Open informational ecosystems: The missing link for sharing resources for education

Abstract

Open educational resources are not available "as such". Their provision relies on a technological infrastructure of related services that can be described as an informational ecosystem. A closed informational ecosystem keeps educational resources within its boundary. An open informational ecosystem relies on the concurrence of independent stakeholders that jointly provide (meta-) information also beyond its boundaries. Mechanisms of open informational ecosystems are described and how they contribute to the delivery of educational resources and to opening education. The paper describes the case of the German Bildungsserver that aims at establishing a federated network of providers of open and closed educational resources. It points out that the design of (inter-)national informational ecosystems has a major influence on the future of open educational resources in education.Educational resources are not just available to learners. Their production and provision relies on several elements in a chain that accomplishes the delivery to a learner. A book, for example, is not just handed from the author to the reader; the delivery relies (at least) on a publisher, production facilities with a printing plant, a distributor and a bookstore. In the digital age, this complex value creation chain is challenged. But it would be naïve to think that when a teacher puts a resource "on the web" for others' there are no intermediary entities -private or public institutions -that eventually are responsible for making this resource retrievable on the net. Now, the production chain is less visible and the processing is experienced as seamless but from a larger view the network behind the network decides, for example, if and how these resources will be found by others, if and how they interconnect with other resources and services, how they eventually reach a class and how changes or enhancements to an (open) resource will be traced back. Therefore, the discussion about open educational resources and open education sometimes oversees the relevance of these intermediary services and how they operate.

Technology in the Classroom: Teachers’ Technology Choices in Relation to Content Creation and Distribution

“…As different teaching methods exist on either end of the spectrum, from traditional or instructivist (Entwistle & Ramsden, 2015) to modern or constructivist (Beck, 2009;Kerres & Heinen, 2015), Buabeng-Andoh (2012) argues that the tools used for teaching tasks may differ depending on the methodology preferred by the teacher. Kim, Kim, Lee, Spector and DeMeester (2013) argue that technology use is "tightly connected with teachers' beliefs about effective ways of teaching" (p.78).…”

A Federated Reference Structure for Open Informational Ecosystems

“…Finding everything in one place might be part of a uniform user experience and it is convenient, but users might experience the boundaries of such a closed system as a constraint. From an educational point of view, there are reasons to arrange teaching and learning materials in an open ecosystem (Kerres and Heinen, 2015). However, it is important to highlight that this does not imply that all aspects of a system should be open.…”

Offene Bildungsressourcen und Open Education

“…Relation von (einigen) Öffnungsinitiativen in der Bildung. «Informational Ecosystems» wurden vonHeinen und Kerres (2015) dabei als wichtiges Bindeglied zwischen «Educational Resources» und anderen Öffnungsebenen beschrieben. Es verweist auf die Umgebung, wie digitale Lehr-Lernmaterialien bereitgestellt werden und etwa in Repositorien -mit Metadaten versehen -über Suchmaschinen und -portale auffindbar und weitergenutzt werden können.…”