Learning to share: Pedagogy, open learning, and the sharing economy

an article by Lindsey ‘Luka’ Carfagna (Thomas Edison State University, USA) published in The Sociological Review Volume 66 Issue 2 (March 2018)

Abstract

The sharing economy is fertile sociological ground for studying important themes like labor, exchange, consumption, and inequality, as well as larger political-economic trends that are reflective of this post-recession era.

The multifaceted research agenda of the sharing economy can provide lessons around many themes relevant to sociologists, but what does the sharing economy teach to those who participate in it? What is learned from the sharing economy and how do participants learn it?

In this article, the author explores the pedagogic elements of one case study within the sharing economy: open learning. Drawing from 51 interviews with 34 participants and roughly 300 hours of participant observation, the study uses Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse to ask how open learners learn to share.

The author argues that an ethos of communalism and cooperativism dominated moral discourse for learners and regulated social order. Entrepreneurialism was learned through a flexible sociality, where participants contributed to each other’s learning as a means of validating and legitimizing that learning.

The need to contribute or give back was taken for granted by participants, who felt compelled to give their own expertise or labor to the commons after taking something from it.

This study depicts a tension between a neoliberal entrepreneurial frame and a communalist, cooperativist frame that is also present within the larger sharing economy. The author suggests that a similar pedagogic approach that asks how participants learn to share could be developed in the larger sharing economy in order to better understand learning and economic relations as two sides of the same coin in contemporary capitalism.

Full text (PDF 19pp)

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Reframing basic education to deliver education for all: flexible provision and enabling frameworks

an article by Ros Morpeth and Charlotte Creed (National Extension College, The Michael Young Centre, Cambridge, UK) published in Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning Volume 27 Issue 3 (November 2012)

Abstract

Inclusion has traditionally been conceptualised as integrating children into the formal schooling system. Recent research conducted in South Asia, however, adds to evidence that the huge number of children out of school and the diversity of their needs can only be met by a diversity of provision, formal and non-formal; that because many state education systems cannot meet the demands in quantity and quality, governments must continue to reform, improve and expand the public system, but also consider reconceptualising their role away from being the exclusive provider and towards encouraging a more diversified and equitable educational system.

This paper sets out six challenges for reaching marginalised children through such change, highlighting the political commitment needed to embed into national education policy framework a rights-based approach, with quality assurance and greater links between the formal and non-formal.

It provides examples of non-formal providers, using open learning principles, which offer models of how a more flexible and equitable system could be delivered for marginalised children, with progression routes and accreditation equivalent to or the same as the formal system.

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Universities Reshaping Education on the Web

an article by Tamar Lewin published in the New York Times

As part of a seismic shift in online learning that is reshaping higher education, Coursera, a year-old company founded by two Stanford University computer scientists, will announce on Tuesday that a dozen major research universities are joining the venture. In the fall, Coursera will offer 100 or more free massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that are expected to draw millions of students and adult learners globally.

Continue reading here

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8 Awesome Websites to Take Free College [HE] Courses Online

I have had this post from makeuseof sitting in my electronic pile of “things I really ought to check out” for so long now I had to brush the cobwebs off.

Fortunately all the links still work, unfortunately, most of my readers are UK-based so may find that seven of the eight are not as useful as they might otherwise be.

If you want to read the original post you will find it here.

My list follows (minus notes but also minus all the ads!)

1. MIT OpenCourseware – the first, and in the opinion of many, the best
   
   
2. Carnegie Mellon OpenLearning
   
   
3. Khan Acadamy
   
   
4. University of California at Berkeley
   
   
5. Stanford University iTunesU
   
   
6. Tufts OpenCourseware
   
   
7. Open University LearningSpace
   
   
8. Johns Hopkins

To get the full advantage of these courses you will probably need to get the associated text book, and to get a qualification and/or tutorial support you will need to register and pay. However, if you are learning for the sake of learning something interesting (World History as taught from a US perspective, perhaps) or brushing up on something you may have learned a while ago (statistical computation) then the only coinage required is TIME.

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