What I Really, Really Want (Part I): Literacy, Period.

Although my professional experience and education revolve around both teaching and the preservation of and access to the original records of history (and, strictly speaking, how users absorb and interact with information and the technologies that deliver that information), I still have much to learn about the concept of literacy. By definition alone, “literacy” encompasses the ability to read and right or an individual demonstrating competency or skill in a certain area. Although “digital” perhaps adds a lens with which to examine or focus the definition or stands as a subset of the greater concept, as someone who hopes to encourage students to engage with primary sources using inquiry, discernment, etc., I am interested in the concept of literacy period. I want to know how context, experience, and changes in our modern construct drive our understanding of the concept. Particularly considering the fact that, while primary sources will be delivered digitally, many of the originals are anything but!

As far as questions I have around this concept, there are many, including:

  • How do we teach students to think beyond what they read or see?
  • How do we teach students to analyze and source what they read and see? How do we teach them to doggedly seek until they find the original or primary source?
  • How do we teach students the concept of bias and agenda? How do we teach them to identify these?
  • How do we teach students to read a variety of sources with discernment and skepticism, seeking a saturation of data, before forming an opinion?
  • Does literacy mean only the ability to read and write or does it connote a set of skills and mindsets we expect to see them demonstrate?
  • Given that our students are digital natives, when do we start this process?
  • How do we reconcile literacy within the lenses of digital, information, media, etc.?

 

What I Really, Really Want (Part II): Open Education, OER, and Creative Commons Licensing

As part of our work in copyright, I’m really interested in focusing on the concept of Open Education and related topics such as Open Education Resources (OER) and Creative Commons licensing for these materials. To be fully transparent, once I obtain my PhD, I really want to tackle how we deliver primary source materials to students focusing on the use of digital, curated collections to change how we educate students about our past. Further, I want the work I do, whether my research or the plans I have for my post-doctoral work, to be free and open to all. Given that you could spend an entire year with any of these topics, I want to break down my interest a bit.

Why open?

If you’re not familiar with the concept of Open Education, check out this video:

If you’re not one for videos, I prefer the definition of Open Education provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, “Open Education is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in general and the Web in particular provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse knowledge.” In line with this, I believe that education (and the knowledge which it encompasses) must be free, open, and accessible for all.

As such, I’m incredibly interested in the creation of Open Education Resources (OER) as a means to democratize knowledge.  See the video below for further explanation:

As explained in the video, OER may either reside in the public domain where they may be freely and openly accessed or be tied to the restrictions put in place by their Creative Commons licensing. All OER are free to use, however, based on the license selected by the creator(s), users may need to provide author/creator attribution, permissions for others to share the materials they create, etc. For more information on Creative Commons licensing, visit their About the Licenses page. Several years ago I worked on a project, the Freedom Matters! Curriculum, that opted to use Creative Commons licensing over traditional copyright. To see the terms of the license click on the “CC” icon in the bottom right corner (or click here).

You’ve clearly researched this, why should we cover it in the course?

Although I’ve studied Open Education and OER as standalone concepts, I’m incredibly interested in looking at them through the lens of modern copyright. Particularly focusing on some of these questions:

  • Where do they fit in the grander scheme of things?
  • Are traditional copyrights still perceived as the only way to go for academic materials?
  • How can we advocate to change outdated perspectives of ownership of knowledge?
  • If all information is a remix or mashup of previous information, why does copyright (in its traditional form) still exist?
  • Has technology so changed the modern construct of knowledge that traditional copyright becomes obsolete?

From a research perspective, I’m also interested in examining how copyright prohibits access to primary sources and how Creative Commons licenses might be used to increase access to cultural and historical materials while protecting provenance and ensuring proper attribution to the collection, series, and holding entity (metadata!).