I am newer to the #oer community than many who have chimed in about the #opened19 keynote panel so I hesitated but here goes. I see a parallel to the #balancebias problem in the media, where news organizations are accused of being too liberal so try to compensate with “balanced”
reporting, by covering giving voice to views a small number of people hold that are unsupported in facts and calling that fair. Like covering climate change by quoting established science and then also quoting a climate denier and calling that fair. It’s not -
it’s actually confusing for people who are new to the issue because this #balancebias makes both views appear equally valid when they’re not. And sometimes it turns out the climate denier is funded by oil or coal companies and then the “balanced” coverage is more ridiculous.
So asking the same companies that made students #textbookbroke, and try to convince legislatures and administrations their “inclusive” commercial textbook plans are better for students and faculty than #oer address an #oer conference as experts on the future of learning material
Seems to me a little like inviting an oil company or coal company to a “future of energy” panel at a sustainability conference. They seem to admit in their own ads recently (like power companies) that they caused the mess but they also want to be treated like partners
because really #oer offers a community solution that erodes their power and profit, not because they saw broke students and realized on their own that they shouldn’t have conducted business the way they did. Stop making poor students your starving polar bear images, maybe?
And stop telling faculty (as I heard today at a college in my system) that inclusive access is a better deal for students than #oer? And then maybe it will seem like publishers actually want to have a conversation, and not just gain back market share.
Agh. Not the smoothest doing a thread like this. Apologies for miswordings. And thanks for listening.
