Openness within the Metaliteracy Framework (MOOC Talk 3)

MOOC Talk 3.1was on the subject, "Openness and Metaliteracy," was delivered by Mark McBride, the Director of Library Services at Monroe Community College and Michele Forte, an Assistant Professor and Mentor at the Center for Distance Learning at the SUNY Empire State College. It was based on open learning in higher education.

There is a lingering misconception that due to the open nature of information literacy and its related materials, rigor tends to be missing in academic content. This wrong notion was quickly dispelled and that was the main aim of the main presenter, Mr. McBride.

The Modern Language Association's Commons Model is a form of peer review process and peer production model used by scholars to create and update content accurately and freely for the benefit of the the information literacy community. Wikipedia is a good example of the Peer Production Model which allows users to also create and share information freely as well as conveniently update the content of the material.

Creation Commons Attribution video by Jesse Dylan in the presentation demonstrates how licensed material should be credited to the owner or creator and shared with the community at large. This platform allows to a large extent self-expression, freedom and copyright options in a non-commercial manner. For example, Creation Commons can be used by a group of individuals who come together for a common purpose which to create content such as musicians creating a great piece as a team to share with the bigger outside community.

Openness within the metaliteracy framework gives rise to looking at content in a variety of ways and sharing it with the community as a whole; this could be scholarly work which involves careful thoughts and thorough research. The sharing process allows for the remix and reuse of information.

The discussion proceeded  to Open Education Resources (OERs), which is any kind of teaching material such as textbook, syllabi, lesson plans, video, readings, and exams.These materials permit free and uninterrupted access as per the content as well as the free incorporation of remix, reuse, revise and redistribute of the material.

In higher education, the free access of course material is way more beneficial that adding to a publisher's purse by purchasing a particular edition of book then its subsequent editions. The free access students have to course materials is what makes it a major plus for education. It creates a community of higher educators.

Creative Commons as mentioned above allows the transition of education from local to regional then to global. The licensing of content makes it the property of the world and therefore can be used freely, remixed and reused as desired. As a result of social content becoming global, individuals are permitted to add to the material to make it multi-faceted. Individuals with similar interests can collaborate to make content more developed and detailed thus leading to the creation of more solutions to critical problems.

Openness challenges geography in the sense that new bodies of knowledge  are developed over time, place  and space. Finally, the fact that individuals have the tendency to reflect on their respective contents by referring and relating to that of others, further advances the cause of metaliteracy.