In my daily work as a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences I do quite a lot of popular scientific presentations to a wide range of audience. I have to admit that I am always a bit hesitant to share these presentations even though I think that openness should be a corner stone of the universities.
The reason for hesitating is not that someone else would take credit for my work or that is not good enough to share, which seems to be a common reason for many academics (1). It is the fear that what I say today may not be valid tomorrow as this field of research changes rapidly but my main concern is misuse or misinterpretation of the material.
My field of research is developing new methods for plant breeding, which sometimes, to some people, involves some controversial issues. The first obvious thing is genetic modified plants, or GMOs. The second is eco/bioorganic farming vs conventional farming and the third is the overall climate impact of the agricultural industry. I am neither interested in being the front person nor the target for some of the more extreme groups that have a firm opinion about these subjects. If I think in a broader perspective this does not feel so great, if everyone reasons like me, it is like giving in to these extreme groups. The Sharing and Openness topic of the ONL course now got me thinking of how I can be more open and share my work without getting caught in the line of fire.
1) https://blog.nus.edu.sg/openeducation/audio-podcast/
This is a different issue - in this day and age of polarization you can never be sure that people behave or are able to discuss while maintaining good manners. Listening to facts or differing opinions seem to be rare. Look forward to hearing any ideas you come up with in this department!
SvaraRaderaInteresting to see your perception/concerns on openness. Indeed, the misundersting and misuse of scientific knowledge seems to be happening more and more often. I think it shouldn't hold us back, as the spread of knowledge and scientific facts is our main tool to fight against these problems. Also, openning is probably the fastest route to have feedback and find the problems in our research. =) Good luck in your endeavour!
SvaraRaderaHi Cicilia- I remember that there were so many complicated issues we discussed when working on this topic and your blog post got me to consider another layer of complexity that we need to take into consideration when contributing to or using open education resources. Yes, ideally being "open" is ideal in many contexts but when it comes to sensitive issues, that may not be appropriate, I agree. That's a certainly another issue to consider.
SvaraRaderaAnyway, it's been great working with you throughout the course. Sean.
A very interesting perspective! I myself see the ideas of open education as a disruption, meaning that a lot of aspects are not mature enough with the learning curve not reached its potential. It would be interesting to see how this developed in the coming years after the COVID19 period which has for sure boated our learning curve on open educational practices. /Maya PBL5
SvaraRadera