[originally published on another site in July 2015]

My response to Viv’s plea for an ethical commons and a 6th R of Open – Responsibly!

I am having to add another book to my already large pile! I love the distinction matter and manner of education. We spend so much time on the matter of education and so little in the manner of education.

You say that our ‘discussions about open pedagogy [ ] cannot isolate the content from the learner-teacher relationship, and the manner in which we all engage on the web.’ I say Amen to that and I will quote you when I need a concise way to explain why we need to be asking tough questions.

Why, as you suggest in your video, we need to look at both light and shadow aspects of learning (in the spirit of Brookfield), engage critically rather than ‘preach’ at each other as Heli Nurmi puts it in a recent post,

“I am missing basic exploratory orientation, thinking, assessing, evaluation, critics and I see mostly preaching. I am sad and worried, that’s why I wrote this post.”

I wrote a response to her post as I felt there is little understanding for the kind of genuine engagement with tough questions her post, as well as yours Viv, demonstrates. I think we need to have these kind of conversation, stop seeking quick answers and work together to co-create and evolve a dialogue.

David Kenorhan proposed the idea of an Open Ethics Review Panel. I wanted to sign up immediately and responded to that post at length.

You know that I love your idea of a kind of addition to Creative Commons Licensing that adds an Ethical Commons license to which responsible educators on the open web can voluntarily sign up. May be we can find somebody else willing to give you funding for making this inspirational idea a reality. I will start playing the lottery this week! Thanks for a great post.