Open Education Resources and ICT

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Open Education Resources and ICT

• Marina Stock McIsaac
• Arizona State University,
• CARDET
• ICEM, Cyprus
• Sept 20-22, 2007

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To remain human and livable, knowledge
societies will have to be societies of shared
knowledge. UNESCO Director-General
Koichiro Matsuura
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Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

• information (resource) access
• communication speed
• technology infrastructure

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....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. ParisUNESCO.
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Open Education Resources (OER)

• Publicly available, freely accessible
• Minimize digital divide
• Democratize resources
• Contribute to civil society
• Empower local knowledge building

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OER Development

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

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

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Who benefits from OER

• Global community
• Civil societies
• Informed citizens
• Educators

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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

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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.

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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

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2 Examples

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

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Technology

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

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Promote Collective Knowledge

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

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Critical Issues

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

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Opportunites

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

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Pitfalls

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

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Can we do it right this time?
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mmcisaac_at_asu.edu