Page - 72 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

76 T.Amiel et al. amongother factors—couldmakeuseof repositorieswasan importantquestion for LOs (Sicilia&Garcia, 2003).This remains thecase today forOER. On the other side of the modularity spectrum, that of textbooks and com- pletes courses,Benkler alsopoints to possible difficulties of applyinghismodel of commons-basedpeerproduction,explainingthatthismodelworksbestforresources withsomenaturalmodularity (like theencyclopediaentriesofWikipedia).Thecol- laborative nature of peer production conceptmaybedifficult to apply to resources thatmust conform to externally imposed quality standards, that are large volumes expectedtomaintaincoherenceorthatneedadistinctauthorialvoice(Benkler,2005). WethinkthatmanyoftheseconcernssurroundingtheuseofLOsanddebatesaround adequatepolicies for their adoption ineducational environments shouldcontinue to bediscussedas relevant agendas in theOERmovement. The introductionofnewformsofeducational technology,suchasLOsandOER, isoftenseenasanobviousor inevitabledevelopment—orasignof socialprogress. Examples of thismentality include the contested concept of the “digital natives”; thenowlargelydebunked idea thatMassiveOpenOnlineCourses (MOOCs), often associatedwithOER,would absolutely transformhigher education6; and the idea that education throughpersonalizedalgorithmswouldmake teachersmoreefficient or evenobsolete. For eachof these narratives, convincing counter-arguments exist. Specialists havedemonstrated the inadequacyand the lackof evidence for the idea of a “generational difference” associated to growing in an environment saturated by the internet (An&Carr, 2017; Reeves&Oh, 2008). The availability ofmany educational resourcesandcoursesfromrenowneduniversitiesonlinesoongaveway totherecognitionthateducationismorethantransmittingandoptimizingthedelivery of lectures, no matter how charismatic the teacher may be. Finally, critics have indicated that behind the automation of the classroom there often is a deskilling (Chakraborty, 2013) of the job of the teacher, and a promotion of an instrumental perspectiveoneducationdirectedat the jobmarket, in linewith theoriesof learning focusedontraininginstead(andsometimeswithdisregard)ofthedevelopmentoffull citizenship. In eachof these examples, one is able to identify commercial interests byvendorsofeducational technologieswhomightbelesstransparentthannecessary about theirmotivations. And so, whatwe have here is another view ofOER, one that leads to caution. Wecannot assume that theundeniable pedagogical potential ofOERwill naturally leadtochangesthatarealignedwithpedagogicalandpoliticalobjectives,whichever thesemight be.Of course, association is not causationand the realization that edu- cational technologiesmight have been poorly used in the past should not lead us tohavepreconceivednotions in regard toOER.Nevertheless, theoverlyoptimistic expectations ofLOs,MOOCs, and educational technology, in general, should lead to cautionwith regard to howOERwill be used in educational settings.We once again emphasize need to deploy educational technologieswith a clear vision as to 6In aWired article, Sebastian Thrun prophesied that in a near future there would only be 10 institutionsprovidinghighereducation:https://www.wired.com/2012/03/ff_aiclass/.