After completing the reading for week 4, I want to highlight of ideas brought up in this weeks’s reading. Open platforms, such as Twitter, help learners and educators. Being open in the way it offers access on the web is one of the main characteristics that enables Twitter and other similar platforms to contribute to the learning process. The social media platform considers the needs and preferences of participants who are involved in educational practices. According to Wiley and Hilton, pedagogies that are enabled to be open educational resources treat students as equals in their intellectual capacities (134). Twitter includes this feature by offering a platform in which people can equally access educational material. It does not consider more or less access to some information for some people. It is for this reason that educators can upload educational information and all willing learners can access it without discrimination. This characteristic makes Twitter and other similar platforms usable in increasing access to education.
Twitter also helps learners and educators by combining the characteristics of open resources and open pedagogies. Twitter fits in the definition of an open pedagogy by being a participatory form of technology. Educators and learners can interact on the social media platform in a way that facilitates the smooth flow of meaningful information from the former to the latter. It can, for this reason, be used to enhance education by offering an interactive platform where there is immediate feedback in case of demand for clarification. The platform also fits the definition of an open educational resource by facilitating open educational practices. It provides permission for everyone to participate in retaining, reusing, revising, remixing, and redistributing information. Educators can use the platform to improve access to education by allowing students the right to do these and other related activities. Students who take part in the permitted activities enable the fast and convenient spread of educational information.



Reference:

Wiley, David, and John Levi Hilton III. “Defining OER-enabled pedagogy.” International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 19.4 (2018).133-147