack of educational resources• Low rates of educational enrollment and adult literacy• Inability to develop “human capital”

Open Educational Resources

In 2012 UNESCO published the Paris OER Declaration which recommends that nations…

• promote the development and use of OER to address educational needs in developing countries

• build the infrastructure to enable use of OER in educational institutions

• (Source: http://bit.ly/1bwsVPU)

The Problem with OER

However, the availability of OER in itself is insufficient to address these issues because …

• Lack of teacher training to find and use OER

• Difficulty adapting OER

• Varying quality of OER

• Barriers of culture and language

• Difficulties accessing OER with technology

Our Solution

We propose developing a MOOC to train educators to find, use, and generate OER….. taking into consideration the potential pitfalls and benefits of MOOCs and adapting learning to the local context

Part II: Emergent Leadership

Transformational LeadershipDistributed Leadership

Shared Leadership

Ho

listic Leadersh

ip

Servant Leadership

Collaborative Leadership

Emergent Leadership

Authentic Leadership

Vision

Influence

Trust

Social Justice Approach to Quality Education

Social Justice Approach to Quality Education based on Fraser’s Social Justice Framework (2008) and Sen’s Capability Approach (1999)

Tikly & Barrett’s (2009) Social Justice, Capabilities and the Quality of Education in Low Income Countries

Sen’s notion of Person

(fully realized capabilities)

Fraser’s Dimension of Recognition

(all individuals have access)

Fraser’s Dimension of

Redistribution (access to resources)

Fraser’s Dimension of Participation (in society)

Leadership Theory

Leadership across the continuum from global, community,institutions, and educators (individual)

Emergent Leadership: behavior-based, unassigned, leadership in virtual or dispersed (over time, space, and area) environments where leaders “emerge” within or across (the) team or organization

Qualities include ability to conceptualize new methods or approaches, initiate new ideas within their sphere of influence, operate within and across political, symbolic, or structural frameworks (Bolman & Deal, 2003), and balance internal and external factors (Portugal, 2006)

Challenges include being accepted as an informal rather than formal leader (Misoiolek & Heckman, 2005), being accepted by their appointed leader as informal leader, and balancing relational and task-related facets of their respective roles

Leadership in Developing Quality Education Materials

GlobalUnited Nations

UNESCO

Community (Africa)TESSAFAWE

Commonwealth of Learning

InstitutionsNTU (Singapore)

NSU (Florida)

EducatorsIndividual faculty/

researchersTikly & Barrett

PortugalLiyanagunawardena,

Williams & Adams

Emergent Leaders across Diverse Organizations

Part III: The Strategy

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe – Abraham Lincoln

However the beautiful the strategy, you should look occasionally at results – Winston Churchill

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. Be

faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength

lies.”

-- Mother Teresa, religious sister

Strategic Considerations

Pitfalls• Richter’s concern that education alone is not solution

• Issues of language, customizability

Benefits

• Creation of more OER that benefit local populations

• Training and development of teachers in local contexts

• Intercultural dialogue – adapting this MOOC that anyone can access

Strategic Considerations

Minimize cost• Open source materials and freeware

• Google Drive, Google Sites

• Wikispaces

• Open Learning Management Systems such as Moodle or Dokeos

• OER such as Wikieducator, MERLOT, TESSA

Distance• Reach teachers in different developing contexts

• Analogous projects like Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) use in-person facilitators to develop OER collaboratively with on-site educators

Strategic Considerations

Pedagogy• Connectivism because we are using a MOOC to reach those

who can make use of it

• Constructivism because we are trying to instill in learners the skills needed to develop resources meaningful in their local contexts

Culture• Differences in language, backgrounds, digital infrastructure,

and cultural norms may be an issue

• Instructors can learn from this MOOC and adapt the ideas to their own needs and local contexts

• Local teachers can become “cultural translators” who can adapt OERs to their needs

Part IV: The MOOC

Image source: http://www.wage-organisation.com/benefit/global-network/

Course Outline

Module Objectives Bloom’s Taxonomy

Identifying OER To define different types of OERTo articulate how they would be useful

Understanding, Remembering

Finding OER To locate different kinds of OERTo evaluate OER

Applying

Adapting OER To select OER which may be usefulTo articulate objectives for using OER

Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating

Creating OER To find useful tools for building OERTo design and develop OER

Creating

Sharing OER To share OER with others To give and receive feedback on OER

Analyzing, Evaluating

Activities and CommunityModule Activities Community building

Identifying OER Short presentation and forum Introductions forum

Finding OER Short presentation, followed by an assignment to find potentially useful OER in various databases. The focus in the forum this week will be on sharing the found resources and discussing their usefulness.

Sharing found OER with others

Adapting OER Short presentation followed by an exercise articulating a need for an OER (such as a lesson, an activity, a curriculum plan, etc.), to be shared in the forum.

Sharing the assessment of local needs and concerns.

Creating OER Short presentation on finding resources that may be useful. Activity outlining or drafting a possible OER. Results shared in forum.

Posting drafts in forum for feedback and discussion.

Developing a final form of an OER.

Sharing OER Sharing the created OER in the forum for feedback from other participants.

Showing their OERs to others; commenting on others' OER

• The problem is one of training educators to find, adapt, and create locally relevant OER

• The strategy is to employ a MOOC to teach these skills using free/open resources whenever possible

• Emergent Leadership informs this approach as do notions of sustainability and social justice

Summary and Conclusion

Questions?

1. I thought it interesting that both presentations tonight seemed to address issues where learners are adapting to another culture in one way or another. As a conversation starter I'd love to hear any thoughts others have on this issue?

2. What other forms of leadership seem applicable to

strengthening the quality of educational materials?

3. Marc has asked if there is a leadership equivalent for connectivism. AK mentioned emergent, complex, distributed and Susan argued that George and Stephen would consider that all leadership theories could be consistent with connectivism. What do you think?

References

• Alexander, Kamenetz, Schroeder, & De Rosa. 2014). …….

• Ally, M. & Samaka, M., 2013. Open education resources and mobile technology to narrow the learning divide. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 14(2), pp.14–27

• United Nations. (2014). Development Policy and Analysis Division.

• Hatakka, M., (2009). Build it and they will come?-Inhibiting factors for reuse of open content in developing countries. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 37(5), 1-16.

• Ivins, T. (2011). Localization of open educational resources (OER) in Nepal: Strategies of Himalayan knowledge-workers. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.

• Liyanagunawardena, T., Williams, S., and Adams, A. (2013). The impact and reach of MOOCs: a developing countries’ perspective. E-Learningeuropa.info. University of Reading.

• Maturing of the MOOC, 2013)……

• (http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/cdp/ldc/ldc_criteria

References

• Misiolek,N.I., & Heckman, R. (2005). "Patterns of Emergent Leadership in Virtual Teams", HICSS, 2005, 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2005, pp. 49a, doi:10.1109/HICSS.2005.486

• Portugal, L.M. 2006.Emerging Leadership Roles in Distance Education: Current State of Affairs and Forecasting Future Trends. Retrieved February 22, 2016 from: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall2006/portugal93.htm

• Richter, T. & McPherson, M., 2012. Open educational resources: education for the world? Distance education, 33(2), pp.201–219.

• Thakrar, J., Wolfenden, F. & Zinn, D., 2009. Harnessing open educational resources to the challenges of teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 10(4).

• Tikly, L. & Barrett, A.M., 2011. Social justice, capabilities and the quality of education in low income countries. International Journal of Educational Development, 31(1), pp.1–14.

References

• Walker, M. (2006) Towards a capability-based theory of social justice for education policymaking. Journal of Education Policy, 21(2), 163-185

• Willems, J. & Bossu, C., 2012. Equity considerations for open educational resources in the glocalization of education. Distance Education, 33(2), pp.185–199.

• Wright, C.R. & Reju, S., 2012. Developing and deploying OERs in sub-Saharan Africa: Building on the present. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(2), pp.181–220.

• Wright, C.R., Dhanarajan, G. & Reju, S.A., 2009. Recurring issues encountered by distance educators in developing and emerging nations. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 10(1).