Open Leadership for OCLMOOC

Christina HendricksPhilosophy, University of British Columbia

Vancouver, BCOct 16, 2014

What does “open” mean?

• Accessible• Revisable• Reusable,

redistributable• Transparent• Collaborative• SharedSee also:http://www.opencontent.org/definition/http://opendefinition.org/od/

What could open leadership be?

• Write on the white board…

Transparency

Don Wettrick: “transparency”—show your work! http://is.gd/ecrZE5

E.g., post teaching materials publicly and with an open license• Benefits/

drawbacks?

Transparency

Blog about what you’re doing and why, how it’s going• Talk about the failures too, what’s not going

well, and what you’re doing about it• Potential problems with blogging about

failures when students are involved– My blog post about this:

http://blogs.ubc.ca/chendricks/2011/10/20/the-ethics-of-blogging-about-teaching-and-learning/

Transparency

Engage in public discussions

• Twitter chats; Twitter generally• Other social media (e.g., Google Plus,

Facebook)• Comment on blogs• Participate in open, online courses

Collaboration

Maureen Crawford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynCK2bPYDqI&feature=youtu.be

• Flattening hierarchies• Listening carefully• Knowing when it’s

appropriate to offer what you have to say

Collaboration

• Confidence: that you have something useful to offer

• Humility: you are not the only one who does• Encouragement: – Look out for those who are talking, but not

receiving responses—find ways to draw them further into the conversation

– Point out strengths in what others have to say– Criticize in a way that invites dialogue

Courage

Openness is risky:• Criticism, disagreement;

loss of respect; bullying• Potential adverse effects

on your work, your position

• Others may take advantage of the work you’ve made open

CourageCourage required:• To be honest about what you really think• To reveal your weaknesses and ask for help• To believe that more people will benefit from

your open work than will take advantage (or that it’s worth it even if the latter happens)

• To stand up when others are being mistreated • To believe that your network will come to your

aid if you are mistreated

Thank you!

Christina Hendricks:

• http://blogs.ubc.ca/chendricks (blog)• http://blogs.ubc.ca/christinahendricks

(website)• @clhendricksbc (Twitter)