The Fallacies of Open: Participatory Design, Infrastructuring, and the Pursuit of Radical Possibility by an author (citejournal.org)

Our analysis of CLMOOC as an open learning experiment suggests that open is a fallacy, one that promotes a vague and amorphous techno-utopianism without addressing the relations of power that enable or restrict participation in communities. In the era of late capitalism, when open education emerges alongside increased educational surveillance, standardization, corporatization, and commodification, open might be another neoliberal rhetoric that assumes unbridled agency and access to resources for all learners.

@fieldpeaz @anna_phd @Seecantrill @miaamora aren’t the first to push back against open. The free software movement finds open source is nothing more than developer hype. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html. The #IndieWeb https://indieweb.org community avoids the term Open Web because it can be both vapid and layered with meaning. Audrey Watters has moved to a “closed” system as she worries open is a tool of exploitation https://hackeducation.com/2018/05/04/cuny-labor-open

I do notice the author’s, and the #CLMOOC referred to open more in terms of learning rather than software. They define it as:

The “O” for open in MOOC was essentially the only term that participant-designers held in high regard as they imagined the possibility of designing for emergence and responsiveness rather than predetermined outcomes

I don’t define open in learning that way. I have many open classes, because they are for licensure, that have fixed outcomes. To me my open classes means anyone can join my class, the materials are open for remix in the future, people can drop in and out, participants contribute from a space they own and control, yet data is made available for #openscience (with member checking before publishing identifiable data or artifacts), and yes like #clmooc participants are encouraged to learn in the open to create a reflective feedback cycle.

I don’t see this as an exploitation of labor. I do worry we aren’t diversifying open learning experiences but that takes the curation of communities and finding allies with shared princeples.

13 responses on “”

  1. Yeah, through the review process we had to truncate that section. Let me know if you want to discuss! I’m more than happy to. Thanks for the close read & I’m looking forward to the many discussions of ‘open’ to come!

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