Tonight we watched another Open Ed 2021 keynote by Dr. Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Director of Digital Humanities and Professor of English at Michigan State University and author of a new book entitled “Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University.” The session was entitled “Open Education: Infrastructure for Common Good.” Fitzpatrick started by talking about the economics and economic growth created by universities. Interestingly, Fitzpatrick warned that economic development as a mindset for universities can lead to the unintended consequences of questioning the value of institutions of higher education. Fitzpatrick spoke about growing social and economic inequalities and a loss of recognition of the global crises we face. Is neoliberal understanding, whatever that means, of common good undermining the value of higher education? “Access to knowledge today is a club good instead of a common good” mentioned Fitzpatrick. Rethinking how we create and share knowledge was one of the calls to action that Fitzpatrick shared.
Access to knowledge today is a club good instead of a common good.
Dr. Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Open Ed 2021
Fitzpatrick explained how we have become very dependent on software from vendors that take in fees, metrics, and content. “Do they serve the public good?” was a question that Fitzpatrick asked. The call to find new modes of collaborative and community-oriented infrastructure for sharing work was emphasized by Fitzpatrick. Further, Fitzpatrick mentioned that we need to think about social sustainability and the relationships to maintain theses structures. Building open platforms and maintaining them will require relationship building to sustain. Fitzpatrick said that our institutions should shift from competitive to collaborative. Fitzpatrick spoke about reclaiming our mission toward the common good and developing and sustaining infrastructure to build communities. Generosity was the only word on one of Fitzpatrick’s slides. I stared at it while they spoke about collaboration and building an infrastructure of collaborative work toward the common good. What form would generosity take as it transcends scholarly work and learning in the clasroom? I am not sure… though I kept on thinking about citizen science, open education, and open science. Now I am searching for an audio version of Fitzpatrick’s book to learn more.
