Open Data as Open Educational Resources: Towards transversal skills and global citizenship

Abstract

Open Data is the name given to datasets which have been generated by international organisations, governments, NGOs and academic researchers, and made freely available online and openly-licensed. These datasets can be used by educators as Open Educational Resources (OER) to support different teaching and learning activities, allowing students to gain experience working with the same raw data researchers and policy-makers generate and use. In this way, educators can facilitate students to understand how information is generated, processed, analysed and interpreted.This paper offers an initial exploration of ways in which the use of Open Data can be key in the development of transversal skills (including digital and data literacies, alongside skills for critical thinking, research, teamwork, and global citizenship), enhancing students' abilities to understand and select information sources, to work with, curate, analyse and interpret data, and to conduct and evaluate research. This paper also presents results of an exploratory survey that can guide further research into Open Data-led learning activities. Our goal is to support educators in empowering students to engage, critically and collaboratively, as 21st century global citizens.

Exploring the (missed) connections between digital scholarship and faculty development: a conceptual analysis

“…More recently, the studies have started to make proposals relating to frameworks of practice and eventually competence, like academic microblogging (Heap & Minocha, 2012), reputation building or the adoption of open datasets as open educational resources (Atenas, Havemann, & Priego, 2015). A first comprehensive effort to build a theoretical and operational framework of competences for young researchers has been offered by Ranieri (2014).…”

Handbook of Research on Integrating Technology Into Contemporary Language Learning and Teaching

“…Johns envisioned every language learner as "a Sherlock Holmes" with direct access to the evidence of real-world language data (Johns, 2002, p. 108). And, like contemporary advocates for using and developing data literacies with open data in higher education (Atenas, Havemann, & Priego, 2015), Johns also envisioned DDL as developing data literacies for understanding and interpreting linguistic data for direct applications in language learning (Johns, 2002). In response to the lack of accessible abstract corpora, which reflect variation and change in academic discourse from across the disciplines, a guiding research question leads our project development work with the PhD abstract corpora:…”

University Teachers and Open Educational Resources: Case Studies from Latin America

“…Academics' practices of creating, sharing, and reusing OER are determined by motivation and desire or will to adopt OER (Cox, 2017;Reed, 2012;Rolfe, 2012), supportive environments (D'Antoni, 2008;Rolfe, 2012;Thakrar, Wolfenden, & Zinn, 2009), and teachers' professional development (Hassall & Lewis, 2017;Zhang & Li, 2017), including digital literacies (Atenas, Havemann, & Priego, 2015;Cronin, 2018;D'Antoni, 2008;Nkuyubwatsi, 2017), and copyright literacies (Anderson, 2011;Atenas et al, 2015;Rolfe, 2012;Secker & Madjarevic, 2012). Petrides, Nguyen, Kargliani, and Jimes (2008) find visual and technical changes as the most prevalent reuse behaviours, and Falconer et al (2016) identify major tensions between commercial use and open publication.…”

“…Teachers have identified barriers to OER adoption such as lack of enabling policies (Nkuyubwatsi, 2017), time (Allen & Seaman, 2014;Rolfe, 2012), skills (Atenas et al, 2015;Rolfezhang, 2012), reward system (Rolfe, 2012), interest for pedagogical innovation among colleagues (Rolfe, 2012), confusion over copyright (Atenas, Havemann, & Priego, 2014;Rolfe, 2012), technology access and support (Nkuyubwatsi, 2017;Rolfe, 2012), recognition (Atenas et al, 2014;Jhangiani, Pitt, Hendricks, Key, & Lalonde, 2016;Nkuyubwatsi, 2017), self-confidence about the quality of their materials (Cox, 2017), OER awareness (Reed, 2012;Rolfe, 2012), availability of relevant and high-quality OER (Clements & Pawlowski, 2012;Willems & Bossu, 2012), and personal interest (Falconer et al, 2016;Reed, 2012;Rolfe, 2012).…”