intersecre

[image: somethingstartedcrazy]

I’ve been pondering Leigh Blackall’s recent post on openness & transparency. It’s pretty challenging making things happen at an enterprise level.

For the idealogues its ALL or nothing. Anything in between is blasphemous to the open education ideal. For the lazy it has to be handed on a silver platter; no compromise, no effort.

I agree that there is a “worrisome level of low uptake and motivation caused by that big basket we call “too hard””.  As I’ve said many times before the essence of Web2.0 was/is that it gives voice and independence to the masses – the non-geeks. When you can’t use a tool with confidence and in a way that enables the focus to be on the functionality rather than on the technology, it ceases to fall into the realm of true 2.0 enablers in my eyes.

Having said that though we have to find a balance between that ease of individual use and usefulness at a broader and long term level. Sometimes we’re handed the raw materials and we need an artisan to fashion it into the shape that will allow that independence. There are plenty of those ‘artisans’ out there in extended networks (thanks Jo & all  : )).

The problem in focusing on openness and transparency (although they ARE vital criteria) is that we can cease focusing on real functionality and how well in education a tool/platform supports sound pedagogical practice (ie helps teachers teach well, heaven forbid). No one tool will meet all our needs. No one wiki platform will address all the diverse needs of a large institution. Openness does not equal quality.

To really make a difference we have to do two things; support the innovators to forge new ground, make connections, make mistakes, but we also have to have the patience to hold the hands of the majority. There will be closed sites, enterprise level platforms, less than perfect platforms selected for their ease of use. But slowly slowly, through exposure, critique and conversation the community will be transformed.

Tools will come and go, and continue to improve. With patience and open minds and a focus on learning we’ll see the evolution of tools that meet a range of desired goals. We’ve just got to get in there, learn from each other and get our hands dirty.