Last week, we observed National First Generation College Celebration Day. I’ve been thinking about the impact of being first generation makes on my experience. When you’re a first-generation student, navigating the complexities of the higher education system takes longer—you spend so much extra time trying to figure it out. The parents of first-generation students did not attend college, so we learn to navigate higher education on our own. And so navigating systems within higher education (financial aid, program requirements, course registration, etc.) easily becomes a barrier to learning….
It’s Open Access Week—an opportunity to share academic research (and to advance open research year-round). When information lives behind paywalls, it become inaccessible to those who benefit most. This year’s theme focuses on how open access provides a structure for equity—a common theme in education throughout 2021.
I used Open Access Week to reflect on the open education conversations I participated in over years….
When we create content, we share our thoughts, feelings, and observations about the world. We begin with the context of the stories, ideas, information, events, and movements we encounter each day. And the context continues to build throughout our lifetime.
Yet, content increasingly comes from everywhere. We barely acknowledge one piece of content before switching to the next, making it difficult to shift from consumer to curator to creator. We store content in our brains (and hope we remember). Or, we save it in an array of digital and analog storage tools.
