Abstract
Open education is a key to removing education gap among people around the globe. With the development of the internet, open education has acquired a sustainable and effective channel of production, sharing, and access to Open Educational Resources (OER). Through social media platforms, students, educators, schools, and movements can interact, learn and help solve problems and challenges in education. The development of smartphone social network applications is even influential as access to open education can be done on the go, anytime and anywhere than web-based applications. In addition, most of the smartphone devices compatible with the applications are becoming cheaper due to mass production and this gives the opportunity to many people who cannot afford a personal computer to, therefore, have access to OERs. This positions the social network applications at a more crucial role in the production, sharing and access to Open education and this is what the paper is intended to analyze.
Keywords: Open-Education, Social media, Social Network Apps, Open Educational Resources (OERs)
Introduction
For a long time, many people, especially the poor, have been faced with challenges of poor education due to an insufficiency of resources, poor quality and outdated content due to the challenge of higher costs of production and delivery. However, the advancement of internet and computer connections have eased the situation by providing better means of producing, sharing and accessing educational content. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and YouTube, among others, have facilitated people to socially interact and collaborate whilst creating and sharing quality open educational resources. Historically, the way people used to access the internet has also changed. A decade ago people needed a personal computer or desktop to access the web-based platforms to socialize and access content. Today, the smartphone technology has facilitated a very modern way of staying connected, socializing, sharing and accessing the open content. Many people are now connected on the go with the affordable smartphones compared to personal computers.
It is, therefore, in this sense that various smartphone applications have been developed to increase the connectivity among people on the go. At the same time, this has an impact as it increases the engagement of people in teaching and learning. From this perspective, social network applications have a huge impact on both increasing access and openness to open educational resources and also creates freedom and flexibility for people to learn anytime and anywhere. This paper specifically looks at the role that social network applications do have in open education. It specifically analyzes the characteristics that applications have which impact open education.
Open Education
According to Wiley, D (2012), education is about “sharing” of knowledge and without it, education has no essence. Sharing allows people to construct a new understanding of the world around us. Development of skills and competencies only happen through acts of interaction where people discuss, research, critique, and solve problems and challenges. Through sharing, education, therefore, becomes an important factor in the development of our communities and the global society at large. In fact, the rapid changes that man has experienced over the past century are as a consequence of the effect of sharing in education.
Biswas-Diener and Jhangiani (2017) argue that: Despite the fact that education must be a fundamental human right, history has it that education was and still is, in some cases, seem to be only for the elite and the upper class. This is because education is tied to huge costs in terms of tuition, access to books, and minimum space in the schools, colleges, and universities. This, therefore, robes the opportunity or the right for everyone around the globe to access quality education. In response to this, individuals, groups, and institutions have resorted to the development of the concept of open education and have established movements which advocate the right to education to people in need around the world at low or no cost at all.
Open education is regarded as a philosophy which focuses on how people should develop, construct and share knowledge, skills, and competencies (opensource.com). It is developed and structured to provide access to “extremely efficient and affordable sharing” (Wiley, 2012, p.82) and it embraces all teaching and learning resources, methodologies and tools which are in line with promoting quality, access and effectiveness to teaching and learning worldwide (Open Education Consortium). Around this philosophy of open education, it is believed that the students acquire the personal agency, determination and autonomous (Blessinger & Bliss, 2016). In other ways, open education is concerned with eliminating the barriers and brings equality among the people to access quality education despite the social, political, and economic status. Biswas and Jhangiani, (2017) make it a point about why it is important to deal with educational inequalities among the people from all classes of the society that:
The real tragedy of poverty is not that the poor need more opportunities to be factory foremen, office managers or stock traders. The real tragedy is the loss of every scientific discovery, artistic work, invention, new business, and cultivated mind because of lack of opportunity according to random chance at birth. (Biswas & Jhangiani, 2017, p 5)
The statement here proves that the better way of solving the problem of poverty and promoting the sustainability of the globe is through open education. People must have access to the information, and communication that is crucial to everyday realities.
Driving forces of Open Education
- Societal problems and challenges
Significant reasons for the promotion of open education have been documented by many individuals and movements concerned with equal access to quality and effective education. A research done around the world before the year 2000, revealed that many poor people failed to pursue their dreams in education due to huge costs, long distances, poor quality, and lack of self-esteem among others (Biswas-Diener & Jhangiani, 2017). It is noticeable in the developing countries that governments do fail to provide sufficient infrastructure, teaching and learning materials and tools, and lack of enough and well-trained teachers to facilitate learning processes. In many cases books are scarce and expensive hence both teachers and students are forced to use the same books for many years and become outdated before they are replaced.
In the developed countries, the question of access is not mostly in the infrastructures and lack of teaching and learning materials, rather it is in the sense of costs of accessing such education. People with the quest of higher education are discouraged to proceed with their studies due to higher costs of it, or they are left with an alternative option of choosing to participate in low standard education schools and universities or risk falling in debt trap after graduation to attend prestigious and expensive universities. According to DiGangi (2017), an online news reporter of USA TODAY reported that students’ debt has gone above a trillion dollars in the USA alone by 2017, and for the first time it has surpassed credit card debt. In addition, extra costs such as books are very high too. Wiley, D (2012) reported that the cost of books had risen up and that students spent at least 25 percent of the total cost of the 4-year university course on books.
Furthermore, Biswas-diener & Jhangiani (2017) documented that the existence of disparities among the people from racial perspective is another factor causing many people to fail attending or to acquire quality education. Biswas-diener & Jhangiani (2017) observed that states whose large population is the ruling or upper class, are likely to have improved systems of education than states whose population is just the working or poor class. This situation is similar in the developing nations like Malawi where the better schools with better conditions of teaching and learning are only found in the cities. Besides that, in many cases, the disparities which may seem a bit racial are evident in the best international schools where mostly, only those with money can attend such higher standard levels of education.
- Technological advancement
A century or more ago, information and communication speeds were so slow in the way that it contradicted with the philosophy behind open education. Taking sharing or openness as a main focus in education to give equal learning opportunities to all could not sound as good as it sounds today. Such a philosophy was futuristic at that time. People who advocated for open education were faced with a challenge of finding a better strategy of how they could easily make the open content, materials etc. available to all. For instance, the cost of publishing a book was very high and despite that transportation of it to reach to the people in need was another challenge. In fact, such a philosophy was not sustainable at that time.
As new discoveries became realized, such as radio and television, Open education became a dream come true. Educational radio and TV Programs were aired and people who wanted to learn sat in front of TV or radio, learning and therefore achieving the status of the learned in the society.
A few decades ago internet technology was discovered and therefore speeds of information and communication accelerated and reached the ground-breaking velocity that man had ever imagined. The society’s way of living has changed so much compared to the era before the internet. Communicating has become so much easier and very instant. People have become very connected not only from within their local communities but to the whole globe. It has become very easy to create new relationships with people from diverse cultures and societies. Social networks and communities have been developed and established. People have moved from using landline telecommunication to mobile means. Production and access to information have been centralized, and intelligence has become collective. People are now online more than ever due to the Smartphone and Applications technologies. In fact, the internet technology is affordable in that even poor nations have the systems working. In general, the internet boom has changed the global ways and means of living. It has created a new culture and Levy (2001), coined this new culture a “cyberculture”.
It is therefore that from the growth of the internet, the philosophy of open learning makes a very good sense as it found a very sustainable strategy of giving open education to the masses. In fact, the evolution of internet technology is one of the greatest forces in the implementation of Open Education. This is emphasized by Selwyn, N (2014) who puts it that:
…both the Internet and education are concerned with information exchange, communication, and the creation of knowledge. The participatory, communal nature of many social Internet applications and activities is aligned closely with the fundamental qualities of how humans learn, not least the practices of creating, sharing, collaborating, and critiquing. (Selwyn, N, The internet, and Education)
The point made here is very important because it gives a clear and concrete relationship about how the internet can be used as a tool for delivering teaching and learning processes. Seylwn, (2014) provides four important points in which the internet functions and changes the way education has to be shared. He contends that:
- The Internet provides freedom against the real-world obstacles. The student is able to learn without geographic restraints, at any time and at one’s pace.
- It has created a “new culture of learning” characterized by “bottom-up learning” where students collaborate in exploring, innovating, and creating new knowledge.
- It has and still is supporting a fluid intelligence and connectivism where the information is distributed and used on “just-in-time-basis”.
- It has, and still is developing autonomous and individualized learners. Students decide what they want to learn, how they want to learn and where they want to learn it.
From the points above, it is no question that internet is really a powerful tool in education. Social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many more, have shown such a potential and quite a number of institutions have tried them and proved positive feedback.
However, it should be noted that Internet alone cannot facilitate the education. There should be platforms, applications, or software’s with different functions to make open education a success. In the next paragraphs, Special attention will be paid to Social Network Apps’ role in Open education
What is Social Network Apps?
In order to understand the meaning of the term “social network apps”, it is important to consider the meaning of “social media” which refers to a collection of Internet-based applications and platforms which facilitate the “creation and exchange” of “user-generated content” Alabdulkareem (2015, p 215). Such a collection of applications and platforms include Facebook, Telegram, Myspace, YouTube, Twitter, and WhatsApp. Through these platforms, people create communities with similar or common interests, such as; teachers group – where they can share their teaching experiences, discoveries, challenges and teaching and learning resources which can improve students learning experiences; Students group – where discussions of problems, assignments, sharing materials can be done and many more. The social aspect of this social media is very crucial to education as it answers the question of creation of content and sharing.
The role of Social Network Applications in Open Education
An education process is a social act in nature. It needs interaction for one to learn. The social apps are built on that aspect of interaction, be it content-person interaction, person to person interaction, or person-content-person interaction. Today, where people socialize virtually than ever, education is, therefore, taking such a virtual direction. In the context of open education, that is the best way. The existing social apps have and are helping support open education. However, there is still a lot of work to be done in order to maximize the already existing applications to increase access to open education. And also, it is important to note that one application cannot be enough, better ways, methods, and means must be decided in order to make education more accessible without constraints. Consider the following specific features in which the social network apps can play a role in enhancing and increasing access to open education.
Handy feature; Most of the social applications are designed to be installed and used on smartphones to provide the ability to use on the go. This feature is very important compared to the web-based platforms, which may only require a desktop or personal computer due to compatibility issues. In this way, people are able to use the open content anytime, anywhere.
Reduced open content access cost: Nowadays, it is possible to get a nice smartphone at a very affordable price compared to computers which are relatively expensive. The cost is already a hindrance to some people who want access to open content but with cheap smartphones and applications, the barrier to open educational resources is eliminated or reduced.
Easy to code/program an app: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, developed a platform or software (AppInventor) which makes it possible for everyone even without prior knowledge of coding or programming to develop any application that one may need. The software aim is to increase production, creation, and sharing of content in many various ways such as games and educational apps. All that one need is to imagine how the resources can be presented and used through Apps. This is providing freedom to educational movements and individuals who wish to share resources with the masses.
Offline feature; There is quite a number of apps that once you download and install, they work in offline mode since the content does not need an update on daily basis. For instance, the Amazon App has a number of free books, novels, magazines which once downloaded can be used for as long as one can. Having such offline applications reduces or decreases the cost of internet data on a daily basis which then opens up opportunities for the poor to access education.
Interaction and collaboration feature: The applications which require person content interaction or collaboration promote autonomy among learners this is an important factor for students as it increases the standard and quality of the content and learning. For instance, a teacher may initiate a debate among the students via WhatsApp. Students may debate by commenting on one another. Each time a student may wish to comment he might try to go deeper with the discussion topic by sharing related material which is very important in building new knowledge. In addition, it has been revealed that social apps such as Twitter, when used in the education context, develops students’ academic way of expression and communicating. Students make sure that the content they post is free from grammar and language issues (BBC ACTIVE, 2010). In addition, when posts receive comments, likes or dislikes, it creates the opportunity for them to think in a more analytical manner which is an important skill in the learning process.
Variation of apps: There are, around 3 million apps on Android app store, and over 2 million on Apple’s App store by 2017 (The Statistics Portal). This means a lot in the field of open education as many people have access to content and can create and share in different ways. Well, known apps such as the OpenStax and Khan Academy has quite a number of books, articles, and other teaching and learning resources which is accessible to many. Many users who have and still are using these apps are benefitting a lot in situations where there are no books and new and updated information in their schools.
Conclusion
Social network applications have an important role in open education. Its nature proves that they can increase access to open educational resources to both teachers and students and increase engagement and collaboration in the learning process by changing the perspective that teaching and learning only occurs at a specific time and place to the perspective that education is a “social act” that has no specific time and place. As people become more virtually connected and digitally socializing, it is therefore important that open educational resources be produced in many various forms and shared in many various social media platforms, specifically, through Social Network Applications in order to promote access to Open Education.
References
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Universidade Aberta & Universidade Minho 