Page - 124 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

8 EmpoweringUniversityEducators… 131 types, providing support for students to express their understanding of concepts in differentways,orallowingstudentstoengagethroughavarietyofdifferentactivities dependingon their capacity (Rose&Meyer, 2007). Twoconsiderationsmustbemadeabouttheseareasofcompetency.First,thisdoes notwant tobeanexhaustive list, sincenewimportantcompetencesarecontinuously being codified. To make an example, computational thinking could probably be added to the list, given its role in facilitating the understanding of how andwhy certain elements of our digital world are framed in specific ways, including the way big data and related algorithms work. Second, these competencies, some of whichwerenotevengroupedassuch just a fewyearsago,dynamicallyevolveover time, influencingandbeing influencedby technological andsocietal developments. To make an example, being capable of collaborating online some 15 years ago, before theboomofsocialmedia,meantacompletelydifferent thingwith respect to being able to collaborate online today.These competences are therefore inherently difficult to be documented and framed in a capacity building process, and because of this they shouldbedeveloped throughexperiential approaches,making sure that enoughattentionisputonall thesocioculturalnuancesofwhatitmeanstolive—and teach—incontemporaryopenandcollaborative societies. 8.5 Conclusions Contemporaryeducatorsmustbeable toprepare students tobeactiveandresponsi- ble citizens in increasinglyknowledge-based andknowledge-sharing society,man- aging their emerging collective intelligence dynamics in an open and transparent way(Recker,Yuan&Ye,2014). Inorder todoso, theyneedtobecapableofengag- ing learners in digital dialogues based on shared ethical, multicultural and equity strategies and to foster the role of students as knowledge producers and not just as consumers (Alexander, Adams Becker, & Cummins, 2016). Such an engage- mentcapacitywouldalsohelpbridgingformaland informal learningsettings, since researchshowsthat studentsarenotalwayscomfortablewithcollaborative teaching approacheswithinformallearningsettings,despitetheirdailyuseofsocialnetworks (Schleicher, 2014). Ifwewant our students to develop a curios and criticalmindset and to become independent, resilient and self-regulated citizens,we need educators that can criti- cally discusswith them the core issues of our increasingly digital, networked and open societies, guiding them towards solutions to the newly emergingproblemsof ourtimes.For this tohappen,wemustmakesurethateducatorsdevelopthecapacity toadapt theirexperience toopenandnetworkedsettings,at thesametimeacquiring asetofnewcompetences.Onlybybuildingon teachersexperienceandat the same timeenriching thiswithnewskills, educators can transformintoactors ableboth to teachcompetently indigital,openandnetworkedsettingsandtoco-shapewith their learners existingpractices inanactiveadcriticalway.