UNIDAD 1. Tarea 2

Material proporcionado por la profesora durante la clase.

http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/463

OOPS, Turning MIT Opencoursewear into Chinese: Analysis of acommunity of practice of global translators

Lee, Lin & Bonk

Communities of Practice in Action

Mutual Engagement

“Knowledge is power”

We learn by participating in the specific, local practices, which in turn are negotiated within broader discourses. In this sense, “the act of knowing involves an interaction between the local and the global” (Wenger, 1998, p.141). The globalization of open educational resources originally shared in one language (e.g., English), such as the MIT Opencourseware initiative, epitomizes such local-global interactions. As a prime example, the OOPS community and their project of translation are engaged in the act of making that link between the Chinese speaking population and the available opencoursewares – i.e., bringing globalized content to local populations. The meaning of the practice of translation and localization of the global contents is discussed, questioned, and further negotiated through the narratives of these volunteer participants.

As a volunteer group, the OOPS community shows an extremely high level of enthusiasm and engagement which can be explained by the organization’s grassroots history. The mission statement declared on the homepage indicated:

We wanted to use the spirit of an open source to challenge the groundbreaking idea of knowledge sharing. Our goal is to let more people enjoy the shared knowledge (OOPS Homepage, 2007).

On the discussion forum and through interviews, a sense of idealism among the volunteers was apparent. The OOPS members view their work as an extremely innovative project and take great pride in their participation in ‘opening doors’ to new information for the enormous non-English speaking Chinese population, contributing to more fair distribution of knowledge and power. For example, the following two excerpts were quoted from OOPS’ online discussion forum when volunteers were asked to share their view about OOPS.

As someone once said, “Knowledge is power.” . . . I believe that this “power” should be made available fairly and equally to all. It should go to those with the will and the ability to make the best use of it, not just tothose born [the] to right parents. When it is hoarded by a few, social inequality and disharmony result. In addition, knowledge is one of the few commodities that increase the further [if] it is shared. (Ms. J.)

In addition, providing the educational materials whose contents were created by a university of international renown seemed to give a sense of empowerment to these volunteers. Given that Chinese culture holds top tier universities in the United States in especially high regard, there is additional motivation to lend one’s talents to such a project. As noted in the quote below, such sentiments are apparent in Mr. A’s views about the key role or function of the OOPS.

Make the ‘treasure bank’ for worldwide Chinese; do our best to equalize access to knowledge; use our skills to promote global prosperity; use technology to create a new knowledge-based society. (Mr. A.)

PALABRAS NUEVAS

1.    Boarder

2.    Epitomizes

3.    Content

SIGNIFICADO DE LAS PALABRAS NUEVAS Y ABREVIATURAS

1.    Boarder

Boarder = s. frontera mf.

Palabra de contenido.

2. Epitomizes

Epitomizes = tr. Resumir, personificar.

Palabra de contenido.

3. Content

Content = adj. Contento, satisfecho.

Palabra de contenido.

EJEMPLOS DE CATEGORÍAS LEXICALES

Sustantivos:

Globalization, community.

Adjetivos:

Open, prime.

Advervios:

Originaly, extremely.

Verbos:

Are, negotiated, involves, share, engaged.

Conjuciones:

By, such as.

Preposiciones:

In, of.

Artículos:

The, an.

Prefijos:

Interaction, online, inequality.

Sufijos:

Participating, originally, engaged, innovative.

Cognados falsos:

Prime ≠ primo, contents ≠ contiene

Prime = primer, contents = los contenidos

Cognados verdaderos:

Project = projecto, negociate = negociado.

IDEA PRINCIPAL DEL TEXTO

Aprendemos participando en prácticas locales dentro de fronteras más amplias. Así, el conocimiento requiere una interacción entre lo local y lo global.

EN MIS PROPIAS PALABRAS EL TEXTO DICE

La globalización de la educación abierta, al principio se dio en inglés. Al principio, se trató de utilizar las traducciones para que fueran accesibles los cursos abiertos para la población china. Lo que significa dicha practica, es a menudo discutido, cuestionado y negociado por los participantes voluntarios.

Uno de los voluntarios expresa que su meta es permitir que más personas se beneficien de la socialización del conocimiento.