cultural imperialism or multicultural mix: promoting oer reuse through collaboration

Cultural Imperialism or Multicultural Mix: promoting OER reuse through collaborationOER10 – Cambridge

Andreia I. Santos, Patrick McAndrew and

Murilo M. Mendonca

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Andreia I. Santos, Patrick McAndrew and Murilo M. Mendonca

Outline

• Risk of Cultural Imperialism• Opportunities for Multiculturalism• Collaboration Cycle• UnisulVirtual: illustrating the provider-user-provider

continuum• Future directions

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National culture

OU Culture

Culture imperialism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_British_Empire_in_the_1920%27s.gif

Cultural mix

http://www.lumaxart.com/

http://www.lumaxart.com/

Andreia I. 11

I SPEAK ENGLISH

EU FALO PORTUGUÊS

YO HABLO ESPAÑOL

我發言中

Я владею русским

By James J. Zuiches urilo M. Mendonca 12

Andreia I. Santos, Patrick McAndrew and Murilo M. Mendonca

Collaboration

peer-to-peerpeer-to-peer

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practitionerspractitioners

inter-institutionalinter-institutional

Andreia I. Santos, Patrick McAndrew and Murilo M. Mendonca 14

Social network analysis course


Collaboration cycle

Santos, A. OpenLearn Research Report 2006-2008


• To use, provide, promote uptake. Then...• Make the collaboration formal! Commitmet!• Foster DE faculty and technical staff to participate.• Encourage students to use OpenLearn.• Publish, repurpose, translate material (8 Portuguese-

speaking countries = 223 million people.• Share our own intellectual production (cross-cultural,

comparative studies cultural exchange).

Collaboration Phase 1: Spotting an Opportunity

• Establish GOALS:

1.Offer and encourage DE and face-to-face students to use and benefit from OER.

2.Make OpenLearn a repository of contents of excellence produced at UNISUL.

3.Translate OL content into Portuguese based on students’ areas of interest (initially).

4.Establish a scientific co-operation programme with the Open University.

5.Hold a 2-day OU seminar at UNISUL on DE trends and methodologies with an emphasis on OER.

Collaboration Phase 1: Spotting an Opportunity

• MOVE 1: invite (under)graduate programme coordinators to browse OL for courses of potential interest to their students as complementary study material, to be translated into Portuguese. OER USER

• MOVE 2: invite coordinators to suggest Unisul courses of potential interest to external communities for upload and sharing on the Unisul Collaborations Area inside the LabSpace of OpenLearn. OER PROVIDER

Collaboration Phase 2: Promoting Staff Engagement

• ACTIONS:

1.UnisulVirtual curricula x related/complementary OER courses on OpenLearn matrices.

2.URL’s of related/complementary courses published in each VLS.

3.Explanatory/contextualizing/encouraging e-mails sent to students: usability / findability / discoverability.

4.Permanent process of encouraging faculty to use and provide OER.

5.OU Seminar at UNISUL.

Collaboration Phase 3: Towards OER Acculturation

• Open University Seminar at UNISUL:

• to inform and instruct UnisulVirtual’s faculty, technical staff on how to use OpenLearn’s wide range of educational applicability;

• to establish a modus operandi, to lead to joint research opportunities;

• to impart cultural identity to the collaboration and create a sense of belonging in order to foster effective participation.


• “+ in June” Programme 2009:• The Concept of Innovation (215 students)• Designing the User Interface (136 students)• TOTAL = 351 students enrolled.• Steps involved:• Translation.• Adaptation.• Hiring tutor.• Double interface: UnisulVirtual VLS and OpenLearn

website


• “+ in June” Programme 2010:

• Digital literacy initiave: basic computer skills + “Information on the Web” (taken from OL).

• Aimed at UnisulVirtual students’ friends and/or relatives (30,853 students at UV).

• Tutor + friend/relative support widening participation participatory culture social inclusion fulfilment of university mission.

Future Actions: Taking OER Beyond the University

Conclusions

Language can be a barrier to OER use, but:• Mentoring and collaborative action can help overcome

the linguistic barrier and reduce the gap between different educational traditions (cultural imperialism)

• Collaborative action empowers OER take up and fosters dissemination (from user to provider)

• Interoperability of OER encompasses a technological perspective but also a social approach. Technology is a medium to facilitate cultural exchange (multiculturalism)


Thank you!

Andreia Santos – [email protected]

Dr Patrick McAndrew – [email protected]

Murilo Mendonça – [email protected]

Image credits: flickr


mailto:[email protected]



cultural imperialism or multicultural mix: promoting oer reuse through collaboration

Documents

andreia santos

collaboration phase

patrick mcandrew andmurilo

oer use

oer provider

collaboration cyclesantos

collaboration formal

andprovide oer