Catchup on Three Months of Welcomes, Please Say Hello

OEGlobal Plaza
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How did it get to be mid March already? We set up a call for mutual greetings for new existing OEG Connect members.

Noticing an increase in signups leading up to and during Open Education Week, I realize I lapsed in a plan to send welcomes to all folks who signed up in a month. I count 68 new people here since the start of the new year.

So here is the big welcome! All of you should get a notification and hopefully you will say hello back, ideally in the most locally appropriate way, not just to me, but to everyone else here. Where in the world are you located? What is your stake / interest / activity in Open Education? What would you like to learn from this community?

Colorful statue of figure with outstretched legs and hands offering a welcome
Welcome flickr photo by Melissa Venable shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

January 2025

Hello and welcome to all who signed up for OEG Connect in January!
@Y2y26tgg, @mmorrow, @eng.ashraf.taha, @ERIC_PIERRE, @megolosk, @FBelpoliti, @Stephane, @contabilidadebauru, @Wais, @nuratulanis, @bumaru, @Hasand, @zulhafiza66, @kmcpheron1, @Azmer90, @carriegrulke, @nody_77, @HJB, @mwasif80

February 2025

Hallo en welkom (in Dutch and Afrikaans) to all who signed up for OEG Connect in February!

@jjcchua, @joC, @Calista65, @FatimahQ, @lireyes, @MarianGarrido, @UC3MDigital, @katemolloy, @DG_OER, @JonBac, @ahoye, @abdulsyahid, @AnnaUribe, @Valentina, @juliastone0729, @shalfezt, @steppin, @alexfenzl, @sreesri.avvaru2, @Alicia, @ankesh_pandey, @Jthomas, @chanslik2025, @gracieross.VT

Mid March 2025

Xin chào và chào mừng (Vietnamese) to all who signed up for OEG Connect in the first half of March

@ellirie, @sue, @LuisEnrike06, @Miguel, @cmaxwell, @serdar, @brandon-johnson, @Emine, @mgarciaguerrero83, @connectmyousaf, @deniz.kahraman.x, @NguyenThiBichNgoc, @jmabreu, @lisiwang, @runnymeadow, @Elif, @MTC, @KevinCody, @SheilaMacNeill, @johnkuti, @Kaywin, @JanJansen, @yusufleren, @NomadWarMachine, @nguehan

We hope you make use of this OEGlobal Plaza area to ask open questions. We would welcome any resources you liked to share in the OE Sharing Zone, and now that we have passed Open Education Week, we are keen to see any open education events of interested added to OE Events. For any projects and programs we should publicize for you, post information in the OEGlobal Spotlight space.

Look for conversaciones en español in OE LATAM as well as conversations en français on OE Francophone.

And if you have some other area we should set up here, we take suggestions.

Mostly, just reply, whether you are new to OEG Connect or have been around, and say hello, in whatever way you choose.

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well hello :stuck_out_tongue:
I’m out on the fringes making assorted math visuals and things, and making them OER. In 2012 there was an adult ed project where we curated and created things for adult ed and learneda bout OER. Since then I’ve been doin’ that on my end and fantasizing about collaborating with others, but … most OER is more academia-land.

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Hi Sue, we appreciate your regular participation here. I’d love to see some examples of your math visuals, I don’t believe we have ever had too much math aids. I am admittedly a math loving kid, and was recently reminded of this favorite book I had as a kid, new to me finding it in the Internet Archive

I am not sure I buy the suggestion that OER is mostly academic, though I take a broad view of OER to include all openly licensed media and creations. And the biggest collection of them all is hard to deny.

How about…

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SIgh, my attempt to reply seems to have failed. I’ll try again later.

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I love mathigon :slightly_smiling_face:
You’re right about wikipedia too…

https://www.youtube.com/user/motthebug/videos is my youtube channel, though I also put things on my website but it’s not organized. So, when they send me some folks from the adult ed work force program who need to figure out fractions for the placement test, we go to https://resourceroom.net/devmath/ ( I also try to stick things on my blog too, tho’ wordpress sometimes crops them.)

My background working at a college prep HS for folks w/ specific language learning disabilities taught me an awful lot about getting folks who might already be pretty sure they Just Can’t Do THat … To try again with different structures and strategies. (Short version.)

In 2000, there was a cutting-edge video program, Modumath, from a Wisconsin technical school in a binder full of CDs that took an adult through what numbers are, arithmetic and practical things like conversions that lots of career programs need you to know. Another binder taught algebra. It was conceptual, so I had an Amish-reared guy with essentially no math background start at the beginnign and … In 2 years, assessed into Calculus (he was a truck driver & would just stop in when he could)… It worked well but when life went online, it only sort of did, and … It was Flash based. End of story.

In the past years, I’ve tried to replicate it here but it’s not a 1-person project and our admins really don’t care about that level, so the other people who also wanted it would always get pulled away. I helped design a very successful “entry level” course with a professor emeritus who taught our “transitions” course but it was face to face, hardly any tech, and she’s more fully retired now. (Chapter 1 is on oercommons.org )

Right now colleges are just eliminating basic math because edu-philanthropists have decided community colleges need to be reformed (Bill Gates Knows All!) — so there’s a pretty huge unmet need. The folks working with adults aren’t the ones in the administrative wings but many of the work & career programs know there’s a need. However, test prep books aren’t the way…

I wish I knew the best place to channel the limited time I have. Right now I’m putting together a presentation for a roundtable defending remedial math and student support against the “corequisites and college level for everybody!” policies but that’ll be done in a few weeks…

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Just to round out the month of March, we welcome to OEG Connect members who joined in the midst of Open Education Week. Warm greetings to

@chiak2002, @santanugohain, @bmhasel.sa, @ajayyad777, @taran.singh6297, @HeatherCraneERAU, @Nora_G, @tugce, @Violaine, @Dennis

I hope we can draw you into conversations, share your ideas, or just enjoy wandering around this space.

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Thank you so much for introducing me.
I work for the MOOC and Open Education unit of the University of Tokyo.
Nice to meet you all.

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Big warm hello from Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia! :palm_tree::smiling_face_with_sunglasses:
Salam hangat untuk semuanya! :indonesia::fire:

Thank you, @cogdog , for the warm and sunny welcome! :sun_with_face:
Feeling right at home already—like I just walked into a global potluck and everyone’s brought their best dish (and ideas)! :pot_of_food::globe_showing_europe_africa::grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I teach English, wrestle with AI (the friendly kind), and try to make academic writing less scary for students! :teacher::robot::writing_hand: Open Education is my jam—because knowledge hoarding is so last season, right? :sweat_smile::books:

I’m here to swap stories, steal—I mean share —brilliant ideas, and see how others are rocking open tools in their corners of the world. Let’s make learning fun, free, and fabulously global! :globe_showing_europe_africa::speech_balloon::sparkles:

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Hi @chiak200​:waving_hand::blush:

Sending greetings all the way from Indonesia to Japan! :indonesia::right_arrow::japan:

Excited to connect with someone from The University of Tokyo—your work in higher ed R&D sounds fascinating! Let’s share ideas and make Open Education even more awesome together! :globe_showing_asia_australia::sparkles::open_book:

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