‘Mapping the Politics of Open’

Our panelists, Catherine Cronin (@catherinecronin),  Laura Czerniewicz (@Czernie) and Muireann O’Keeffe (@MuireannOK),  will draw on the range of research, activism and discussion seen at #OER17 to critically reflect on where the open education community is, and where it is heading. Join us to discuss the strengths and pressing challenges of the open education community, how these are being championed and addressed, and how we continue to move forward. Attendees will be invited to contribute to this session throughout the conference.

Panelists:

Catherine Cronin (@catherinecronin) is an educator and researcher in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Catherine’s work focuses on open education, digital and network literacies, and digital identity practices; she also has published research in the area of gender and technology. She is currently completing her Ph.D. exploring the use of open educational practices in higher education. Catherine advocates a critical approach to openness; she is a regular contributor to conversations and collaborative projects in the area of open education, within Ireland and globally.

Laura Czerniewicz (@Czernie) is the Director of the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and associate professor in the Centre for Higher Education Development, committed to equity of access and success in higher education.

Her research interests include the technologically-mediated practices of students and academics, the nature of the changing higher education environment and the geopolitics of knowledge, underpinned by a commitment to surfacing the expressions of inequality within and across contexts. Laura is involved with policy work, is a contributor to national and global conversations in varied formats and serves on the advisory boards of a variety of international higher education educational and technology publications.

Muireann O’Keeffe (@MuireannOK) is an educational researcher and academic developer at Dublin City University.

She was awarded her EdD in October 2016 from the Institute of Education London, UCL, which explored professionals’ use of Twitter for learning. Muireann’s study highlighted variations in participation among professionals using the online open space of Twitter. Professionals’ capacity to participate in the socially on Twitter, feelings of confidence and vulnerability, and the lack of a sense of belonging online contributed to participation or non-participation in such spaces.