P2PU Community Call
15 August 2013
We're hanging out here: https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/04f5e5a9998ae6451634c5aef85e6f6c2eeb3d8e
Attendees:
List of Projects (delete those that have no news):
- MOOC Maker (Dirk)
- P2PU Homepage (Erika)
- Courses UX (Dirk)
- P2PU Internal Tech (Dirk)
- Boston Workshop (Bekka)
- Communications (Bekka)
- Offline MOOC (Karen)
- Assessment Framework (Vanessa)
- Badges platform (Vanessa)
- Data Explorer Mission 2 (Vanessa)
- P2PU Strategy 2013 (Philipp)
- Python MOOC (???)
- School of Open (Jane)
- School of Ed (Karen)
- School of Data (Question about how to list here - managed independently)
- Research (Vanessa)
- School of Webcraft (Vanessa + Philipp)
Progress
- MOOC Maker (Dirk)
- getting data for June on the Gentle introduction to Pythong MOOC
- Deeper learning MOOC
- Basic tech is set-up
- Need to update content on landing page still
- P2PU Homepage is live (but we'll only announce it when Erika is back)
- Media Lab x - course on designing learning platforms for Media lab students -> lots of innovation
- P2PU Strategy
- 3 strawmen scenarios (for discussion today)
- Talked to all board members individually
- Data Explorer Mission 2
- Had a planning call with OKFN and unhangout team (Media Lab)
- Research
- Preparing for next round submissions on research grants (2 are still in the running)
- Boston Workshop
- Reibursements are (mostly) done - if you haven't seen your money- mail me
- Communications (Bekka)
- MOOCMaker report 1st draft done, seen by Steve Carson, will share with team
- Will work with Erika when she's done
Priorities
- Strategy
- Mac Found Design meeting
- Media Lab x course
Process
- Dirk is on leave from 19 Aug - 2 Sept
Agenda:
- Strategy Follow-up
- Carl and Philipp working on possible scenarios for P2PU
- 3, all quite different, but based on what we have done in the past
- Objective is to help us focus and find course to steer for the next period.
- Designing the world’s open education framework (Advocacy and research)
- https://docs.google.com/a/p2pu.org/document/d/1thzV-WOrNBZO7CveL4OAPv57WAsn8lpvrdxgSDYO7Gk/edit
- Not that far off from what we're doing at the moment
- Pretty gentle transformation from where we are (convenient next step)
- Finding the answer for delivering OER
- Research hub / opinion leaders
- Questions:
- Who is our main audience? (This has been a problem in the past / always unclear)
- Audience -> Other educators (policy makers?)
- Policy makers (state policy makers hoping to develop open edcuation policy)
- People who want to teach primarily, and secondly people who want to learn
- K-12 teachers
- Universities
- PD organizations
- Repository of expertise of how to teach and learn online
- The "facebook of OER hasn't been found"? What does that mean? Is FB what we aim for?
- Is this a little like we are consultants to other educational providers
- Seems like there isn't much community here (agree)
- Although it could be about a community of educators & innovators
- Would success be that we are around providing this framework/support or would success be the changed policies/mindset on open education?
- We stop focusing on content and courses (=learning)
- Would success mean establishing a change in policies and mind-sets wrt to open education, and once that has happened we are done?
- Do we host platforms? (after experiments)
- This feels like a bit of a top down view on ed - what about bottom up (empowering people)?
- DU: This feels like a short- to medium-term goal to get at one of the other goals
- What do we let go of what we do today?
- Who is P2PU in this?
- Maintaining a repository of expertise
- But not spend a lot of time on delivering courses (like we do today)
- Empowering the world by championing Open (School of Open)
- https://docs.google.com/a/p2pu.org/document/d/1BiOxXlbrB8TH_6RwZHaHRcw5FG3HwqZsm6IvQxOEUg4/edit
- The world would be a better place if more people used "open" in their practices (web, science, governance, etc)
- We've done a bit of this, but not 100%
- Success = people use our stratgies and tools. Strong social change agenda
- Focus on more than just the learning
- NOT we teach open, but we help people to learn open
- Feels too narrow (focused on one thing that is only part of the larger context)
- "Open" feels a little vague
- Are we saying people are getting "open" wrong at the moment?
- Open feels like a requirement, but it feels like we need to take it further
- What do we include, and what do we exclude? Not clear.
- Python course?
- School of Sailing?
- Could this one be an adjunct to 1 or 3? (NO, stronger focus on one community - social advocacy in support of open)
- Any of these could in one sense be pursued as a part of any of the other, but by picking one of these as your mission you're making it the overriding objective that every project should feed into - ie end in itself not means to end.
- FSF created a license (and ideology) that totally changed the way software is built
- Could P2PU create a similar tool as the FSF license
- Could we the Linux kernel of open learning?
- Teach real game changing stuff through the vehicle of P2PU (librarians learning to use open tools)
- Questions:
- would this be about applying open or about lobbying for open?
- How does this open tie in with work/business?
- Is it about doing things in an open world?
- So we should get coursera to truly be open :) [No. We don't care about Coursera]
- Do we feel that education is not open enough atm?
- Would that mean that we may run a course on doing open source development but not really on development?
- we need something more than just open -> turning education inside out
- True alternative to higher education
- https://docs.google.com/a/p2pu.org/document/d/1wnoezYe_1JvfCggpSLDmr68EppxiKYJNDF0Gt6ytjfE/edit
- You finish highschool and you could choose to go either the P2PU route or the formal learning route.
- Qualitatively different, you learn via your passions, but still a viable alternative
- This is idealistic and great, BUT BUT BUT
- Big question -> Is this even possible?
- Would need a huge amount of resources
- Is this focused on developing a product? (Measuring ourselves by outputting educated people)
- Might feed into business models?
- DU: Is the goal to be the replacement for universities (it's something where you spend a certain amount of time)
- OER not for the gentlemen scholars who already have a PhD from Stanford and take courses for fun, but for people who choose this to pursue their goals in life
- I don't think that's the current scenario - just BTW (data from the MOOCs indicates that it is - majority have higher ed degrees already)
- Does this include careers that don't really exist (or is it a second-best option for those who can't afford) - More radical different
- DU: People without access are getting access. There is massive potential. We don't know how to do that yet, but people might get useflu skills from using the Internet (and P2PU). Have we ever considered trying a MOOC or course for people who don't have a university degree or high-school degree?
- Requires a shift towards content & learning, rather than modes of delivery & tools
- It feels like there is enough content available atm, but learning makes sense
- Focus on choosing content and curating (not making more)
- Accreditation and recogition are HARD (we've tried them)
- Maybe focus on one type of the alternative to the existing university:
- Disrupt and displace the status quo
- Complement the status quo
- Questions:
- DU: Does this mean P2PU is a drop in replacement for higher ed?
- DU: Would the target audience be people seeking alternative carreers or people withoug access to current higher ed?
- Do we feel that in 10-20 years from now there will be more economically active people who didn't go through university
- Questions for discussion
- BK: Scenario 1: Question around community
- BK: Question about scale and timeframe? Some options are bigger, need more resources,
- Do we want a long term goal or a medium term goal? (I think it's more about a REAL goal)
- Can we have success in any of these in 10 years from now if we're not around anymore?
- DU: There are two things important that I haven't heard yet.
- For goals 2-3 there is already a lot happening in terms of these goals (would be claim a part of that movement to improve it?)
- We are missing something about what Karen mentioned - building a resilient community (empowering people more). It sounds very much like "we provide" or "we help ..." - the COMMUNITY part is very much missing from these
- CR: What does this community believe in, what does it do? I find "building community" too vague.
- Google AdWords update / next steps
- Next week's call:
- According to the schedule, it should be an All-Hands.
- Anyone have a particular task they need help with?