World Open Educational Resources Congress 2012

Photos: UNESCO

http://www.unesco.org/

The 2nd World Open Educational Resources Congress took place June 20-22, 2012 in the UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France. It was organized by UNESCO in full partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and a generous grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (USA).

"UNESCO believes that universal access to high quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education as well as facilitate policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building."

Over 500 delegates including representatives of Government, educators, NGOs, and universities attended the Congress.

Photo: CC BY UNESCO (Paris)

http://www.unesco.org/

Abel Caine, Programm Specialist Communication and Information Sector (UNESCO) who managed the interface OER Congress was the unwearying host.

The agenda was complete and full of wonderful key-speakers. Many of the speakers highlighted the ways in which OERs are being used to innovate and improve local communities.

The conference was a two-part event that included the official Congress, with a negotiation component by UNESCO Member States (Room XI), and an Open Seminar that featured cutting-edge examples of OER practices through numerous workshops and seminars (Room XII).

Photo: CC BY UNESCO

Neil Butcher (South Africa)

http://www.unesco.org/

It is impossible to speak about all the speakers and workshops. We were divided between two rooms.
So, I decided to share with you some considerations about OERs and some ideas of two or three speakers that impressed me the most. 

The 20 June, during the Pre-Congress event, Neil Butcher, OER Strategist (South Africa) was a splendid speaker introducing to OER concept: "Beginners guide to OER, an introduction to OER and some of the keys issues to think about when exploring the use of OER". The introduction was followed by an open debate in the room and on Twitter.

I am not a beginner on OERs (Secondary Education - High School) but I really liked this debate that clarified some important issues for some of the participants.

Later, June 22, Neil Butcher took his place as "a realist" on the interesting debate "Idealists versus Realists" on the Future of Open Edicational Resources (OER) - Mainstreamiing and Partneeships" in a group of four.

"By being adaptable and accessible, OERs have the potential to solve the global education crisis and contribute to sustainable economic growth - if governments are prepared to act."

The term Open Educational Resources (OER) was coined at the 2002 UNESCO Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education.

OER Logo 2012

J. Mello, used under a Creative Commons license CC-BY

http://www.unesco.org/

"Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation."

UNESCO

"The open  nature of these materials represents a powerful opportunity for learners, teachers, Ministries of Education, and higher education and research institutions to increase the quality of and access to education."

Irina Bolkova, Director-General UNESCO
(message, June 20 2012)

For students, OERs offer free access to some of the world’s best courses and even degree programs. They can also offer huge cost savings as alternatives to expensive textbooks.

For teachers, ministries of education and governments, OERs provide free and legal access to some of the world’s best courses. Educators can then adapt them to local languages and cultures and use them as a basis for innovation.

But you don’t have to be a teacher or a student to understand the importance of OERs. Free information is a fundamental human right, and OERs make it possible for people of all ages and backgrounds to learn more about the world around them and access the tools they need to improve their lives and livelihoods.

 Photo: CC BY UNESCO

Dr Lawrence Lessig (Harvard USA)

http://www.unesco.org/

Dr Lawrence Lessig, Director of Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Harward University (USA), delivering his keynote speech Peace at the opening of the 2012 World OER Congress was one of the best speakers, in my opinion. Incredible and spontaneous communicator that presented his approach to Open License and Ethics (a subject that divides a lot of academics). Really liked his speach. Very clear, positive and practical though pragmatic.

Starting June 21, Open Seminar and Exhibition showcases innovative OER projects from universities around the world, as well as from organizations such as Creative Commons and the SAIDE/OER Africa initiative.

Friday 22 June, Robert Schuwer Associate Professor and OER Expert presented the Wikiwijs: the Dutch National OER Strategie (2009-2013). To understand it, watch the video below:

Wikiwijs is commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to mainstream OER in The Netherlands. The platform is being created by the Open Universiteit and Kennisnet.

For the "2012 World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress", UNESCO called on OER experts worldwide to set-up an Open Exhibition of artful posters that could insightfully explain OER. 

http://www.unesco.org/

Over 45 posters and 100 publications, brochures, and other OER promotional materials were exhibited.

The posters demonstrate a very high level of talent and dedication to the cause of promoting Open Education. Posters are openly licensed and many have been contributed to UNESCO to set-up a permanent display. The gallery only displays a selection of posters opened licensed. 

I wrote a Poster about the use of OERs in Secondary Education, following the academic rules, not a promotional poster. So, I chose  not to display it on the virtual gallery because all the posters were promotional. 

Mr Abel Caine kindly suggested me that it would be a pity to display an academic Poster in a gallery with promotional posters. He was right.
He invited me to write something informal and to sent it to Unesco to be displayed. For the moment, I had no time. Perhaps later. I'm writing a scientific article to submit at a different conference. 

But, my Poster was shown in small format at the Exhibition for a day during the UNESCO OER Congress. June 21-22 2012.

Finally, on Friday 22 June, the "World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress" released the 2012 Paris OER Declaration which calls on Governments to openly license publicly funded educational materials. 

UNESCO World Open Educational Resources Congress sees Open Educational Resources (OER) as the key not only to solving the global education crisis but to unlocking sustainable global growth in the 21st century-that is, if governments are ready to seize on their potential.

http://www.unesco.org/

The Congress was organized as an open multi-stakeholder event. Presencial and virtual participants were able to follow and participate in the sessions and directly contribute to Paris OER Declaration via live-webstreaming or through Twitter.

I think, most of  all, as an individual researcher in Education that Millenials young people brought a fantastic new vision to schools and Education (all levels now) with their visual spatial skills - screen-generation - non verbal intelligence and multi-tasking attitude into the classroom.

As a "pioneer" educator in the use of OERs in school curricula (Secondary Education) and author of some OERs to captivate my students (in and around curriculum) and in and out school to increase their skills and competencies, motivating them to go further "in order to be effective workers and responsible citizens in the social-knowledge society of the 21st century" 

G-Souto

09.07.2012
Copyright © 2012G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

UNESCO World Open Educational Resources Congress 2012 by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

References:

Credits: Photos CC BY Mariana Bittencourt, CC-BY Davide Storti

Open Educational Resources
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/

What are Open Educational Resources (OERs)?

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/what-are-open-educational-resources-oers/

Speakers and Presentations | Seminar & Exhibition

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/events/calendar-of-events/events-websites/world-open-educational-resources-congress/open-seminar-and-exhibition/speakers-and-presentations/

UNESCO champions at 2012 OERs World Congress

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/news-and-in-focus-articles/all-news/news/unesco_champions_oers_at_2012_world_congress/

June: rundown of the most-read posts

3D Art | Hangzhou Peace International Exhibition 

Photograph: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images *

http://static.guim.co.uk/

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." 

Anne Frank

The quote identifies the values of some of my pedagogical proposals introduced in school curricula and shared with you throughout the years on this blog. 

I believe and practice the differentiation as a value too by focusing on individual identity of my students. They are free to be creative by discovering 'by and themselves' with my guidance, just the sufficient to let them more comfortable in their learning. I wrote about it on the differentt posts of my blog.

The classroom is an open window to the world. Students must feel free to talk  and share ideas about all the subjects they care about in and around every curriculum.

June rundown shows the diversity of subjects and some values of mine and summarize the most-read topics in a collection of six posts

http://www.makingchangenow.com/

Child Poverty in Developped Countries: Chidren's Day was the most-read post June, not for the for best reasons... unfortunately!

"As debates rage on austerity measures and social spending cuts, a new report reveals the extent of child poverty and child deprivation in the world’s advanced economies. 

Some 13 million children in the European Union (plus Norway and Iceland) lack basic items necessary for their development. 

Meanwhile, 30 million children - across 35 countries with developed economies - live in poverty."

UNICEF (Brussels, 29 May 2012)

Reading this report and watching the video, as an educator, today, I must write about the new poverty among our students in our schools, in our countries.

Children's Day is usually marked with speeches on children's rights and wellbeing, and other events involving or dedicated to children. This is the time.

Photo: unknow author

www.google.com/images

Teachers stimulate their pupils to think about the differences between themselves and others and explain the idea of "rights". In countries where the rights of children are generally well-respected, teachers may draw attention to situations in countries where this is not the case. 

Now, teachers help students draw attention to situations like students living below poverty line in their own schools, or countries. (...)

AP Photo | Mark Baker, File

http://cdn.physorg.com/

It's coming! Today starts the last Transit of Venus in this century - next in 2117. Don't miss it! Transit of Venus: prepare your students was an excitment! For students and for educators!

The 6 June transit will start at approximately 00:04 Central European Time (CET). It will then take about 20 minutes from the point when Venus first bears upon the disk of the Sun.

New technologies, like the free Transit of Venus phone app, will allow individuals to send their observations of the 2012 transit of Venus to a global experiment to measure the size of the solar system. 

Ipads ans smartphones on the desk! A wonderful animation can be watched on BBC Venus to put on Sun Spectacular.

In classroom, students are invited to use their devices watching BBC animation or NASA videos for an open debate on the subject with colleagues and tutoring by educators.

Credits: NASA

Blogs in curriculum: 

My students were invited to write a post on their green blogs. Please read here and here

Oustside school:

Students are invited to join astronomers and skywatchers at national observatories of Astronomy, observing the transit of Venus and snap some photos to explore in the classroom.

http://ec.europa.eu/

"Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us."

 Henrik Tikkanen 

European Green Capital 2014: preparing your lessons? Here I am writing again about Environmental education in curricula! And again I'm writing about European Green Capital.

So, after Stockholm 2010, Hamburg 2011, Vitoria-Gasteiz is very proud to be the European Green Capital for 2012. Nantes will be the European Green Capital 2013.

"European Green Capital Award" aims to reward progress made and to encourage cities to commit to future environmental improvement and sustainable development. 

The awarded cities also provide a role model to inspire other cities and promote best practices and experiences in all other European cities. 

http://www.trilliumassociates.com/

Education:

"Our parents were the anti-war generation. Our generation is the environmental generation"

Edward Norton, actor and UN goodwill ambassador for biodiversity

All teachers must be "green" and help the new generations to involve in educational projects, national or international, about Environment.

Schools have an important role promoting environmental education as a Civics value across all school curricula.

Students will evolve in creative "green" projects  that they will share with families, friends, schools and their own cities. 

Blogs in curriculum:

The "European Green Capital 2014" was announced on June 29, after the publication of my post. So, my students were invited to write about Copenhagen: European Green Capital 2014 as an activity  in the classroom.

http://www.iemed.org/

"Youth Future and the Dialogue Between Generations"

A Sea of Words: Euro-Mediterranean Contest was aimed of contributing to the encouragement of dialogue between peoples, and exchange of knowledge and experiences between different local and international traditions. 

In the framework of the European Year for Solidarity between Generations, 2012 theme is aimed at "promoting the vision and expectations of young people about their future and the contact between different generations of Euro-Mediterranean societies."

Young people from the 42 countries of the Euro-Mediterranean space. 

The contest is aimed at the production of short stories focusing on the issues of children, parents and grandparents facing the future, with the objective of showing the different sensitivities and realities in the Euro-Mediterranean region, from the point of view of the youths who live there.

It is always interesting to participate in an intercultural project and share your own traditions with other people that live in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

http://www.ilo.org/

"The children concerned in child labour should be at school being educated, and acquiring skills that prepare them for decent work as adults."

By entering the labour market prematurely, they are deprived of this critical education and training that can help to lift them, their families and communities out of a cycle of poverty."

Human rights and social justice? Let's end child labor! June 12th is intended to serve as a catalyst for the growing worldwide movement against child labour, to highlight the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them. 

Today is World Day Against Child Labour. So, here I am writing again about Human Rights and the right of all children to be protected from poverty and from child labour, another violation of fundamental human rights.

http://www.wftucentral.org/

Hundreds of millions of young people, girls and boys throughout the world are engaged in work that deprives them of "adequate education, health, leisure and basic freedoms", violating their rights. 

Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.

Teachers and students worldwide are speaking out against child labour in the classroom and taking action to raise further awareness of this issue out school. 

They are spreading knowledge among their peers, acting as a voice for those children whose rights are not respected and calling on decision-makers to act urgently to protect children in danger. 

UNESCO World OER Congress

http://wa2.www.unesco.org/

In partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and through the  support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, UNESCO is organizing the 2012 World Open Educational Resources Congress. UNESCO World OER Seminar and exhibit will take place next week, June 22-24 2012 in Paris.

"To provide an opportunity to civil society organizations, academia, and individual experts to present on their Open Educational Resources initiatives, UNESCO is organizing a parallel Open Seminar & Exhibition from 21 to 22 June 2012 in UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France." 

http://www.wsis-community.org/

It was my honor to attend the UNESCO World OER Congress and participate at the Seminar. At the Exhibition, I presented an academic Poster about a research on the use of OER in Secondary Education.

I really hope that you will enjoy every pedagogical proposal written in June or will discover some new pedagogical ideas to introduce in your lessons.

I thank you very much to all the colleagues from around the world that kindly read my blog.

G-Souto

04.07.2012

copyright © 2012G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com

June: rundown of the most-read posts by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

* Magic Art Special Exhibition of China at Hangzhou Peace International Exhibition and Conference Centre