Page - 75 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

5 WhoBenefits fromthePublicGood… 79 ideas from the 1960s and 1970s do not transfer well to the reality of twenty-first century informationalmarkets.Whenproducts are “free” to the consumer, the real costofmonopolies isharder toascertain. As theseservicesbecomeinstitutionalized, and thede factostorageandcommu- nicationsystems,thereisroomforallsortofinstitutional informationtobemovedto these“partner”institutions:emailexchangesbetweenresearchers,researchdata,per- sonalstudentandteacherdata,studentsgradesandacademicwork,aswellas(open) educational resourcesofall types.Google, forexample,hassaid itdoesnotusedata fromeducational accounts foradvertisingpurposes,10 educational accounts, though there is strong evidence that data is collected and processed inmultiple forms.11 Privacy andcopyright policies are notoriously difficult to navigate andunderstand. When these policies combine institutional regulation andprivate business policies, this becomes evenmore complicated (see Parra et al., 2018 for the description of twocases).When thispartnershipbecomes institutionalized theacceptanceof these policies ismandatory ifonewants tousepublic services. It is important to remember that beyondmining and collecting data, there are otherways inwhich businessesmonetize “free”. The continuous use of tools and platformscreatesacycleoffamiliarityandacontentportfolio thatcreatedfidelity to thesameplatformsand tools inotherareasof their life. In thewordsof theHeadof GoogleEducation forBrazil, “oneof theadvantagesofofferingservices to schools is thatwecancreateuserfidelityearlyon” (Romani, 2019;our translation). ThevoracitywithwhichbusinessessuchasGoogleandMicrosoft (andAmazon, evidencedbytheir interest inOERthroughAmazonInspire)promotetheirplatforms totheeducationalsectorleadsuswonderhowthese“free”servicesbenefitfromuser- generatedcontentandinteraction,particularlyeducationalresources?First,onemust considerwhatconstitutesaneducationalresource.Certainly, thelessonplans,books, presentations,quizzesandallsortsofresourcesthatconstitutethecontentofclassesin proprietaryplatformscanbeconsiderededucationalcontent.Soit isworthasking:in whatwaydoestheproductionanddisseminationofeducational resources—inmany casesOER—inclosedor “free” platformsoffered by large corporations contribute to the consolidation of these oligopolies?Keeping inmind the values of openness and transparency valued by OER, one should question howmuch its proponent contributes to the status quowhen they suggest, induce or do not question the use of theseplatforms in their teachingorwithin their organizations.Onecould cite as examplestheabilitytoeasilyconnectcontenttoGoogleClassroomfromwell-known sites likeCurrwiki andOERCommons.12 10Seehttps://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6025224?hl=en. 11See the “Spying on Student” report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) at https:// www.eff.org/wp/school-issued-devices-and-student-privacy. 12See http://www.curriki.org/curriki-oer-library-is-now-lti-compliant-and-has-integrated-the- google-classroom-share-button/ and https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/13855-share-your- oer-with-google-classroom/view.