Scott Leslie just published a fantastic description of how sharing really works – and how institutions/organizations/etc… miss the real value of sharing. You can’t plan to share, you can’t define parameters, you can’t write specifications and requirements and interoperability guidelines.
All you can do is share what you do. Share what you create. Share what you care about. And, possibly, some time, someone else will benefit.
But if you plan/specify/define the parameters of sharing (what is shared? with whom? for how long? in which contexts? etc…) then the value of the thing is lost.
I agree with Scott. I’ve been involved in a few projects that had fantastic intentions, and lofty goals. But they got hung up on words and plans, rather than on just doing stuff and casting it to the wind. CAREO. EduSource. Pachyderm. APOLLO. ALOHA. etc…
I’ve lost track of the number of times someone has found a new use for something I’ve done. Photographs have found their ways into books, games, magazines, TV shows, etc… None of that would have happened if I’d focused on planning who would get to see the photos, and for how long, and at what resolutions, and what they’d be allowed to do with them, and what the cost should be, etc… Or, if I’d worried that nobody would even want the photos in the first place.
Sharing works because you do it. That’s all there is to it.
Thanks D’Arcy, I kinda thought this one might resonate with you too. We have been through some of the same battles.
It’s hard to explain to people that this is not a call to abadon all collective effort; there is a place for it, but it can be done in a way that grows instead of gets erected. But the corollary of this, which is really hard for people to take, is that some things take exactly as long as they take. Our institutions will look quite different when they finally take this on – why should it take everyone exactly 3 months to finish a 3 credit course, and if by the end they haven’t mastered it sufficiently that is considered a “failure.” Some will take 1 month on that material, some will take 6. We have the opportunity to change our systems in a positive way that reflects that, that factors that into its pricing models, and that benefits students and instructors. But it would mean giving up some control. Ah, control. How hard it is to accept we can’t force things to grow/learn. But then if we pictured ourselves standing and yelling at a plant “grow, dammit, grow” we’d realize how silly that desire for control really is. Boy, I do go on!
it takes 3 months because the seat is needed in the next semester by someone else in a different, probably unrelated course. the course structure is much more about resource management than teaching and learning. I agree – some really amazing opportunities open up for personalized learning (and even personalized education and Education) once we stop forcing ourselves to restrict access based on availability of bricks, mortar, and desks…