Around the OEGlobal World

Originally published at: Around the OEGlobal World – OEGlobal

I’m starting something new here and I did not even ask permission! As a part of our interest in sharing more of what OEGlobal members are doing I (Alan Levine aka @cogdog) am taking on the challenge of traveling around the open education world (well through a web browser) to research what we can find…

2 Likes

Just replying for testing purposes… but I LOVE the idea!

That works well to post from the web site here. Maybe it should publish to the Spotlights area???

1 Like

And just for fun and because I am experimenting with these things, I generated with DALL•E some images representing my usual avatar metaphor going on a journey

3 Likes

As a happy accident of testing the postings here, we already got a response from @BarbaraClass -on work in collaboration with @Enkerli and more, so maybe the travel bags will take a virtual booking to Switzerland for

and

  • Publication of new Open Education journal, Education Ouverte et Libre - Open Education, which builds on Open Science principles, i.e. Open Peer Review, Open Access, translation of extended summaries in the 6 UN languages, transparency and accountability of both authors and reviewers, which has published its first 2 articles.

This is again, and open call to anyone to share projects, news here in the OEG Spotlight area so more can see and we can share further.

2 Likes

Hello Alan, best wishes from Chile. Excited to share that the Instituto de Educación Abierta IEA (Open Education Institute), dependent of the Universidad Abierta de Recoleta UAR, was launched last week (see release note, in spanish). We will kick-off with a couple of initiatives that we have talked before related to K-12 Open Textbooks and off-line OER solutions. Recoleta is a traditional district (municipality) in the big Santiago area, and actually where I was raised, so very proud to give back in a very socio-economic vulnerable context. I’ll get back to you with more exciting news and progress. Best wishes to all!!

2 Likes

Saludos cordiales y gracias, Werner! This is exactly what I was hoping, bu more than that, congratulations on establishing the institute, and especially, for helping your home area.

Best to you from us at OEG

Hello All,

Thank you for initiating this thread Alan.
A special issue of Frontiers in Education on Open Education for Sustainable Development: Contributions from Emerging Technologies and Educational Innovation ? has published 9 very different articles : Open Education for Sustainable Development: Contributions from Emerging Technologies and Educational Innovation | Frontiers Research Topic
Best,
Barbara

2 Likes

Thanks for this Barbara! These are some great research articles we will aim to share ASAP.

And this came via an email exchange with @Weblearning on a new effort he is experimenting with as community building/support in OER, called Make OvER Monday:

Can you identify – where you think that your course is really working well AND where energy is necessary to respond to a challenge. Focus on one good thing. And one thing you’d like to improve. Don’t try save the world through digital. Just ask yourself, can I, at this point, to identify small areas for praise and for betterment?

MakeOvER Monday is the day for course developers, media specialists and instructional designers to work together and act upon what’s great and what’s been bothering them. To don on their overalls, get their hands dirty , and do some DIY.

See more and how to participate at https://weblearning.co.za/blog/make-over-monday/

We want to see more of these shared in our OEG Spotlight! Just head over to the main space, and create a new topic.

1 Like

Hi Barbara! You are now our first visit in our series, thanks again–

see https://www.oeglobal.org/2022/08/26/swiss-open-education-roadmap/

2 Likes

A post was split to a new topic: ALT Open Ed SIG Open Meeting at ALT-C

As promised, the new Institute is now on our OEGlobal World travel map

https://www.oeglobal.org/2022/08/30/instituto-de-educacion-abierta/

1 Like

@cogdog Thanks for creating this space and how exciting to learn about and share open education news and activities from around the world.

Here are a few open education related global activities that have caught my attention recently.

Citizen Science Global Partnership - A network-of-networks that seeks to promote and advance citizen science for a sustainable world. I’m highly interested in weaving together the many forms of open, including Open Educational Resources, Open Access, Open Science, Open Data, and Open Source Software into an overarching strategy. Tomorrow I’m meeting with someone involved in the Citizen Science Global Partnership to explore synergies, share strategies, and discuss ways we could collaborate.

OpenForumEurope a not-for-profit, Brussels-based independent think tank which explains the merits of openness in computing to policy makers and communities across Europe. I found their report on Open Strategic Autonomy particularly interesting. The data around 99% of all software containing open source, suggestions around reducing dependencies / growing capabilities, and identification of skills with open as being critically important to digital sovereignty are fascinating.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) OER Strategy document describes the initial situation and fields of action for the promotion of open and free educational materials and for the development of digital education. Goals and funding topics are described across all educational areas. I particularly like the linking of open education with digital and online learning as I think there are some ways in which they complement each other. This is the first strategic plan I’ve seen that deliberately incorporates implementation of the UNESCO OER Recommendation. I used Google Translate to translate the entire document from German to English.

Digital Public Goods Alliance promotes the idea of digital public goods to create a more equitable world. I think of OER as digital public goods so am always very intrigued with efforts to articulate the idea of digital public goods. I’ve recently begun thinking about open education as a “digital global public good” and contemplating what education might look like if it were a global collaborative effort rather than a regional and national one.

And lastly kudos / thanks to Werner Westermann for sharing The Transformative Potential of Data for Learning: Interim Report. As I think about the future of open education I definitely am thinking it will be reframed in ways that include data and AI. This report provides many insights on how the data part of that might look.

Thanks for the multiple suggestions, Paul. I am packing my virtual travel bag to go explore them.

I had recently stumbled on the Digital Public Good Alliance via a forgotten path, I was maybe exploring the Storyweaver project (also on my travel list) mentioned elsewhere in OEG Connect, and found from their site a link to the entry in the Digital Public Goods registry. It’s inspiring to see how the “goods” are organized around the Sustainable Development Goals.

So I hope more folks here will add suggestions for more destinations around the OEG world and create a lot of exploration work for me.

3 Likes

There is this new webinar format from the #oe-francophone community:

1 Like

Here are some of the things I’m seeing in the open education global context.

I’ve noticed the formation of new consortia of organizations around issues related to education inclusion and equity. The Knowledge Equity Network, and the Higher Education Equity Network for example. Even the recently launched Access to Knowledge - A2K Coalition has explicit aims about “Access” as an essential condition for equity and inclusion though their aims are largely around accomplishing that through copyright reform. I like the emergence of these new networks, strong interest in achieving inclusion and equity goals, and willingness to join together in pursuit of these shared aims. The recent Open Education Conference theme “Rise to Action” focused on how participants can act in concrete ways to make education more affordable, accessible and equitable for all. I’m super pleased to see all this really good momentum happening around inclusion and equity.

Progress toward inclusion and equity requires hard conversations. I really like Kent McGuire’s four principles to help educators teach politically charged topics. 4 principles to help educators teach politically charged topics

I find LearnCard thought provoking LearnCard - An Open Source Digital Wallet for Learning & Employment by Learning Economy Foundation; Web3, Blockchain, Crypto and DAOs for Learning. What if we worked together to give learners sovereignty, mobility and agency? Do you find this idea compelling?

I like the growing number of open education professional development opportunities.
The AAC&U’s year-long Institute on Open Educational Resources (OER) designed for campuses aspiring to launch or expand initiatives to develop or leverage free and affordable materials in teaching and learning contexts caught my interest. As did the OER Creator Workshop in Zurich which is part of the swissuniversities P-8-project umbrella ‚Renforcement des digital skills dans l’enseignement‘

The UN Transforming Education Summit Transforming Education Summit | United Nations aimed to "renew our collective commitment to education and lifelong learning as a pre-eminent public good.” according to António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General. I know of no better way than open education to make education and lifelong learning public goods. So it will be interesting to see how many of the 130 countries participating pursue open education as a key strategy. I invite any considering to reach out.

And finally the OEGlobal Open Education Awards for Excellence Finalists and Winners were announced this week. Kudos and congratulations to all of them for showing the way forward, being exemplary, and in Robert Schuwer’s case a lifetime of service.

3 Likes

@paulstacey, thank you for mentioning the Institute on Open Educational Resources. We at ISKME have been proud to partner with AAC&U on this Hewlett Foundation-funded initiative.

Thanks for this list, Paul! I have fallen behind on doing the short write ups on such items on our site and now I have a tour list.

And also hat/tip to @JudithSebesta for the link to the AAC&U Institute, exactly the kind of opportunities we want to spread the word about here. Would love a chance in the weeks ahead to talk more with you about your new role at ISKME (maybe a podcast?)

And for everyone else, all we need to do an OEGlobal World post is a link to an interesting project, resource.

1 Like

I would welcome the opportunity, Alan!