Nicolas Simon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Eastern Connecticut State University and presented at Open Ed 2021 on “OER, Ownership, Authorship, and Power.” Simon talked about OER as a way to “free us” from inequality. According to Simon, ownership and power cause some problems, and OER releases us from some of these issues. The research question posed by Simon was: “when the power of ownership disappears, what then happens to the power of authorship?” The thesis statement Simon has is that “the power of Authorship increases and by extension compromises the liberating effect of Open Educational Resources.” I had never considered this! Simon used the definition of power from Foucault: power is everywhere and based on knowledge. Discourse is a form of power, and the author of the discourse is legitimized, said Simon. To frame the power of authorship, Simon uses the ideal type with five types and levels of power. Level 1 is from the most to the least amount of power. The second level is ” From the most to the least amount of power.” The third level is the disappearance of the authority of authorship, and Simon’s example is Wikipedia. Simon’s conclusion is that every time we use OER, and be conscious of the power dynamics! This was a dense session, and I tried to follow. The ideas made sense, though there is a lot for me to learn here and unpack.
