Author Archives: Joshua Belknap

OER the hills and far away

OER (Open Educational Resources) are “digitized materials offered openly and freely to educators, students, and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning, and research.”1 Referring to the openness of open educational resources, John Hilton [et al] has written that

“the ‘open’ in open educational resources is not a simple binary concept; rather, the construct of openness is rich and multi-dimensional. To use an analogy, openness is not like a light switch that is either ‘on’ or ‘off.’ Rather it is like a dimmer switch, with varying degrees of openness.”2

It seems to me that one important aspect of defining what is meant by “openness” is to consider how easy the OER is to locate.  Discoverability of an OER is thus an important consideration as to how genuinely open it really is. In order for OER to be reused it is necessary for them to be found. If an OER cannot be discovered, from a practical perspective it might as well be closed behind an institutional firewall.

Along similar lines, as Peter Suber points out in his Oct. 2013 Guardian article “Open Access: Six Myths Put to Rest,” there seems to be quite a bit of confusion in academia as to what open access does and doesn’t mean, and how it does and does not function. The difference between journal-delivered “gold” open access and repository “green” open access, for example, needs to be clarified and publicized in a clear way. Authors of scholarly articles, regardless of discipline, need to learn that their work can most likely be shared via green open access repository, even if the  work initially appears in a conventional academic journal. I doubt that most scholars want their work to  languish unread on remote library shelves and behind firewalls. If more people in the academic world knew what their publishing options actually were, and that rendering their work accessible is often an author-initiated choice, surely more of them would opt to open their scholarship to a potentially wider audience. Right?

1Bissell, Ahrash. “Permission Granted: Open Licensing for Educational Resources.” Open Learning, The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, vol. 24. 2009.

2 Hilton, J., Wiley, D., Stein, J., Johnson. “The Four R’s of Openness and ALMS Analysis: Frameworks for Open Educational Resources.” Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, vol. 25. 2010.

Joshua’s project ideas

1. Improving the BMCC ESL Lab website: Revising, revamping, renovating, re-tooling, reorganizing, restoring, rebuilding, repairing, remaking, and/or otherwise improving the wiki page that I have created for the ESL Lab, which I oversee at BMCC, is still my plan. After speaking with Maura and Michael, it became apparent that a “less is more” approach will work with this project, particularly to begin with. Step # 1: moving the content that I want to keep on the site over to WordPress. There are several reasons for this, including

  • Expandable, Flexible: On WordPress, there is a huge community coming up with useful plugins and resources all the time. Our site functions more like a web page than a wiki, in that it’s not particularly collaborative (other than some of the faculty who contribute/write/edit); as I noted before, the site is meant to be a repository of information, links, materials and interactive exercises/activities for English language learners at BMCC rather than a student-created/collaborative wiki. WordPress seems to be the best platform to create new content for the site, and also introduce more interactive elements and/or games.
  • Content Ownership On many free web-hosted platforms (Wikispaces, Blogger, Tumblr, etc.), the terms of service are pretty clear. Without warning, these companies can remove your content, remove your site, and they actually can use your stuff however they want because they own it. With WordPress on my own server, I own everything I put on there.
  • Integration with other applications. WordPress seems to be the first choice of third party software and websites when it comes to creating easy to integrate website applications. If I want to program/create new content for the site, it will doubtless be easier to do on WordPress than on Wikifoundry, the site’s current host.

2. Making Interactive Content for a writing skills/grammar site, again comparable to– and hopefully an improvement upon– John Jay College’s E-Resource Center . The John Jay site is useful in many ways, but consists of mainly Flash animation slideshows, which make for a slow experience as the site unfolds at its own pace. I am interested in creating something perhaps both CUNY-specific and/or more general, providing interactive composition/grammar/reading comprehension activities helpful (hopefully) to any college student. As I posted earlier, I know that the John Jay site was grant funded, by the U.S. Department of Education (Title V) and the New York State Education Department (Perkins III). If I apply for grant money, faculty will be interested in collaborating. This project could be built from scratch, or incorporated into the WordPress site.

3. Writing/Grammar App: I would like to create an app, to assist students to improve their English writing/grammar skills, perhaps for ELLs (English Language Learners), perhaps for native writers/speakers of English. This could be a game-based app or not. There is an interesting app called Rhetoric and Composition Study, which could serve as a model… but I would want my app to cater to ELLs.

Josh’s Project ideas

Really interesting ideas that people have, and I’ll try to respond to specific posts– time permitting– soon. Below are my project ideas… so far. I might be able to work on more than one of these in the future as well. We’ll see!

  1. The first project idea that occurs to me is neither earth-shattering nor particularly interesting per se. It will, however, serve a useful purpose for students at BMCC where I work, immediately upon implementation. I want to revise, revamp, renovate, re-tool, reorganize, restore, rebuild, repair, remake, and/or otherwise improve the wiki page that I have created for the ESL Lab, which I oversee at BMCC. I created the page on a wiki platform site called Wet Paint, which has since been bought, and the site’s been renamed; it’s now called Wiki Foundry. Anyway, the ESL Lab wiki functions more like a website than a wiki, in that it’s not particularly collaborative (other than some of the faculty who contribute/write/edit), the reason being that the site is meant to be a repository of information, links, materials and interactive exercises/activities for English language learners at BMCC rather than a student-created/collaborative wiki. I would like to partner with English and Developmental Skills faculty at the college to create some new content for the site, and also introduce more interactive elements and/or games. We actually get a lot of traffic to the site already, CUNY wide, particularly from students looking for information about how to prepare and practice for taking the CATW Writing exam which allows them to pass out of remediation into credited English classes. I think we will get a lot more hits, though, if the wiki is improved. It is possible that the Wiki Foundry interface is too constrictive to substantially improve the site, but if it is possible to stay at the same web address I’d prefer it, as it is already an existing destination for a lot of people (at CUNY at least).
  2. On a related note, I would like to create, and hopefully improve upon, a site comparable to John Jay College’s E-Resource Center with unique content, and affiliated with BMCC. The John Jay site is wonderfully useful in many ways, but consists of mainly Flash animation slideshows, which make for a slow experience and handcuffs the visitor to the site, as she waits for the timed slides to present at their own pace. I am interested in creating something perhaps both CUNY-specific and more general, providing interactive composition/grammar/reading comprehension activities helpful (hopefully) to any college student. I know that the John Jay site was grant funded [the E-Resource home page notes: Funded by the U.S. Department of Education (Title V) and the New York State Education Department (Perkins III)]. I feel like if I could get hold of some grant money, faculty will be interested in collaborating. This project could/would be built from scratch.
  3. I have no idea how, but I would like to learn how to create an app, again to assist students to improve their English writing/grammar skills, perhaps for ELLs (English Language Learners), perhaps for native writers/speakers of English. This could be a game-based app or not… I know so little about what this potential app would look like, or what it would entail to build it, that I will stop here, so we can discuss this in class.

 

 

 

Joshua Belknap: Biograph

I am an English doctoral student at the CUNY Grad Center. I am interested in rhetoric and composition, ELL (English Language Learner) writers, the history of education, and the relationships between technology, pedagogy and writing. At BMCC (CUNY), I am the coordinator of the ESL (English as a Second Language) Lab, where I oversee a staff of writing tutors, as well as an adjunct writing instructor in the English Department (when I have time to teach).