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Interesting work and Open Education Alan Tait Professor of Distance Education and Development The Open University UK EDEN 2014 1
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Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

Oct 30, 2014

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Education

Alan Tait is Director of International Development and Teacher Education at The Open University, UK

This presentation was delivered as part of his keynote speech at the 2014 EDEN Annual Conference in Zagreb.

http://www.eden-online.org
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Page 1: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 1

Interesting work and Open Education

Alan TaitProfessor of Distance Education and

Development The Open University UK

Page 2: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 2

Employment, unemployment and Open Education: from labour to work

Summary

• Challenges of work in life• Threat from unemployment• Poor quality work• The Precariat• Demography• More of the same?• The moment to rethink?

• The obligations of educators• The potential of the Open

Education movement

Page 3: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 3

Unemployment Europe 2013Eurostat 2013

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics

Page 4: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 4

Unemployment Europe 2013

• Country average E28, 11%• Country range 5-27%• 26.8 million people unemployed• More than entire populations of Netherlands

and Austria

Page 5: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 5

Youth unemployment Europe 2010-2012http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics

Page 6: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 6

Youth unemployment Europe 2010-2012

• Country average 23%• Range of countries 8-58%• 5.5 million young people unemployed• More than entire population of Finland

Page 7: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 7

Unemployment Europe by educational level 2012http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics

Page 8: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 8

Educational attainment and unemployment

Unemployed with• Primary and lower secondary 4%-42%• Upper secondary 3%-28%• Tertiary education 2.5%-18%

Page 9: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 9

Threat and promise of machine intelligence revolution

• ‘Much routine brain-work will be computerised, as happened to clerical skills. Middle income jobs could hollow out far further. The outcome could be still more polarised incomes, with a tiny group of winners at the top and a vastly larger group struggling below.’

• ‘In 2012 ..the top 1% of Americans earned 22% of all incomes’

Martin Wolf Financial Times February 5 2014, reviewing Brynjolffson E and McAfee A, The Second Machine Age

Page 10: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 10

Impact of unemployment

• Anxiety• Depression• Bad health habits (e.g. smoking, alcohol and other

substance abuse)• Low self-esteem• Increased suicide• Increased general mortalityLynn M, Sandifer R and Stein S 1985Jefferis J et al 2010Mathers C and Schofield D 1998Yur’yev A et al 2010

Page 11: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 11

Miserable experience in the workplace

• 40% of employees are ‘not engaged in the workplace’

• Impact on happiness and wellbeing• Impact on productivity and innovation• http://mashable.com/2013/11/24/job-satisfaction

Page 12: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 12

Top and bottom occupations

Top have• Authority• Role supporting people• Income level• Skill• Stability

Bottom have• Lack of autonomy• No care for people• Low social respect• Lower wages• Short contracts• Unpleasant working

conditions

Page 13: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 13

The Precariat: the working poor

• Low security• Low wages• Job not career• ‘Flexible’ in negative

senses• ‘disposable’

Page 14: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 14

Employment and unemployment in Europe: NOT business as usual

Health: long term damage Social conflict: anomie

Page 15: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 15

What is to be done?

Increase routes to livelihood

How must open education contribute?

Change nature of work

Page 16: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 16

Increased routes to livelihood

• Europe as sustainable for employment in world economy

• Skills and knowledge to create ‘world class economy’

• Skills and knowledge to support individuals in innovation and job applications

• Work that supports health and wellbeing

Page 17: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 17

In work: instrumental and developmental attitudes

• Adam Smith: work as toil. Rest as desirable state

• John Ruskin and William Morris: work as craft• Friedrich Engels: work as fulfilment• Taylorism: work for majority as ‘operatives’• What vision for work in 21st century?

Page 18: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 18

From labour to work: can we change?

Worker as object • Labour • Job• Operative • Low skill• Routine • Wage • Short term contract• Precarité• Poverty in old age• Others’ purposes• Alienated • Object

Worker as subject • work• Vocation• Craft and skill• Autonomy • Knowledge • Career• Stability• Salary• Pension• Lifelong learning• Professional• My purpose• Subject

Page 19: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

The transition to the digital world: what help can it give?

EDEN 2014 19

Page 20: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 20

A new landscape: from Distance and e-learning to Open Education

• Scale• Flexibility• From informal to formal learning• From paradigm of ‘long’ to ‘short’

programmes• Pedagogic innovation• Mobile learning

Page 21: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 21

Open Education: the new landscape of innovation

• Values led• Anti commodity• ‘free’• Inclusion• Radical disruptive potential

Page 22: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

MOOCs and OER’s: new models for learning

Passion and demand for learning is hugeCurrent model of Higher Education is unsustainable

Qualifications not completed (50% Baccalaureate completion in USA)

Crisis of confidence re price and valueTechnology and on-line learning could offer different

solutions

22EDEN 2014

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EDEN 2014 23

Skills and Open Education: advantages not disadvantages

• Learning , not apart from but in life and work• Investigation• Virtual teamworking• Management of online discussion• Curating of e-resources• ICT supported presentations

Page 24: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 24

Open education: radical potential

• Compelling attraction of learning• Scale: only Open Education has capacity• Learner success• Skills for personal lives, citizens, creators of

livelihood• To become subjects not objects in society and

economy

Page 25: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 25

The vision for interesting work and open education

• Would include• Education for All: not privileged minority• not just the ‘salariat’ and their children• Affordable or free• At scale• Compelling and high quality• Relevant for livelihood and development• Fit for mobile learning• With employers as social partners• work in life• learning in life• To make people subjects not objects

Page 26: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 26

What can we do?

• Will EC projects make enough impact?• Need national interventions• Go to senior management within our

organisations and institutions• Promote livelihood as policy priority for education• Go to employers, trades unions, and governments• They all need vision for learning and work in life• Task force for EDEN?

Page 27: Interesting Work and Open Education - Alan Tait

EDEN 2014 27

Interesting work and Open Education

• Educational innovation for the crisis in Europe

• Your vision!• Your actions!

Athene and Nike