Carolina, who is sponsored by the Open Society Institute, has written a Green Paper as part of the Brazilian Project on Open Educational Resources, which she will present at the opening of the conference. Once it is published,  I will link  it here. Download pdf file here:  PaperOEROSI080909 and check some photos of the event here.

I hope there is a wifi connection and that the conference will be streamed / tweeted for those who will not be able to attend f2f and want to make comments or questions. You can always use the comment area below for pre-conference questions you want to field.

Invitation OER

]]> http://beespace.net/open-education-and-open-educational-resources-challenges-and-perspectives/feed/ 1 http://beespace.net/opened-2009-crossing-the-chasm/ http://beespace.net/opened-2009-crossing-the-chasm/#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:49:48 +0000 Barbara Dieu http://beespace.net/?p=917 I have just come across the June 15th post on the Open Education Conference  2009 site and realized that I am one day late for the travel scholarship offered for the event. Although the deadline was yesterday, June 30th, I am writing this post in the hope the date will be postponed and that this application will be valid.

The title of the OpenEd conference 2009: Crossing the Chasm is very appropriate. First, because as an enthusiastic early adopter of innovation, my work with new technologies and Open Education has been mostly on the fringes of the secondary school system I work for,  without any institutional, logistic or financial support to pursue my work /projects in this field. But then, I suppose that in secondary schools, the established idea is that teachers are not supposed to care about this because others will for them.  Secondly, because as I have almost come to the end of my tether,  I have not written a single post since April. The prospect of seeing some light at the end of the tunnel (thank you, Leigh) has somehow energized me and made me cross at least the blogging chasm…one step at a time.

I have been working openly and sharing my resources on the web over these past 12 years.  I have joined several communities of open-minded people and various networks both locally and internationally, with whom I have collaborated and cooperated in participatory projects presentially and online – voluntarily in my free time. Among these, I can highlight:

1. co-creation and co-management of dekita.org,  a project which advocates participatory uses of Web applications in EFL/ESL teaching, favoring open approaches to language learning in which students get to engage the public Web instead of being locked into narrowly circumscribed online spaces;

2. co-development and co-moderation of three 6-week online workshops for teacher professional development in participatory media:

• Using Weblogs in ESL/EFL Classes: New Developments, Uses, and Challenges
• Webpublishing  in Open and Participatory Environments
• Social Media in ELT

3. publications and presentations in English, French and Portuguese

4. contributions to Wikieducator  and this year’s NMC Horizon Report

5. participation  in open projects to divulge the open culture in Portuguese;

• Para Entender a Internet (collective book)
• Adote um Parágrafo (collective translation from English to Portuguese)

6. participation in the FLNW unconferences, the Unesco and Brazilian OER list and growing involvement with different local actors , events and educational networks so as to establish OER and CC awareness among educators to foster an open culture in education in Brazil.

So to the questions:

What you would “bring” to the conference? What can you contribute, be it a willingness to volunteer to moderate a session, some special expertise or project, an already accepted proposal…

At the OpenEd conference, I’m willing to contribute with what I know, talk with participants and organizers about possible projects/partnerships involving the networks I belong to (inside and outside formal educational institutions) and help divulge the conference and its themes– before, during and after through my personal learning spaces and networks.

What you see as the most critical issue facing you in  your efforts around Open Education, and how you think the conference can help you address it?

The fact that the Brazilian government officially embraced the open source movement and that our country’s culture is very much based on mix and remix does not mean the majority of educators and population understand how Open Ed  can be used and the benefits it can bring to them and the population as a whole.

The most pressing and critical issue for me around Open Education is to establish logistic, technical and financial support to start sustainable projects with actors who are willing to make them work.  Why is it so difficult to make this happen?  I believe this conference will help me understand and learn how to cross the chasm.

After an explanation of the work conducted at the Open Society Institute and a brief outline of the history of the Open Education movement and initiatives,  Melissa pointed to The Cape Town Open Education Declaration, which is

at once a statement of principle, a statement of strategy and a statement of commitment… meant to spark dialogue, to inspire action and to help the open education movement grow.

1741 individuals (1742 now that I have added my name) and 177 organizations have signed the declaration. Pilot countries comprise Poland, Australia and Brazil.

Some open repositories (which do not require a subscription fee) : Arxiv, DOAJ, Dspace, PubMedCentral, OpenDoar, Eprints Soton, Scielo Brazil, Hindawi, Public Library of Science, Springer Open Choice, Bioline International.

While Connexions founder Richard Baraniuk was discussing OER at the Berlin Online Educa,  Joel Thierstein, Cnx’S executive director, showed us (here in São Paulo) how their open source platform allows professors and teachers to  “Create Globally, Educate Locally” by giving them the possibility to create, collaborate, build/share custom collections. Users and authors can find content on a page by page basis through an interconnected repository (400+ textbooks, 7000+ lego modules from students, teachers, professionals  worldwide) and remix it for their needs. Authors retain copyright and license it via open access licence to share, copy and transmit the content. Hard cover copies of personalised textbooks created by mashups of different content were passed around.

Differently from the States and other developed countries, in Brazil, information and expertise are still scarce, which reinforces the educational gap between the haves and have-nots. Ironically, state funded  and  free higher-ed ( like the University of São Paulo) cater for the higher middle-class who paid for their studies in private secondary schools and preparatory courses to succeed in the university entrance exam. The federal campuses are usual far from the city centre and transport difficult for those without a car. As a result of this, the most needy have to pay high tuition for overcrowded “one size fits it all” night classes at private commercial institutions, many of which of doubtful standard. In formal or vocational education, there is no recognition of prior and experiential learning, which further restricts the entry of qualified people to help out as facilitators, guides or curators.

OERs and open education should be more than “a blip on the educational radar”.  It is important to have access not only to broadband and resources but also peers and experts who help learners filter, discuss, re-mix, create and make this content personally and contextually meaningful.

I hope these first steps will allow Brazilian educators from all extractions find a way to collaborate and partner in networks beyond their schools and universities – across the river in the city of knowledge as Gilson Schwartz  put it and share instead of just “planning to share” so that more people and initiatives follow to open access to meaningful and dynamic education in our country.