open education: what does it mean to us, to south africa and to you?
DESCRIPTION
In celebration of Open education Week (10-15 March 2014), we hosted an evening event at Siyavula to spread the message about open eductaion and OER. We specifically looked at what this means to us in South Africa where we have such a diverse education system with many challenges and how individuals can get involved in promoting open education and strengthening the movement. This can be as easy as using open licenses on any work you create, to taking part in a MOOC to becoming a volunteer on one of our Siyavula projects and joining a larger, growing community of people passionate about education and striving to make a difference.TRANSCRIPT
OPEN education?
Let's get your initial
ideas!
“a collective term to describe institutional
practices and programmatic initiatives that
broaden access to the learning and training
traditionally offered through formal
education systems”
“open” in open education = elimination of barriers
What barriers?
● High cost
● Access to resources
● Distance to institutions
● Restrictive copyright laws
● Incompatible technology
● Academic admission requirements
● Accreditation
When and how did it all start?
Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
“Everyone has the right to education .
Education shall be free, at least in the
elementary and fundamental stages”
(United Nations, 1948, Art. 26, para. 1)
A bit of history...
On the role of openness in education: A historical reconstruction (CC-BY)
A bit of history...
On the role of openness in education: A historical reconstruction (CC-BY)
GlobalOpen
Education movement
Take home message
Openness in education is not a new idea.
Society's knowledge should be a common good.
Fundamentally, education is a human right.
On the role of openness in education: A historical reconstruction (CC-BY)
Key players
Open Source Initiative (CC-BY)David Wiley (CC-BY)
David Wiley
1998: “Open Content”
A creative work freely available for modification, use and redistribution under a license similar to those used by the Open Source / Free Software
community
The 4Rs:
Reuse
Remix
Revise
Redistribute
Key players
Richard Baranuik
1999: Connexions
A global repository for educational content, provided by volunteers, available for remixing,
editing and download in various formats.
Key players
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2001: MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT committed to putting all their content (lecture notes, syllabi, lecture videos) for all their courses
on the web, freely accessible to the public
Open Educational Resources(OER)
"teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual
property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software,
and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge"
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Key players
Larry Lessig
2001: Creative Commons
A non-profit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free
legal tools.
Lawrence Lessig (CC-BY)
A shared culture
Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DKm96Ftfko
www.creativecommons.org
Closed Open
By attribution
No derivatives
Share-alike
Non-commercial
Open licenses are a tool to enable sharing, legally
A global change
OER initiatives
Enter the MOOC
Massive Open Online Course
2012: “The year of the MOOC”
Open education
What does this mean to us at Siyavula?
CommunityCommunity
Technology
Technology Ope
nnes
s
Ope
nnes
s
Siyavula – 'we are opening'
Siyavula is a social enterprise built on
community, openness and technology,
working to make high quality educational
resources available to every learner and
teacher in South Africa.
What we have done
Technology enables and enriches
Open everything...
Open processes - iterative, transparent and collaborative
Open copyright licenses - freedom to distribute, adapt and enhance
Open standards - formats that enable the freedoms
Opensource software - freedom distribute, adapt and enhance
Open education
What does this mean to Africa and
to South Africa?
Our context and challenges
CC-BY on Flickr
Parklands School gallery
Contexts abound and all are challenging
Every child deserves a chance
Benefits of open licenses and OER
OER are freely available for use by educators and learners,
without the need to pay royalties
Remember the 4 Rs?
Reuse
Remix
Revise
Redistribute
Retain
Opening up access to education and resources will help
CC-BY on Flickr CC-BY on Flickr
Parklands School gallery
● Build capacity by providing educators free or low-cost access to tools, content and communities of practice
● Reduce the cost of access to educational materials
● Adapt and develop materials relevant to African contexts and learners
National distribution in South Africa
~ 10 million books
In South Africa, opening up education and making resources
openly available is only PART OF THE
SOLUTION
We also need teacher training, capacity and
accountability
Benefits of open licenses and OER
Grant freedoms instead of impose restrictions
Sharing is fundamental to teaching
Collaboration
Communities of open practice
Share ideas
Adapt
Localize
Translate
CC-BY OER Africa
Open education and OER in Africa
Plays a leading role in supporting higher education institutions across Africa in the development and use of OER to enhance teaching and learning, covering teacher
education, agriculture and health.
The African Virtual University released 73 of its courses as OER in 2006, and has since
developed the OER@AVU repository to increase the number of Africans using and adapting OER.
An initiative which brings together teachers and teacher educators across sub-Saharan Africa,
offering a range of OER to support school based teacher education and training.
Open education
What does this mean to you?
How can you get involved?
CC-BY Stephen Borengasser The Noun Project
Embrace open!
https://creativecommons.org/choose/
Use open licences so anyone can draw on your work for educational purposes
Use OER
Personally or in your classroom
And if you adapt it, improve it, localize it, share it back so others can benefit!
Strengthen the movement
Take part in a MOOC
www.mooc-list.com
● A beginner's guide to irrational behaviour (Coursera)● Exploratory data analysis (Udacity)● Exploring Beethoven's piano sonatas (Coursera)● The future of fashion (Marist College)● The science of gastronomy (Coursera)
Strengthen the movement
Get involved in Citizen Science
CommunityCommunity
Technology
Technology Ope
nnes
s
Ope
nnes
s
Community - Volunteers
Workshops
Community - Volunteers
Online proofreading
Online translation
Our volunteer community adds great value both contextually and practically
– more eyes going over our content means fewer errors slip through
Community - Volunteers
Community - Recognition
Challenges of OER?
Technology
Awareness
Sustainability
Open business models
12 March● Creative Common Version 4.0 for Educators and Education● How to use Open Resources in the Classroom● How can you get an OER degree? ● Inspiring Educators with Open Educational Ideas
13 March● Teachers Teaching Teachers – Exploring Open in K-12 Education● Exploring the Battle for Open
14 March● OER & MOOCs: What's the fuss? (UCT)
