icommons
2007-09-01
Expanding The Global Conversation On Open Education
It was nearly impossible to say which was hotter: the passion in the room for open access, compatible licensing, and peer production, or, the wilting temperatures recorded at the recent iCommons Summit 2007 held Dubrovnik, Croatia in June.
ISKME showcased OER Commons in the Open Education Track's participatory sessions, where traditional panel presentations and passive viewing were banished. Researchers, administrators, legal experts, and educators from many countries held heated discussions on the issues involved in creating, localizing, and sharing content across borders and legal challenges that accompany the internet freedom movement and information sharing generally.
In a pre-conference one-day workshop, Lisa Petrides and Amee Godwin of ISKME, and Joanne Boulle of Free High School Science Texts (FHSST) facilitated an interactive discussion around the importance of open educational projects assessing their current practices and sharing what they’ve learned within and across project boundaries. Specifically, we heard from Joanne Boulle about challenges and successes in the collaborative process of creating free, open-licensed math and science textbooks especially for high schools in South Africa.
During the other exciting three days of the iCommons Summit Education Track, break-out groups brainstormed about training teachers with OER, bringing students into authoring, and using learners to improve learning content. The activities culminated in next-step visioning for facilitating "next-generation" learning, to remove barriers from learning what you want, when you want it.
Contact amee@iskme.org about OER Commons and the iCommons Summit 2007 Open Education Track.
