ICDE OER Advocacy Committee

ICDE OER Advocacy Committee

At the 27th ICDE World Conference in Toronto, October 2017, ICDE launched a committee for the global advocacy of OER as a reinforcement and support to the ICDE Chairs in OER. Paul Bardack, the Chair Emeritus of the United States Distance Learning Association, serves as the first Chairperson of the Committee, that works to increase global recognition of OER; and to provide policy support for the uptake, use and reuse of OER. First I am really honored and pleased to have been appointed Ambassadors for the global advocacy of OER, but also to be in the core group. Looking forward to the work ahead. All members of the ICDE Advocacy Committee are appointed Ambassadors for the global  advocacy of OER for a limited term until end 2019. A smaller group of the members form a core group that works more closely with the chair to facilitate the activities of the Committee and its members: Core group members: Mark Brown, Office of the Vice President, Dublin City University, Ireland Ebba Ossiannilsson, Consultant and VP, Swedish Assocation of Distance Education (SADE), Sweden Other Advocacy Committee members: Cengiz Hakan Aydin, Professor, Anadolu University, Turkey Paul Bacsich, Director and Senior Consultant, Matic Media and Sero Consulting, United Kingdom Chandra Shekhar Dubey, Director, Campus of Open Learning, Dehli University, India James Glapa-Glossklag, Dean and Treasurer of the Board, College of the Canyons and Open Education Consortium, USA Dhaneswar Harichandan, Director, Institute of Distance and Open Learning, University of Mumbai, India Gary Matkin, Dean of Continuing Education, UC-Irvine California, USA Jean-Marc Meunier, President and VP, FIED and University of Paris VIII Vincennes – St-Denis, France Valerie Peachey, Professor in Open Education, Charles Sturt University, Australia Xiangyang Zhang, Open University of Jiangsu, China Cable Green, Lead OER, Creative Commons, US

Read the full Blog post by  for ICDE here
Paul Bardack, the Chair point to nine advocacy actions

1. Advocate for national and sub-national governments to require all research funded publicly to be openly accessible to all.
2. Advocate for expanded government funding of peer reviewed online content that is to be open and accessible to all.
3. Advocate for expanded recognition of prior learning experiences and other alternative paths for receiving course credit, including open content and open access.
4. Advocate for expanded government funding of personally owned laptops and smart phones, to allow the benefits of open access to be available to all.
5. Advocate for more government funding of wired and wireless networks, so that those in poorer communities are not left behind.
6. Advocate for changes to national intellectual property laws, to allow more content to be freely accessible by potential users of that content.
7. Advocate with the nonprofit and private sectors to encourage more government and nongovernment money to go towards funding of openly accessible online content and courses.
8. Advocate the end of censorship of educational content.
9. Make it physically safe for those who must leave their homes to get an education to get the education they seek without fear of physical harm.

Relevance to ICDE

Upon further reflection, those actions will require at least some, and perhaps many, changes to government policy, in my country and in countries around the world.

And that is precisely why ICDE just launched, at the World Conference on Online Learning in Toronto, a new OER advocacy committee … to help empower those of us around the world who believe in the power and promise of open and distance education; and to help reshape our national and subnational laws and policies to help the people of the world to make that dream a reality.

Read the full Blog post by  Paul Bardack for ICDE here

M-Learn, Larnaca, Cyprus, the 16th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning

This week 30 October - 1 November I attended the 16th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning, in  wonderful Cyprus, Larnaca

I had a presentation on Towards a Framework and Learning Methodology for Innovative Mobile Learning: A Theoretical Approach, together with my co author Nicholas Ioannides, University of Nicosia, Cyprus. Please see my slideshare Ossiannilsson, (EbbaOssian) and also our paper in the M-learn Procedings, pp 39-46, edited by Fernando Loizides, George Papadopoulos, Nicos Souleles

There were two really interesting keynotes during M-Learn 2017
The last 20 years of mobile learning: signposts of the past, present and future
Dr Teemu Leinonen, and 

M2 Learning: Mindful Mobile Learning 
Dr. Agnieszka (Aga) Palalas

IAmLearn's first open access eBook is now free available! 

Access IAmLearning: Mobilizing and Supporting Educator Practice (and share far and wide!) at: https://iamlearning.pressbooks.com/

The conference at Hotel Golden Bay was just excellent, and I could even take a swim, although the first day was somewhat windy.

What is M-learn and what are they doing

mLearn is the leading international conference on mobile and contextual learning and attracts participants from more than 60 countries annually to the conference. mLearn 2017 provides a forum for researchers, policy makers, professionals and educators from higher education, school education and vocational education, government departments, industries and international organisations as well as IT developers and solutions providers to share knowledge, research and practices and debate critical issues pertaining to sustainable futures for mobile learning. 

The overarching conference theme is 'mLearning and Design for Social Change and Innovation'. Higher education institutions are called upon to provide for the competencies and skills that foster design for social change and innovation. In addition, knowledge and skills alliances are encouraged by funding bodies to cultivate, share and disseminate competencies that foster social entrepreneurship and innovation. However, little is known on how mlearning can facilitate this process, how it can contribute towards social change, innovation and entrepreneurship.

'mLearn 2017' will aim to stimulate critical debate on and research into theories, approaches, principles, applications, research, and the implementation of mLearning in a broad sense, as well as within the context of design for social change and innovation. It will provide an opportunity for academics, professionals, practitioners and doctoral students to share their knowledge, experience and research in the various areas where mLearning is applied as well as the connections with the conference theme.

The overall objectives of 'mLearn 2017' are:

• To stimulate critical debate on and research into theories, approaches, principles and applications of various aspects of mLearning

• To share local and international developments, experiences and lessons learned

• To promote networking opportunities

• To encourage the study and implementation of mobile applications in teaching and learning

• To stimulate and assist personal professional development and the development of new skills for educators

• To provide a forum for education and knowledge transfer

• To facilitate dialogue, sharing and networking between diverse cultures with regard to the optimum use of emerging mobile technologies.

See more about the conference here

EDEN and EDLW 2017

In cooperation with the National Distance Learning Week (NDLW) in the US, organised by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA), the The EDLW is organized by EDEN, and coming up next week, with a very interesting program during the week, 6-10 November 2017.

During EDLW, you will have access to daily online webinars and panel sessions of expert scholars and practitioners who will present a variety of cutting edge open and online learning topics, from innovations in design to open educational research.

Each webinar will take place at 13:00-14:30 CET at the same webinar room, please click here:

Participation is open and free, please join for the following  events!

I myself will be part in the event on the 9 November 2017 on 

Re-considering Access, Quality and Flexibility of Education 

Please click here for a more detailed description of the event
Click here to register

For the other events please see below

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The Challenges and Opportunities of Innovation

Monday, November 6, 2017, 13:00-14:30 CET
Format: Panel debate
Moderator: Airina Volungevičienė, EDEN President
Please click here for a more detailed description of the event
Click here to register

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Perspectives on Open Education

Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 13:00-14:30 CET
Format: Presentations and panel discussion
Moderator: Fabio Nascimbeni, EDEN Executive Committee member
Please click here for a more detailed description of the event
Click here to register

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Designing Learning Spaces in Open and Distance Learning

Wednesday, November 8, 2017, 13:00-14:30 CET
Format: Presentations and discussion
Moderator: Lisa Marie Blaschke, EDEN Vice-President
Please click here for a more detailed description of the event
Click here to register

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Re-considering Access, Quality and Flexibility of Education 

Thursday, November 9, 2017, 13:00-15:00 CET
Format: Presentation and discussions
Moderator: Sandra Kucina Softic, EDEN Vice President
Please click here for a more detailed description of the event
Click here to register

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International Experiences with OER

Friday, November 10, 2017, 13:00-14:30 CET
Format: Presentation
Moderator: Antonella Poce, EDEN NAP Steering Committee Chair
Please click here for a more detailed description of the event
Click here to register

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Additional event:

EDEN Open Classroom Conference: Introducing Agenda for Open Professional Collaboration – Plenary broadcast 

Friday, November 10, 2017, 9:45 – 11:45 CETFormat: Plenary Session live stream – Live streaming of the plenary session of the EDEN Open Classroom Conference held in Kaunas, Lithuania. Watch the broadcast here. Participants will be able to ask questions using the conference website.
Moderators: Kristijonas Jakubsonas, Elena Trepulė
Keynote speakers:

• Digitally competent teachers in the area of Open Education, Yves Punie, European Commission – DG JRC – Directorate Innovation and Growth
• The Joyous Voyage: situating open learning in a fractured world, Alan Bruce, Universal Learning Systems, Ireland, National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan
• National ICT Implementation Initiatives for Educational Openness, Vaino Brazdeikis, Ministry of Education and Science of The Republic of Lithuania
• Implementing recognition of open non-formal learning - Organizational perspective. Airina Volungevičienė, European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN), Vytautas Magnus University

Läs Tony Bates reflektioner och hela hans blog post här

ICDEs världskonferens i siffror

• 1,300+ Faculty & Instructors, Practitioners, Experts, Instructional Technology and Media Professionals, Training Providers, Researchers, Consultants, Start-Ups, Policy Makers, Academic Decision-Makers and Educational Technology Industry Leaders
• 150+ Plenaries, Practical Workshops, Interactive Panels, Hands-On Demonstrations, Academic Paper Presentations, and Labs
• 95 Countries
• 5 Continents

SVERDs ordförande Ulf Sandström och V Ordförande Ebba Ossiannilsson deltog på konferensen i Toronto.

Ebba Ossiannilsson deltog på de möten och i de kommittéer där SVERD är partner, som arrangerades under konferensen, snart kommer en blogpost om det att lanseras. Hon presenterade  också sin på uppdrag av ICDE skrivna rapport om BLENDED LEARNING

Hela rapporten kommer snart att lanseras och kan då laddas hem från ICDEs hemsida. Läs under tiden Ossiannilssons blogpost om blended learning här