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In the open education movement, sometimes you lead and sometimes your follow. |
by Courtesy of Philipp Schmidt |
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In the final session of the first annual Education track, we've come up with a set of priorities that we want to have as what we humbly believe was one of the seminal gatherings in the nascent history of the open education movement.
We clearly came away from our track believing that we are a vibrant and dynamic movement which is ready to continue its expansion. In fact, we already see the movement feeling some growth pains from how it's grown thus far. For example, one of the issues we discussed was that it's no longer a simple matter to find out what all of the OER organisations and projects out there are. As a result, the importance can only increase of initiatives like OER Commons, which seek to catalogue all of those projects (and other resources relating to OERs, such as conferences), and allow for peer feedback on their importance.
As part of the expansion that we're already seeing, our track had an admirably diverse set of participants. As the representative from WikiEducator, I was approached by Spanish-speaking participants interested in learning how they can set up initiatives through WikiEducator to build Spanish-language OERs. As an English-language acronym, even the term "OER" enjoyed some critical analysis. Moreover, participants working in languages other than English made it clear that they are not exclusively interested in simply translating resources from English into their language, but instead would have to adapt any resource to fit their particular context, and in many cases would be better off starting from scratch rather than working with translated resources.
This ties in with another commonly heard sentiment, which was that whichever direction we go from here as a movement, we insist that any organisations that seek to take on a leading role in our movement start by seeking an inclusive, respectful dialogue with us as practitioners. We will not respect a self-styled umbrella organisation that does not respect us, no matter who puts it on.
Another issue that concerns the importance of dialogue is that of reaching out to policymakers. There's no point to developing OERs if no one will use them, and for better or for worse it is usually administrators and those in government who decide on which curricula are used rather than educators themselves, particularly at the primary and secondary levels. To that end, during the course of this year we hope to be able to reach the point where we can approach policymakers to make the case for supporting the development and use of OERs.
I say during the course of the year because it is our intention to build on the momentum we've generated at this year's summit by working together through the iCiC email list and whatever other means present themselves, so that next year's summit in Sapporo will be, as Heather Ford advised, a punctuation point in a continuing collaborative effort. In other words, our goal is to be a track that continues throughout the year, with iCommons Summits and other conferences being stations along that track. As one aspect of this, it is our hope that by Sapporo we can reach agreement on enough overlap in our visions of the open education movement to agree on a Sapporo Declaration of basic principles. That's not to say we don't recognise that we are a very diverse group with a wide variety of objectives, but we do believe we have enough in common that we can conceive of a set of those commonalities.
Finally, while we had an enjoyable experience in Durovnik and really came together as a group, we are eager for all who are like minded to join us. If you agree with our approach to continuing collaboration, please do join us online and, if Jah say, we'll all meet in Sapporo.
One more thing. There's no way to report on this session without collaterally purporting to represent the group. Please guys, add some comments, whether you agree or not. I'd really like this to represent us as a whole.
tags: dubrovnik croatia education summit07 summit08 sapporo
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Hi Steve. Jamie Boyle here. I totally agree about both the vibrancy of the session -- and the need for ccLearn to be community-based, not top down. I actually apologized to Gunner and Mark for missing sessions -- for one of them I was actually scheduled as a speaker at a conflicting panel, for another I was in a board meeting at the Summit. But I should have also told the group -- my apologies. It wasn't for lack of interest (though heatstroke was occasionally a factor..!) The energy in the group, as well as the feeling of community, were palpable. I congratulated Mark and Gunner on it afterwards. In terms of being part of the network -- we have just hired an Executive Director, Ahrash Bissell, who is actually the person who will really represent ccLearn. He's a great guy and I think the group will like him. He doesn't start with us full time until September 1st, but I've introduced him virtually to Mark and he is eager to get to know the group. Expect him to be joining the list soon. As for me, my humble role is basically to go out and raise $$ to support the organization once it really gets going in September. Think of me as a glorified but unpaid beggar-for-hire. I also fulfil that role for Science Commons too, and for the CC core functions -- so I am stretched a bit thin. But we have had some success and I hope to have more. If and when news on that comes in, I'll pass it onto the group. In the meantime, please accept my assurance that working with the iCommons community is very high on ccLearn's task list. I learned a lot in Dubrovnik, and I am sure Ahrash will learn even more as soon as he comes on board. Warm regards, Jamie
James Boyle (United States) · Jul 09th, 2007 9:55 pm
1 out of 1 person believes this is useful
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