Stack Overflow as OER EdTech?

[cogdog]

Not to be to “cheeky” as they say, Dan, but how/why does it matter if something is called an OER?

My experiences are as like my friend Jan’s

@jan

For me, the mere visit to a StackExchange site creates an educational context (because I’m there to learn something). So StackExchange sites are an educational resource, even if they were never used beyond informal education

I’d say what’s more important is their public availability and open license enable OER to happen. Are they Potential OERs?

I can see referring to answers in an educational context, or for the technical bits of code people share there could be used/modified in a learning context? Or maybe I would want students to have the experience of asking/answering questions in such a space or evaluating how people take different approaches to solving a problem.

[cogdog]

Cheers to the “left field” … these are exactly the conversations I like to see happening here.

On a drive home on muddy back roads I listened to the Decoder podcast episode Alex spawned this topic with.

To be honest it was largely about the company, the business, and a hefty engineering perspective. There was one moment when Prashanth Chandrasekar said offhand that because Stack Overflow was a place to get answers to questions it was “edtech” There was later a bit of suggestion from the host about the site potentially suggesting links to Udemy based on questions and responses. Is this really what we mean by learning?

And this kind of environment serves emphasizes the style of the autodidactic learner that thrive in self directed learning (look I found a Stack Exchange reference) but aren’t we interested in a much broader range of learners?

A bit of helpful history as often is the Wikipedia entry for Stack Exchange

Stack Exchange

where ironically the acquisition by Prosus is described

In June 2021, Prosus acquired Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion, which was the first complete acquisition of Prosus in educational technology.[11]

So apparently it is edtech! Because Wikipedia is always right (yes I know it’s not).

Also worth noting that the original co-creator of Stack Exchange Jeff Atwood went on to lead the development of the Discourse platform that powers this community (and its tagline is about a platform for"civilized communities"). The design of Discourse includes some of the elements (reputation, scaling up capabilities, moderation) as the original Stack Exchanges.

[geonz]

Thank you for noting how things that are great for autodidactic learners (of a certain culture, I might add) … often “teach” the lesson that “you aren’t smart enough, are you?” to rather a wide swath of potential learners.

[Enkerli]

@cogdog

maybe I would want students to have the experience of asking/answering questions in such a space or evaluating how people take different approaches to solving a problem.

Now we’re talking!
Reminds me of the exercises a lot of Open Educators used to do in the creation of Wikipedia entries. (Much more difficult to do, nowadays.) It’s an important experience to live through, especially for the fields in which those forums are commonly-used tools.
In other words, it should be a worthwhile practice to use Stack activities among the options for formative assessment in Computer Science or Software Engineering. (With very careful consideration given to learners’ agency.)

@cogdog

Cheers to the “left field” … these are exactly the conversations I like to see happening here.

@cogdog

On a drive home on muddy back roads I listened to the Decoder podcast episode Alex spawned this topic with.

To be honest it was largely about the company, the business, and a hefty engineering perspective.

Indeed. I could have been more specific. (And/or I should have waited for the transcript and anchored my comments on the relevant excepts, using Hypothesis or some such.)

The reason the interview made me react is partly about context (Stack Overflow’s and mine). It basically struck me because of that (Tencent-backing) Prosus connection.

@cogdog

Also worth noting that the original co-creator of Stack Exchange Jeff Atwood went on to lead the development of the Discourse platform that powers this community (and its tagline is about a platform for"civilized communities"). The design of Discourse includes some of the elements (reputation, scaling up capabilities, moderation) as the original Stack Exchanges.

Thanks for the reminder.
Discourse is now one of these “insidious” pieces of technology which generate little press yet come to support a lot of meaningful work. Forum software may feel like a saturated market. Yet Discourse has carved itself a niche in different scenes, including a fair bit of OE. (For instance, during the OEG-Francophone meetup, this morning, Scenari’s Loïc Alejandro pointed to the usergroup’s Discourse instance as the primary way to engage with the Scenari Association.)

@geonz

Thank you for noting how things that are great for autodidactic learners (of a certain culture, I might add) … often “teach” the lesson that “you aren’t smart enough, are you?” to rather a wide swath of potential learners.

And thank you for bringing attention to the “monocultural” dimension. It’s close to something McMillan-Cottom described as “roaming autodidacts”. It’s not just about heutagogy. It’s about a subculture, likely becoming dominant. At least, that’d be one way to read Watters’s response(s) to Carey.