Open Education Resources and ICT

1. Open Education Resources and ICT • Marina Stock McIsaac • Arizona State University, • CARDET • ICEM, Cyprus • Sept 20-22, 2007

2. “To remain human and livable, knowledge societies will have to be societies of shared knowledge.” UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura

3. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) • information (resource) access • communication speed • technology infrastructure

4. “....wish to develop together a universal educational resource available for the whole of humanity… hope that this open resource for the future mobilizes the whole of the worldwide community of educators”. UNESCO. 2002. “Forum on the impact of Open Courseware for higher education in developing countries. Final report.” Paris:UNESCO.

5. Open Education Resources (OER) • Publicly available, freely accessible • Minimize digital divide • Democratize resources • Contribute to civil society • Empower local knowledge building

6. OER Development • UNESCO 2002 • International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) • Millenium Development Goals (MDG) • Education for All (EFA) • William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

7. “… digitized materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and re-use for teaching, learning and research.”

8. Who benefits from OER • Global community • Civil societies • Informed citizens • Educators

9. Accessible Open Courseware • UNESCO, 2002 Open Education Resources (OER) • MIT, 2001 Open Courseware (OCW) • OU, 2006 Open Learn • Materials shared between developed and developing nations

10. M.I.T. Open Courseware • “…a free and open educational resource (OER) for educators, students, and self-learners around the world. It is true to MIT's values of excellence, innovation, and leadership.

11. OU OpenLearn • “The OpenLearn website will make educational resources freely available on the internet, with state of the art learning support and collaboration tools to connect learners and educators.” • The Open University, 25 October 2006

12. 2 Examples • Nigeria (large population) • Infrastructure, resources • NOUN • Cabo Verde (small population) • Little infrastructure, few resources • Univ. Aveiro

13. Technology • Requires Infrastructure • Satellite • Cellular • Bandwidth • Beyond technology... sustainability

14. Promote Collective Knowledge • Learning networks • Wikipedia, knowledge databases, blogs • Social networks (Web 2.0) • My Space, UTube, FaceBook, del.icio.us, Marratech

15. Critical Issues • Whose knowledge? • include diverse thinking • Whose reality? • respect other experiences • Whose perspective? • empower local communities • Whose contributions? • provide for rich variety

16. Opportunites • listen to voices of disenfranchized • learn from the realities of others • share knowledge • provide educational opportunity for all

17. Pitfalls • limited perspective • social insensitivity • lack of locally developed materials • insufficient quality guidelines, control • dominance of Western culture

18. Can we do it right this time?

19. mmcisaac@asu.edu