Open Learning in the Fediverse

As a new generation of digital technologies evolves we are awash in new terms and concepts: the metaverse, the fediverse, blockchain, web3, acitivitypub, and more. This presentation untangles these concepts and presents them from the perspective of their impact on open learning. It describes and demonstrates with working examples that anyone case use the potential and the pitfalls of a distributed and decentralized open online learning environment. Participants will see clearly the relation between such diverse concepts as digital badges and credentials, cloud-based services, open data management, activity records and tools interoperability, and persistent digital objects such as digital IDs and non-fungible tokens.

This is a technical presentation that is structured and designed for a non-technical audience. The objective to describe what these technologies do, rather than how they do it. The intent is to enable practitioners to develop a sense of how open learning will evolve and how to take advantage of new affordances to enhance access and inclusion. This will include, for example, discussions of new types of open educational resources, the role of distributed data in personal learning analytics, and the development of learning cohorts in open online courses.

This presentation will also consider these technologies from a critical perspective, addressing affordances alongside potential risks and impacts, pedagogical considerations, access and equity, issues of privacy and security, and the role of policy and legislation. Participants will learn specific steps they can take to limit the adverse impacts of new forms of corporate control, surveillance and oversight, disinformation, and related harms.

By attending this session, attendees will be able to:

Identify and describe a range of emerging technological concepts associated with web3 and the fediverse
Suggest ways and refer to examples that demonstrate the application of these technologies in open online learning
Take specific steps to mitigate adverse impacts of these technologies on open learning

[itmeded]

Another really great, informative and fascinating presentation. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge.