Alan Levine and Tannis Morgan talked about the OpenETC during day 2 of the OERxDomains21. Open EdTech Cooperative is described as “free range ed tech” and providing a cooperative structure to educational technology, as described by Morgan. The program has been active for about five years. During this session, Levine and Morgan let instructors share their stories of using OpenETC for their courses. A story entitled “Game of Thrones, Medievalism, and Breaking the LMS chain” emphasized how this instructor used WordPress sites, Mattermost chat boards, and podcasts. The open source Slack-like discussion boards on Mattermost provided interaction and cut down on the emails because students could ask questions through direct messages. The instructor also mentioned how the website and podcasts are being used by others since they are available. What resonates most with me is that the instructor ends by saying they will not go back: they will continue to use WordPress with embedded podcasts and Mattermost discussions. I can’t see myself not doing public sites anymore as part of courses I teach. A second instructor of a history course now has a collection of British Columbian canneries. Students made artifacts and shared them. Beyond the course, this was a great contribution. The Stories of OpenETC resource is a website that allows instructors to share their stories. Alan Levine mentioned that the template used for the site is available. Wooo! I wonder if we could use it for instructors to share how they use case studies?
Tannis Morgan, Anne-Marie Scott, Maren Deepwell and Brian Lamb then talked about how their radio show, the DS106 Radio Sunday Special provided hope during the pandemic. The crew shared stories and how each one brought new listeners. I like how they talked about how the radio show was intended to be fun and interactive. While they come up with a playlist and have some chat discussions to prepare, it sounds like they just wing it and have fun! They talked about cooking during the show and having fun conversations. Anne-Marie Scott does all the producing to stream. They mentioned using Audio Hijack Pro and not using video at all. The crew also talked about how they enjoy the conversations and don’t talk about their day jobs. Technical challenges and the logistics were not discussed; rather, the group kept on returning to how much they enjoy chatting, sharing ideas, and enjoying music. What an awesome way to openly brainstorm and share!
