Nordlet Open Education Summit 2011:

Towards a Nordic Baltic Free Sharing Area

#NORDLET

Prof. Dr. Jan M. Pawlowski

Stockholm, 23.11.2011

How to make an “OER difference”

in the Nordic - Baltic countries?

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Contents

Why it does not work…Barriers of OER use

Case Study Results: How does it work in the real life in Finland?

Recommdation Systems in the Future: Building your networks

Open Educational Resources…

Resources: Learning materials, courses, simulations

Tools: LMS, collaboration tools, …

Practices and experiences!

7

Sample contentsOpenScout: Open Content for Management– http://www.openscout.net

Mace Project (technology base)– http://www.mace-project.eu

ITunes University– http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/

OpenLearn (Open University UK)– http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/

Globe Network (Federation)– http://www.globe-info.org/

Ariadne Foundation (Europe)– http://www.ariadne-eu.org/

The starting pointsWaste amount of content is available in repositories, a large number of experts and users are active in social networksGreat potentials for collaboration, sharing and social innovationOER is a big topic for the E-Learning communityCurrent trends– From contents to context– From repositories to practices– From (technology-supported) mass sharing to human-

oriented, trusted networks

The Nordlet perspective– Nordic countries have a strong tradition for education as a

public good– Baltic countries have undergone rapid and dramatic

changesGreat starting point for a free sharing area…

Experiences from our Case Study: Sharing of materials made by

othersWhose Materials would you use?

0,00 %20,00 %40,00 %60,00 %80,00 %

100,00 %

Colleagues atthe same school

Colleagues fromthe same

geographicalarea

Colleagues fromelsewhere in my

country

Colleagues fromoutside my

country

Finnish Teachers

European Teachers

Conclusion: Finnish teachers are more willing to use materials made by others than European teachers

Sharing: Who would you give your materials to?

Who would you give your materials to?

0,00 %10,00 %20,00 %30,00 %40,00 %50,00 %60,00 %70,00 %80,00 %90,00 %

100,00 %

Colleaguesat the same

school

Colleaguesfrom thesame

geographicalarea

Colleaguesfrom

elsewhere inmy country

Colleaguesfrom outsidemy country

None of theabove

Finnish Teachers

European Teachers

Conclusion: Finnish teachers are less willing to give materials to others than European teachers

But…Overall, the willingness to share materials with other teachers is high

Willingness to share across the Nordic Baltic countries is high, the context seems positive

But: It still does not work…

So, why doesn’t it work in Education?

- Barriers– “not invented here”– “Education is

something special!”– “I have no time”

– Googling might not be enough

– Complex tools– Curriculum integration– Insecurities– …

+ Potentials & needs– Education budget– Focus on new stuff– Cooperation and

synergies– Skills in the use of ICT

and tools– Enormous resource

pools

Experiences from our Case Study: International concerns…

How to make it work…

Focus on good practices

Improved recommendations

Curriculum integration

Addressing cultural barriers

Providing simple tools and support mechanisms for adaptation

Integration of users’ requirements, barriers, needs and preferences

Using existing networks and professional contacts– NORDLET!

Challenges

Which are good practices?

What are the main barriers and success factors?

What can we recommend to the Nordic-Baltic community?

What is necessary to make the Free Sharing Area work?

The history of a 10 item declaration

Creating the Nordic Baltic OER Declaration

Goal– Developing a clear statement how to develop OER

in our region– Identifying the key challenges and solution– “How to achieve the Nordic Baltic Free Sharing

Area?”

Developing clear recommendations for different levels– Policy– Technology– Pedagogy– ….

Some initial input…Results from the conference wiki

Policy recommendation candidates:

Open Content should be considered in publically funded projects to improve participation

A Nordic Baltic steering group should be built to monitor and promote share and re-use across the Baltic and Nordic region

Inclusivity and community ownership is essential - be open to different ideas and interpretations.

Implementation recommendation candidates:

Build small but efficient sharing communities

Show Open Educational Practices - this will lead to more awareness and attention and show interested educators how to make use of OER.

Show clear integration steps for the curriculum, this is the main argument against OER

Ensure quality if you are a provider of Open Content repositories

Build strategies and guidelines in your organization how to incorporate OER into the daily operations

See OER as a natural extension of current practice, not as a new "project" dropped in to the middle of current work

Some initial input…Results of the Stockholm preparation workshop, Oct 2011

Build small but efficient sharing communities

Show Open Educational Practices - this will lead to more awareness and attention and show interested educators how to make use of OER.

Show clear integration steps for the curriculum, this is the main argument against OER

Ensure quality if you are a provider of Open Content repositories

Build strategies and guidelines in your organization how to incorporate OER into the daily operations..

See OER as a natural extension of current practice, not as a new "project" dropped in to the middle of current work

Some initial input…On Oct. 14th, a small preparation workshop was held in Stockholm with a small group of experts on OER - the result was an unexpectedly huge list of recommendations, here listed in an unreflected format...what is missing still? Still to be sorted...

Accreditation authorities: It is mandatory or a criteria for good evaluation of institutions or research centres to use/publish OER resources

Open Standards should be used in order to give real access to OER You should be able to use, reuse, mix and remix a resource

The author rights should be “addressed”, i.e., the author should be convinced to give his resources away

Technical Identification of resources gives a key to sharing

Career part of authorship should be separated from the commercial side

Make it much easier to attribute resources - people are in a hurry

The institution has to support the authors in their authoring and publication process, ensuring that the attribution and carrier aspects of producing resources are fulfilled

Make it more “attractive” to reference OER authors - make it cool to build on your peers

Unpack the possibilities of accreditation institutions to promote OER practices --teachers should have OER --include work of other colleagues --use international resources

Some initial input…Providing OER to the community should be valued in assessment systems as community & research contributions

Investigate if the tools work contrary to OER, e.g., using the digital whiteboards to push things to your own “teaching web” – Turn the teachers right to his/her own resources as a means to open up access to resources

Give easy control of what is available or not

Explore the differences in HE and Schools

Evaluation of HE academics and K12 teachers is very different

Collaboration support built into the solutions we provide to our institutions

Ensure that authorship is not lost - traceability, tools...

Cushion the lazy people Incentive from above, collaborative work is needed more than ever

Fight “what is free is not good” - or at least prove that they are wrong

Learn from the Open Source community and history - the Darwinistic solution to promote OER. The dinosaurs will die (well, then we wait for the next meteorite)

Self-flagellate the OER apostles (when the reach a critical mass) 

Test the assumptions

Globish Observe the differences (levels, domains, etc.) -- some resources travel better then others

Some initial input…Language matters - technology (translators) may come to help Make language technology used by the intelligence community free!!!!

Bridge up with other communities, e.g., the library sector, the open data community…

The Ministries must provide risk funds, to allow schools and universities to take risks supporting OER (allow you to guarantee that you have all rights to a work)

Wrong doers should get absolution Explore the danger of being sued if you do anything wrong explore the barriers from the individual’s ➔perspective OER as a mandatory element of teacher professional practice, teachers education

digital (OER) literacy is key to progress

Ontology work in the ED domain should be encouraged.

Google should be the only solution for finding resources --work with Google --work besides Google --prepare if Google defaults

Some initial input…Liaise with the forest department - to unhide the trees from the forest

Build OER practices into the socio-technical practices of LET

Is OER the top level term (what we want to achieve)? Open access more important than OER?

Buy a hen. Make an egg. Get a chicken. Open and Accessible Resources Remember that OER are used within LET - and the context rules

What is Open? -- don't forget to have a nice discussion on this question Identify the barriers the end users experience, e.g., language, technology, licence, competence, etc.

Easily share stuff with defined groups of people. So, we need some Enterprise stuff in place to support efficient sharing.

Standards’ contributions --Groups (G+?) --Sharing interface

Recognise the licence etc

Aspects of classification

Open within boundaries – is it still OER?

Quality - community based quality mechanisms

Quality assurance close to the end users

Conference Outline

17:00 - 17:20 Welcome by Jan Pawlowski, coordinator of NORDLET and University of Jyväskylä

17:20 - 18:30 My favourite -- NORDLET partners and participants present their favourite learning resource, repository or technology– Where did we come from and where are we heading?

Moderator: Peter Karlberg, Skolverket, Sweden

Method:– Brief introduction of the presenters and guests: What is the

project you are presenting, what is the key experience you bring to the conference, what are your expectation?

Intended outcome– Idea what is going on in each country, what do each partner

stand for?

Conference Outline18:30 - 19:30 I will sleep on this one - My case for a Nordic Baltic OER

Declaration: Short presentations of the participants' input statements to prepare the ground for next day's meeting.

Input statements: – What are the main success factors, what are the main challenges

Intended outcome– Collection of inputs (success factors, recommendations)

Sort input regarding the questions:– Collaboration: How to organize successful Nordic Baltic collaborations in

Open Education, what are differences and barriers?– Pedagogies: Why does Open Education and sharing work better in the

Nordic-Baltic countries? How to embed OER in the curriculum and teaching activities?

– Technical aspects: How to make OER work on a technical level?– Internationalization: How to deal with cultural & language differences?– Legal and policy aspect: How to deal with IPR? How to get support on a

policy level?

OER informal discussion (19.30-20.15)– Each presenter to set up a small stand and explain what the project is about– People to walk around the stands

Conference OutlineTheme: Setting the Future Agenda for Open Educational Collaboration9:00 - 9:30 Wrap up of last nights recommendations and starting points

09:30 - 11:45 Key challenges for exchange of learning resources - Group discussions facilitated by Airina Volungeviciene, Lithuanian Distance and e-Learning Association

Method: Learning cafe - change tables after 30 mins, document story on the table– Set up tables (at least one for each focus area), document

discussions– Document and group challenges– After 30 minutes: rotate tables, explain to new group– For each important challenge, write a card / statement

(metaplan) 

Intended outcome– List of challenges regarding collaboration, pedagogy, technical,

internationalization/culture, legal / policy

Conference Outline11:45 - 13:00 10 statements that will change the OER agenda in the Nordic and Baltic countries, facilitation: Tore Hoel, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences

Method: Seperate tables (5 -6 persons)– Each (topic) table to come up with 5 ranked statements (30

mins)– Present ranking– Which 10 overall statements, which topic recommendations?

Intended outcome:– Initial list of 10 recommendations– Additional topic centered recommendation lists

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

Conference Outline14:00 - 15:00 Sense-making and negotiations - Faciliation: Erlend Øverby, Karde AS and Christian Dalsgaard, Aarhus University

Method: Again by small groups, presenting and merging in the end– What are the main steps to achieve the recommendations?– What is the intended future status?– Build a future scenario - how would the perfect nordic baltic OER

landscape be? – Which steps to achieve this?

Intended outcome– Future scenario– Step by step plan to achieve this

15:00 - 15:15 Refreshments

15:15 - 16:00 Committing to common goals: Do we agree on an OER Declaration and what do we do with it? Facilitation: Jan Pawlowski and Tore Hoel– Who will do what? How can the steps be achieved? Who should receive

the declaration– Final signing of the declaration

Contact us…

Prof. Dr. Jan M. Pawlowskijan.m.pawlowski@jyu.fi

GLIS on the web…

http://users.jyu.fi/~japawlow

NORDLET OpenScout

http://www.nordlet.org/ http://www.openscout.net