{"id":134,"date":"2025-11-29T19:46:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/?p=134"},"modified":"2025-11-29T19:46:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:46:57","slug":"open-education-authentic-authorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/2025\/11\/29\/open-education-authentic-authorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Education &amp; Authentic Authorship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>HMW Question:<\/strong> How might we use open education to help students see themselves as lifelong creators and contributors valuing their whole growth as people beyond academic achievement for grades, university admission and future careers?<\/p>\n<h2>The Challenge<\/h2>\n<p>Students in grades 7-12 are caught between two powerful forces: the desire to share their creative work and contribute to their learning community, and the fear that their ideas will be copied or diminished in a competitive school environment. The real barrier isn\u2019t cheating\u2014it\u2019s <strong>authentic authorship<\/strong>. Students need to feel ownership of their ideas <em>while<\/em>experiencing the power of contributing to something bigger than themselves.<\/p>\n<h2>Core Insight<\/h2>\n<p>Sharing and attribution must go hand-in-hand. When students see their ideas being built upon by peers\u2014with proper credit and celebration\u2014they experience authorship not as loss, but as influence and impact. This shifts their identity from \u201cgrade-getter\u201d to \u201ccreator and contributor.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Actionable Experiments (December 2025 \u2013 April 2026)<\/h2>\n<h3>Experiment 1: Attribution & Credit System<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Timeline:<\/strong> December 2025 \u2013 January 2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>What to try:<\/strong> Create a visible attribution and credit system for student work. This could include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A shared digital gallery or repository where student work is displayed with clear authorship<\/li>\n<li>\u201cInspired by\u201d or \u201cBuilt on\u201d tags that show how ideas evolve and connect<\/li>\n<li>Student-created citations or credits when peers use or remix their ideas<\/li>\n<li>A \u201cCreator Spotlight\u201d feature that celebrates original thinkers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Success indicator:<\/strong> Students voluntarily share work and feel proud when peers build on their ideas.<\/p>\n<h3>Experiment 2: Collaborative Iteration with Credit<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Timeline:<\/strong> January \u2013 February 2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>What to try:<\/strong> Design assignments where peer feedback and iteration are built in, with transparent documentation of who contributed what:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Peer review cycles where feedback is attributed and acknowledged<\/li>\n<li>\u201cRemix with credit\u201d projects where students intentionally build on classmates\u2019 work<\/li>\n<li>Shared documents or portfolios that show the evolution of ideas across multiple contributors<\/li>\n<li>Reflection prompts: \u201cWhose ideas influenced mine? How did I build on them?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Success indicator:<\/strong> Students see their ideas evolving through community input and feel valued as contributors, not threatened.<\/p>\n<h3>Experiment 3: Community Learning Narrative<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Timeline:<\/strong> February \u2013 March 2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>What to try:<\/strong> Help students experience the ripple effect of their ideas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Create a visible \u201cidea map\u201d showing how student contributions connect and influence each other<\/li>\n<li>Host peer presentations where students explain how classmates\u2019 ideas shaped their thinking<\/li>\n<li>Encourage students to document their learning journey publicly, showing sources and influences<\/li>\n<li>Celebrate \u201cidea chains\u201d\u2014moments where one student\u2019s work sparked another\u2019s innovation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Success indicator:<\/strong> Students articulate their growth as part of a community learning ecosystem, not just individual achievement.<\/p>\n<h3>Experiment 4: Open Authorship Reflection<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Timeline:<\/strong> March \u2013 April 2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>What to try:<\/strong> Deepen students\u2019 understanding of what it means to be an author in an open, collaborative world:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reflection prompts: \u201cWhat does it mean to own your ideas in a community? How is that different from keeping them private?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Case studies of real creators (artists, scientists, entrepreneurs) who built on others\u2019 work and gave credit<\/li>\n<li>Student-led discussions about intellectual property, open licensing, and creative commons<\/li>\n<li>Portfolio reflections where students articulate their identity as creators and contributors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Success indicator:<\/strong> Students can articulate a vision of themselves as lifelong creators who both own their ideas and contribute to collective knowledge.<\/p>\n<h2>Implementation Tips<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Start small:<\/strong> Begin with one class or one assignment type before scaling<\/li>\n<li><strong>Make attribution visible:<\/strong> Use tools, displays, or systems that make credit and influence obvious<\/li>\n<li><strong>Celebrate both originality and iteration:<\/strong> Value students who create new ideas AND those who build thoughtfully on existing ones<\/li>\n<li><strong>Address fears directly:<\/strong> Have explicit conversations about intellectual ownership in an open world<\/li>\n<li><strong>Document the process:<\/strong> Keep records of how ideas evolve\u2014this becomes powerful evidence of authentic learning<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>By April 2026, You Will Have:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A tested system for attribution and credit that students trust<\/li>\n<li>Evidence that sharing increases learning for the whole community<\/li>\n<li>Students who can articulate themselves as creators and contributors beyond grades<\/li>\n<li>A model for open education that addresses authentic authorship concerns<\/li>\n<li>Stories and examples of how student ideas rippled through your classroom community<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Remember:<\/strong> This isn\u2019t about removing barriers to sharing\u2014it\u2019s about building a culture where sharing strengthens, rather than threatens, each student\u2019s sense of authorship and creative identity. \ud83c\udf1f<\/p>\n<p>This blog post was ideated, iterated and drafted (it IS just a draft) in collaboration with FLINT AI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HMW Question: How might we use open education to help students see themselves as lifelong creators and contributors valuing their whole growth as people beyond academic achievement for grades, university admission and future careers? The Challenge Students in grades 7-12 are caught between two powerful forces: the desire to share their creative work and contribute &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/2025\/11\/29\/open-education-authentic-authorship\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Open Education &amp; Authentic Authorship&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-face-2-face-sessions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/robinmichel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}