My blog is potentially transforming into a David White fan page. There are worse things.
In the below video, there is a fantastic question raised -- what makes a source of information legitimate?
White provides an example. Imagine John Locke lived today and instead of writing a book, he mused "The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it..." through a tweet and expanded in a blog post. Would 21st century Locke still be considered a philosopher? Would he be legitimate without a physical works in printed press?
How legitimate is being a published author today, anyway? Jake Paul is published, yet I doubt he is considered a legitimate author or philosopher.
A dramatic departure from White's example, but also may play into his second point. The "exchange rate" from an established person moving into an online space after already demonstrating their worth and work offline is legitimate. If someone exists only online, do they have credibility? Can their work be taken seriously?
It was the culmination of White's musing on credibility with the idea of curated Open Educational Resources via platforms where Google Adsense can be infused that led me to this point: could the next generation of academics and educators work within Web 2.0 to create OER for the masses while still earning an income?
If you're unfamiliar with Google Adsense, here is a quick introduction. Basically, all advertisements you see along websites, blogs, YouTube videos, etc. are from Google Adsense which works as a middleman between companies and your platform. Google pays users as people interact and see the ads posted on your content.
This week we have explored tagging and bookmarking. I cannot help but think that learners everywhere, and not just students of formal education, would engage in this type of learning.
In my experience talking with those in the instructional design field, many were put in the role because they were the subject matter experts and they are learning the principles of design as they go. They may not have time, financial incentives, or desire to obtain a degree in the field. I would imagine, however, that they would probably interact with a curated Pinterest, for example, that provided context around relevant academic journals, provided links to relevant YouTube discussions or maybe the curator was also a YouTube creator.
Would this curator have credibility? Where would the threshold for credibility on this space lie? Someone that has been published? A career instructional designer? A current student of a formal program? A newcomer teaching themselves and sharing what they found to be helpful?
White goes on muse the following questions: "Do we consider it our job to engage with those who have paid to engage directly with our institution, or should we be using the web to communicate with a much wider network of learners? What kind of recognition will I get from my efforts? How does any of this help me?"
Is this where Google Adsense and OER could merge to create an answer? If someone was able to position themselves as legitimate, engage with the wider web of learners for good, and still earn a living, that would sound like a win all around to me.
What are your thoughts? How do you determine legitimacy online? Where are there holes in my proposal? I would love your feedback.
I think that OERs are a criminally underutilized resource in learning that are (and rightfully should be) becoming more and more attractive to traditional institutions and instructors. I'm not sure how it is that we can make them more financially viable though. Google Adsense could be an answer, but what if it becomes about which OERs are the most financially attractive and it leaves out less financially attractive, but just as important, OERs? It seems to me like it's so hard to strike the right balance between capitalism reality and ideals of education (if such a balance even exists.)
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading books in a niche genre. There are very few traditionally published books in the genre, but many self-published books, primarily through Amazon. I wonder if they are really "literature." Most are written with low editing budgets and many show it, but successful independent authors can fully support themselves as independent authors now.
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