OER25 Reflections: Open Practice and AI 

Since 2010, I’ve only missed a handful of the #OER conferences. Over the years, I’ve chaired, curated, and presented, but this year was different. I had the privilege of delivering a keynote, and with it, the chance to speak up for the vocational college sector. It’s a world of practical solutions, limited resources, and a different focus on learning. Perhaps a world less threatened by AI - we do things, demonstrate skills and create things - we don't write essays about how we might do things. 

A Keynote in Good Company

It was great to share the keynote stage with my friend and colleague Helen Beetham. Helen’s keynote was a masterclass in critical thinking, measured, cautious, and deeply principled. Her stance on AI in education was almost a full rejection, grounded in ethical concerns, systemic critique, and a call to resist the current trajectory of big tech. Focusing on the darker undercurrents of AI: copyright violations, exploitative labour practices, environmental degradation, and surveillance. 

Her outrage over AI systems targeting Wikipedia contributors was particularly horrifying. She advocates a boycott of current AI models and recommends the AI Now Institute’s 2025 Landscape Report as a roadmap for resistance.

Helen’s own writing, especially her piece on “Marking the Government’s Homework,” is essential reading for anyone grappling with the ethics of AI in public services. Her Substack is loaded with thoughtful critique.

You can explore both of our jumping off points  here. 

I hope I offered a useful counterpoint: someone who’s on the AI train, but still mindful of the price of the ticket. I really think we still have a lot more to do around equity, sharing and empowering learners. 

My slides including additional support materials are included at end of this blog post. I really don't think AI will damage the human brain - but it was interesting that someone suggested that untested and unsound it could create a scandal on scale of  thalidomide. I remember being told that too much TV would rot my brain too. 

That is the level of contention around adoption of AI in education. At least there is discussion and policy movement here. My presentation reflects a lack of movement around Open Education policies in Scotland specifically but around the UK too.  

Missing My Sense Filter

I have to mention the absence of my Open Scotland co-founder, Lorna Campbell. Lorna is a fixture at these events and serves as my sense filter. She was unfortunately laid low this year, but her blog post, “Stepping Back and Speaking Truth to Power,” offers a moving reflection on the conference and her own journey. 

AI: The New Scary Kid on the Block

Artificial Intelligence is undeniably the new disruptive force in education. But there’s a real danger that open education and open practice will be bullied further into the margins. We  across the UK lag behind global peers in adopting coherent policies around open educational resources (OER) and open practice.

The challenge is that AI’s shiny allure and/or toxicity distracts us from the deficits in our current system. 

In higher education, the model was broken long ago. I had hoped that the arrival of the internet and search engines would revolutionise assessment and pedagogy. Instead, we’re still clinging to outdated frameworks while fearing that AI might “eat our content.”

Here is a summary of other sessions I got along to

One of the most inspiring initiatives I encountered was the Learning with AI PressBook project, where students create resources to help peers and faculty navigate AI tools. It’s a brilliant example of co-creation and learner-led innovation.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands continues to lead the way in open education. The NPULS platform encourages content sharing across tertiary institutions, a model that Scottish agencies like the SFC and QAA Scotland are only beginning to consider. We’re still stuck at shared services, never mind shared learning content.

The Open Textbook Library workshop was another highlight. Years ago, we worked to ingest open textbooks into our college library catalogue, and it’s heartening to see that momentum continue. The emerging Community of Practice for the UK and Ireland is a promising space for collaboration.

A standout session from Catherine Cronin, Louise Drumm, and Helen Beetham explored alternatives to AI through their “Generating AI Alternatives” workshop. It is a thoughtful and provocative way to spark debate around AI and OER. As is the  Scottish Tertiary Education statement on the use of generative artificial intelligence

David Callaghan's illustration summed up nicely some of audiences fears around AI 

Kate Molloy and Claire Thompson ran a super session on Adapt/Resist and Go Rogue Out on the edge demoed https://www.napkin.ai/ and other tools to help us reimagine the future. 

A wonderful over view of EDM122: Digital Literacies and Open Practice an open course. For teachers to reflect on their practice and become open practitioners https://blogs.city.ac.uk/dilop/sample-page/  

Amazing and a very practical workshop from Tim Fransen looking at how much energy and what the processes are that Stable Diffusion uses to generate an image output and tips for teachers and students on how to use these tools efficiently.

To quote Tim ' the workshop invites educators to move beyond binary narratives of ‘AI as threat’ or ‘AI as saviour’ and toward a more nuanced, informed, and open educational approach to understanding and engaging with these technologies responsibly' 

Really gave an accessible and reflective entry point into the inner workings of generative AI systems and how it works to create images not just text. I can see graphics , gaming and even computer lecturers interested in this deep dive.  Also great use of https://mmm.page/ a useful tool for OER creation. 

Reminded again of all the great work that Global OER Graduate Network does https://go-gn.net/

Attended two thought provoking sessions from Dominik Luks - one around how AI is supporting minority languages around the world and one seriously debunking some of the AI myths around its use of energy and water.  He even quickly used AI to create a more flexible programme App for #oer25 on the fly. 

An amazing Ukrainian librarian Dr Tetiana Kolesnykova spoke from the Scientific Library and the network supporting the University libraries of Ukraine with OER.  The University library has been bombed flat but learning carries on. Truly humbling. If you have a moment send Tetiana a message of support. Slava Ukraine !

Gratitude and Grounding

As ever, there were too many great sessions, great chats  and too little time. Hats off to co-chairs Sheila MacNeil and Louise Drumm and the entire organising committee for curating such a rich programme.  Well done too to ALT for continuing to keep the fires of open education burning in the UK. This community of change makers remains one of the most inspiring in UK around innovation in learning and teaching.  

Someone called me a “legend” on social media, caused much hilarity at home, but for now, I’m just grateful to have shared space, ideas, and optimism with so many passionate advocates for openness.

Looking Ahead

I’ll post my slides here , and I hope others will share theirs too. The conversations we started at OER25 need to continue, especially as AI reshapes the landscape of education. We must ensure that open practice doesn’t get pushed into the shadows. Instead, let’s use this moment to reimagine what openness can mean in an AI-driven world. I am looking forward to pushing the discussion on later in September and at OERGlobal Camp in November.

There are some other great blogs from #oer25 that capture much more than I can here. Love to all old friends and new.

We do really need to take back the commons we are missing better use of social media all round. To change things and have a common front we need better solidarity. 

It is the start of session. How will your institution lead out an open educational initiative this year ? and how will you support and encourage teaching staff to become open practitioners ?   

https://catherinecronin.net/conferences/oer25-speaking-truth-to-power/

https://howsheilaseesit.net/oer/oer25-our-silence-will-not-save-us/

Just Once for Scotland and busy week

It was great to have an opportunity to talk to peers across the public sector in Scotland about Open Scotland to the Just Once for Scotland forum.

Though we have communicated with all the main educational agencies over the years and corresponded directly at cabinet level. It was interesting to hear an almost complete lack of awareness of UNESCO's mandate around Open Educational Resources.  

Feedback on session was immediate. Collaboration and sharing and approaches like this are just what is needed particularly at a time of limited resource.  I'd argue that adoption of the UNESCO principles are sensible in any event and so long over due. I hope I've made some impressions this time. 

Anyway I attach slides from session - borrowing heavily on 10th anniversary session of Open Scotland ( It is now the 12th anniversary) delivered to local authorities and agencies across Scotland. This is an interesting and useful forum and worth signing up for. 

For a country that makes big claims on Education as a public good. We are still too introspective and generally in the very slow lane when it comes to changes like this. 

I'll reflect on that when I talk at #oer25 in London next month.

This one of the sessions or activities I was involved in last week. 

•  Chaired a great quarterly review of IWasGonnae charity making great progress and getting super plaudits. Well done to Stuart and team - for making Chair job easy.
• Finalised speakers and arrangements for Association of Learning Technology gathering at Stirling University on 16th of June.
• Had first chairs meeting for ALT UK conference that is coming to Glasgow in October 2025 
• Had final meeting too of organising committee for #oer25 looking forward to seeing old friends and new in London at the end of the month. 
• Attended RSA gathering at Glasgow Art Club - planning event for FRSA members for Glasgow 350 anniversary in October   

#oer23 #oer2023 #OpenScot Open Scotland Reflections on Pre-Conference Workshop and in Conference Plenary

To mark 10 years of the Open Scotland initiative we held two events as part of the OER23 Conference to bring together members of the education community in Scotland and some of the international delegates to reflect on how the open education landscape in Scotland has evolved over the last decade against the backdrop of global crisis and uncertainty (Campbell and Wilson 2021).

We held a pre-conference workshop and an in-conference plenary.

As ever grateful to ALT and the University of the Highlands and Islands for this opportunity. The OER Conference took place in Scotland for the first time since 2016. A main theme of the conference was.

“Open Education in Scotland #OpenScot – celebrating 10 years of the Scottish Open Education Declaration."

I'm grateful as ever to Lorna M. Campbell my co-founder of Open Scotland and the many supporters we have found across the international and Scottish learning community. It's now been some weeks following the conference allowing me some reflection time (as well as time to do busy and full-on day job) We both juggle workplace commitments while championing open educational practice.

It’s ten years since we set off on what we thought would be a short journey to get Scottish Education to embrace Open Education and open practice. Please dig into the commentary on our slides. It's been more of an uphill journey than we ever anticipated.

It's taken us and the Open Scotland Declaration all around Europe, but it has not had the impact we need in Scottish Education in the round.

Thanks to Jim Groom reclaim hosting for Polaroid.

The workshop and plenary went well but at #OER23 we were talking to the converts. It is really apparent that other countries have embraced the UNESCO declaration and are moving ahead of Scotland at a rate of knots. 

The Scottish system seems - and to use a good Scottish word "thrawn" Everyone we've reached out to sees the Open Scotland Declaration as an achievable aim but equally College Principals, agency policy makers all think that it is someone else's responsibility to drive change across the system. 

Have a look at the output of the workshop and the plenary below. The will is there but the policy leavers and policy makers remain tantalisingly out of reach. 

The padlet is still open but as it has now been shared on the open web input is now subject to approval - but please chip in your ideas. 

The padlet - highlights what might be. The output from the Padlet will become a manifesto for change from #OpenScot.

As a footnote I asked ChaptGPT about Open Scotland. The text it created is below it shows we've been making all the right waves- how else could ChatGPT pick up themes like this. 

But Open Scotland is not yet a Scottish Government initiative - it shows how ChatGPT could create an alternative reality - it created a fantasy. 

We've still to make adoption of UNESCO declaration on Open Education a reality in Scotland.

I hope we don't have to wait another 10 years. 

Once again thanks to the community around the #oer conferences - you give us the strength, love and enthusiasm to keep pushing at the open door.  My last post I hope reflected all the great things happening around the world. 

"The Scottish Government has been a strong supporter of Open Education and Open Educational Resources (OER) in Scotland. In 2013, the Scottish Government launched the Open Scotland initiative to raise awareness of the benefits of Open Education and promote the development and use of OER in Scotland.

As part of this initiative, the Scottish Government has provided funding to support the development of OER and the implementation of Open Education practices in Scottish schools, colleges, and universities. For example, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has provided funding to support the creation of OER through its Open Educational Resources Programme, and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has developed a framework for the use of OER in the development of qualifications. Education Scotland and HMIE support a number of Open Education initiatives across the school and College system. 

In addition, the Scottish Government has endorsed the principles of the UNESCO Paris OER Declaration, which calls on governments and institutions around the world to support the development and use of OER. This endorsement demonstrates the Scottish Government's commitment to promoting the use of OER as a means of improving access to education and promoting social inclusion.

Overall, the Scottish Government's support for Open Education and OER has helped to raise awareness of the benefits of open education and has supported the development and implementation of Open Education practices in Scotland."

Would be nice if it was remotely true ... 

#OER23 #OER2023 UHI Inverness

 

History of #OER in Scotland Ushare

ChatGPT-  knows more about U-Share than many Scottish teachers or College lecturers 

Ushare is an online platform provided by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) that allows teachers and lecturers in Scotland to share resources and materials related to teaching and learning. The platform is part of the SQA's wider commitment to promoting and supporting the use of open educational resources (OER) in Scotland's education system.

Through Ushare, teachers and lecturers can upload and share a wide range of resources, including lesson plans, worksheets, presentations, and multimedia materials. The platform also includes a range of tools to help teachers and lecturers find and discover resources that are relevant to their teaching needs, including search functions and browsing by subject or level.

One of the key benefits of Ushare is that it allows teachers and lecturers to access resources created by their colleagues across Scotland, helping to promote collaboration and sharing of good practice. The platform is also designed to be easy to use, with a simple interface and straightforward upload and sharing functions.

Overall, Ushare is an important resource for teachers and lecturers in Scotland, providing a way to access and share a wealth of teaching and learning materials. The platform is free to use and open to all teachers and lecturers working in Scotland's education system.

Reflections on 2021 #oerxdomains , #phygital , #Fujitsu , #openscot , #Bett22

The end of another strange year - this year without the lockdown beard. 

It's all been a great team effort. This year topped and tailed by two College Development Network Awards both reflecting well on the work of the Learning and Teaching Academy. 

Amazing really as the team have battled the frustrations and heartbreaks  of  CoVid like everyone else.

    

Highlights 

• Continued staff support for webinar training and development .
• Chairing #OER21 
• Launching College Fujitsu Hub.
• Sourcing speakers , open badges and chairing sessions at  #Phygital conference
• Staff and Student input to business case that led to procurement of Canvas.
• On going cross College work on transition to Canvas. 
• Trying to figure out what hybrid learning and teaching actually means.
• On going sanity checks from colleagues in College  and  from ALT and many others across the sector ( you know who you are) and patience, kindness, consideration and teamwork.

On personal level - I am still frustrated by the Scottish systems ongoing disregard of Unesco's guidance on Open Educational Resources - startling really in year of COP26. I will keep doing my bit at institutional level and through Open Scotland. 

We once again missed our French fix on the Ile De Re and had none of our usual foreign jaunts and as CoVid restrictions are back in place in Scotland there will be no #Bett22 for me this year. 

We did manage two great escapes to Isle of Raasay and to Isle of Lewis. We also juggled cases of household CoVid - we still are, currently spending Christmas and New Year in splendid isolation.  

I know 2022 will bring more challenges.  I think the main message in these strange and disrupted times is not to be distracted, keep your eye on the horizon and show compassion for all those around you. 

And just noticed this marks 21 years of blogging ;-). Open reflection and blogging will eventually catch on. 

Happy New Year to one and all when it comes !  Slainte ! 

We, they, did it again!, and you can too! #oerxdomains21 #Openscot #FEUKChat

 

We do talk a lot of jargon and acronyms in education. 

Please have a read at this.  I hope it makes sense. I live in a bubble of enthusiasts who want to make the world a better and fairer place. You can still be an idealist and be very grounded. When I say that with my Glasgow accent, believe me, you will be convinced. 

Great too that WonkeHE picked up on the conference.

Depressingly , open education is not a feature of the policies of any of the political parties in Scotland in next week's national elections. That's a great pity and shows that UNESCO policy and many years of lobbying still has to find traction in our venerable and perhaps too self righteous Scottish education system.  

When you put your head in the clouds - you come down with a bump.

My head was buzzing with ideas , links , contacts and as ever the global #OER community re-energised and reinvigorated me. Open should really be the way we do education and the final key note picking out open education as being the route to justice and empowerment was a great note to end on. If you are a policy maker perhaps find time to tune into that one session. If you work in any bit of the education system you will find some useful gems in the sessions all recorded and openly available.  Here is direct link to Rajiv's session.

It was great that this years #oer21 was delivered in partnership with the domains conference and became #OERxDomains21 . It meant that we had sessions on policy, practice and the platforms that can be used to deliver open voices and open education. I've a long list of open and cloud based software that I now need to have another look at. 

Special thanks to  Maren Deepwell, Emma-Jane Brazier, Fiona Jones, and now Christina Vines and the ALT posse for keeping the open education fire burning. 

Waving to my Conference co-chairs Jim Groom and Lauren Hanks , Lou Mycroft, and Louise Drumm who were all so great to collaborate with. 

In a UK context, more Colleges than ever before engaged with an open education conference. That is an important landmark. A special shout out too to Nicolas Garcia, Student President at City of Glasgow College , who was not in the least daunted and made a superb contribution to the opening plenary of an international education conference. I still hope we can bring this conference to City of Glasgow College in the future. 

The technology was simply inspiring and set a very high benchmark around how on-line conferences should be run. I am sure there will be a blog post that I will link to here . The short hand is that the team from Reclaim Hosting wove together Streamyard, YouTube and Discord to create a magical experience - you can capture some of it in the recorded proceedings .

Yes, I am a people person and I miss meeting everyone face to face - I don't miss conference travel and cold chicken buffets though, but I do miss conference bonhomie and meeting old friends and new. 

So down to earth  with a bump - back to planning where City of Glasgow College goes next for a virtual learning environment in August 21 and still explaining why positioning content in the VLE or even on the College intranet is not open education - in fact the discussions are actually pre that , it's explaining that encouraging staff to publish anything outside of the College in an accessible way is actually a very good thing for them and the College and most of all for learners , and an email arrived on Friday asking for support on staff and student digital literacies at a national level, an old chestnut , groundhog day.. the open education journey is a long and challenging one. 

For the ALT Scottish Community it's a more modest pow wow next Friday , where we will share two stars and a wish. 

I tweeted my way through the conference while chairing some brilliant sessions, I've curated a selection here. I can't name everyone here but respect and love to all who presented and participated in #oerxdomains21 and I am certain we will meet up further down the trail. It was a pleasure to be involved. 

I even bought the t-shirt 

Think it is fitting I open and close this post with the great art work of Bryan Mathers it was a critical element in pulling proceedings together. 

OERXDomains21 Conference 21-22 April Tune In #openscot #OERXDomains21

Registration is open and conference numbers are growing hour by hour.  Just a reminder to book your place   and a reminder too especially to those in the further education community not used to paying conference fees that

1. This is great value to get a grip on what you should be doing to open up your own learning materials at institutional and as an individual.
2. If you struggle to get institutional sponsorship - there are still scholarship places available. 

Yesterday I got a great run through of the open technology that will be used to stream the conference. The conference will be run through Streamyard through to a YouTube Live broadcast for each session with dedicated social spaces provided by Discord 

And fabulous graphics by Bryan Mathers https://remixer.visualthinkery.com/

Looking forward to seeing your press pass !

Here's my streamyard test piece 

And find out more about Streamyard here 

Innovation in Adversity : Discover #OERxDomains21 Online – 21-22 April 2021

thanks to Gabriel Vivas for image under Creative Commons Licence 

I am delighted to be a co-chair of #OERxDomains21 with an inspirational set of co-chairs and an amazing conference committee.

There is still time to get a proposal in and to sign up for the conference.

Theme 1: Openness, care, and joy in the times of pandemic;
Theme 2: Open Education responses to surveillance technologies and data ownership in education;
Theme 3: Open in Action: open teaching, educational practices and resources, how you might be using Domains and other tools;
Theme 4: Shifts in agency and creativity as empowerment of learners and educators;
Theme 5: Open Source Tools: infrastructure, cloud environments, targeted teaching tools.

We've come along way since #OER10 , I've blogged some of my own #OER journey.

My world may be similar to your world - wherever your geographic location.

Teaching staff while juggling their own domestic commitments are finding ways to develop engaging learning experiences . We can see a lot of thought and design going into Moodle courses and higher levels of interactivity through quizzes , forums, and other tools. Staff have been embedding Wakelets , H5P ,Google Sites and in the UK the Blended Learning Consortium content alongside links to open digital materials in the College's library to give students a rich learning experience.

We can see too great use of Zoom , Click-View and YouTube to provide short episodes of learning embedded in courses - while staff are doing crash courses in Microsoft teams used on the admin side of the organisation.

On assessment, staff are developing flexible solutions and making good use of dropbox and Turnitin where these are required - but mainly looking around at more open portfolio approaches to gathering evidence. 

From learners feedback is positive. They understand the challenges we are all facing . They appreciate the richer content , collaborative activities and zoom sessions. They enjoy using social media to support their formal learning and classes now use a variety of tools to stay in touch. They are coping with remote learning along with their own challenges. 

Like any other year the students are looking for more feedback. Some innovative staff are doing this through voice and video recordings as well as through more traditional feedback mechanisms.

One of the biggest challenges is a very human one - how do we get everyone to work with their camera switched on.

On all fronts we are trying to get staff to share and collaborate beyond the institution - in some ways the challenges are the same as 2010 but we have more solutions and staff are more willing to explore these and finally work in the open !

 #OERxDomains21 is a great space to explore what open education could do for you as a teacher and how it can empower your learners. If you are an institutional leader it will steer you to the systems and policy you need to put in place to open up your learning. 

I hope you come along and meet this global community of innovators. 

If ever the world needed more openness it is now !  Tune in 

#OERxDomains #OER21 Two messages for Two Audiences

Please Read on - for those who know about Open education this is the place to be and get your proposals in !

Online Conference – 21-22 April 2021 #OERxDomains #OER21

Organised by the Association for Learning Technology and in partnership with Reclaim Hosting’s Domains Conference, this special edition of the much loved event is the 12th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy.

The Call for Proposals is now open https://oer21.oerconf.org/call-for-proposals/ 




For those who don't really understand what this is all about.

Forty years ago I left a school which gave me a good but narrow education - but one of the best around at the time. I've not stopped learning. I've been a school teacher , a hack , a community education tutor and College lecturer and held my share of senior posts. I am still a Glaswegian with an incurable social justice complex. I do believe that education can make the world a better place. Too often in my teaching career, the book I chose for the class or the resources available for learning were determined by the finances that the institution had. The learners got great learning - but through the narrow letter box view of the resources that we had available for them.

I don't get get that Scotland has not understood yet what open education practice and policies could do for learners and teachers.

We are currently in the midst of this terrible pandemic and we still haven't figured out that we don't compete on how well we re-package knowledge. Education staff around the world are tying themselves in knots trying to improve their notes , power points , instructional videos, that is not a bad thing. But it would be much more effective for learners and learning if that was a much more collaborative activity. It is more than having a set of course materials that are shared around and within your subject team. (though I do know that in many institutions that remains a triumph in itself). While putting a set of learning materials on to your institutional virtual learning environment may be your act of sharing ,you could be a bit more ambitious for learners everywhere. I don't believe learning materials replace a good teacher - but sharing helps teachers and learners. 

It is not a dark secret the answer is making and sharing your learning materials with an appropriate open educational licence. If you , your institutional leadership team , local authority education team , national education policy makers haven't spotted that this is actually practice encouraged globally by UNESCO , mandated for public education  I am not sure where you have been since 2012. 

In Scotland a good place to start might be considering The Open Scotland Declaration. and why not come along and meet a well informed set of  international set of speakers. 

Sign up and come along to the Online Conference – 21-22 April 2021 #OERxDomains #OER21 

Full disclosure I am co-chair of  the ALT Scottish Sig and a Co-Chair of this conference - but none of this is fake news ;-) 

#UNESCO , #Openscot Email to My Daughter.

 I got some great news yesterday and I tried to explain what it means  to my daughter who is in 5th year in a Scottish Secondary school. I thought worth sharing with a wider audience. I know some organisations that regulate teachers and lecturers like the General Teaching Council for Scotland and the Higher Education Academy, as well as those that fund education developments across the public sector will now have to take notice. It's great news for learners across the world. 

How will we now embrace this in Scotland ?

In my immediate domain one for Colleges Scotland and College Regional Boards to sit up and take notice - this needs to be embedded in practice. We've already started at City of Glasgow College. 

MJ , 

You might remember I disappeared to Malta, Slovenia and Poland among other places over the last few years. I wasn't having a holiday.
This is what I was helping to draft. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/in/rest/annotationSVC/Attachment/attach_import_b1276dcd-237e-488f-8b37-3c8847cb2e31 

I was invited as the co founder of Open Scotland along with Lorna Campbell of Edinburgh University - as what they call domain experts. We were standing on the shoulders of giants from the Association of Learning Technology and early work done by Jisc and many others across the education sector in Scotland and the rest of the U.K. , especially those involved in the #oer , open education resource , series of conferences. 

At the heart of it is a really simple principle.

One that Scottish Education should find easy to embrace.

'That publicly funded learning and teaching materials should be open and shareable.' 

One day, this will make teaching and learning much easier for everyone.
For you, it’s an example of a real UN resolution and now you know someone that helped shape one. It’s just as complex as the resolutions you debate in the schools model UN.

Perhaps you can show it to your teachers and maybe they will start working to share learning materials with colleagues in other schools , colleges and universities.

It was approved to go forward yesterday ;-)

#OER20 #Openscot Tell Your Story , Find out how to become an Open Practitioner , Meet an international community.

I know there is a growing amount of open education activity beyond University and College initiatives in Scotland,  for my  international readership this is the  first and the best UK and international conference on Open Education and associated practices . 

Get a paper in and/or get the date in your diary.

We are delighted to announce that the OER20 Call for Proposals in now open. The deadline for submissions is 1 December 2019.

The 11th annual OER conference for Open Education research, practice and policy will be co-chaired by Mia Zamora, Daniel Villar-Onrubia and Jonathan Shaw. Read more about the conference co-chairs.

The conference will be held from 1-2 April 2020, in London, and is themed around Care In Openness. Covering issues of privilege, equity, precarity, power relations and public interest, OER20 will put the spotlight on both the value and limitations of care in open education.

We are particularly interested in receiving proposals from people who have an interest in the following conference key themes: 

Theme 1: Openness in the age of surveillance
Theme 2: Sustainable open education communities
Theme 3: Open education for civic engagement and democracy
Theme 4: Criticality and care in open education
Theme 5: Caring pedagogies and designing for diverse communities of inclusion.

And also Wildcard submissions : open education practice, research or policy session proposals that address the overarching conference theme.

To submit your proposal, please visit our OE20 Conference website where you will find full guidance, and our submission form. The deadline for submissions is 1 December 2019.

#oer19 Musings

UNESCO is drafting an Open Educational Resources #OER Recommendation. Work from Ljubljana #openscot #Unesco

UNESCO is drafting an Open Educational Resources (OER) Recommendation.

When I have a moment with my #openscot hat on I'm taking this back around the Scottish agencies who still don't get open education .
I hope we get some more engagement in this - for sake of learners and Scottish Education we need a proper cross sectoral policy position on this . Good to see ALT pulling together a UK Response  This is a useful vehicle for folks who want to make an individual or an institutional response.

This is an official UNESCO instrument that will both advise national governments on how to support open education in their countries and report on those efforts.

The draft Recommendation text has been prepared by a group of open education experts from UNESCO, researchers and practitioners from all world regions. The OER Recommendation builds on the Ljubljana OER Action Plan, a product of the 2nd World OER Congress.

The online consultation process is now open. This is an invitation to contribute to the draft. In addition to providing your own comments, please share this opportunity through your networks.

The text is available in English and French:

https://www.oercongress.org/unesco-oer-recommendation

https://www.oercongress.org/fr/recommandation-sur-les-rel


The deadline for submission of contributions is: 1 June, 2018.
You can comment directly here 

#OER18: Open to All - some quick reflections

Some musings with some hacking of Storify to pull this together - I think that is in the tradition of #OER Conferences - and it will probably be my final 'storify' as another useful tool disappears from the free web. ( I've jumped ship and moved all posts across to Wakelet )

Yes, not hacked very well , I'll tidy up later ;-)




It is always a pleasure to get involved in the organisation and running of an #OER series conference . The open education community across the UK and internationally, may come at Open Education from lots of different perspectives but the shared interest in opening up learning in an inclusive way binds us all together and means too that everyone is open to sharing - The Watershed in Bristol was a great venue . Thanks to ALT and our conference chairs David Kernohan and Viv Rolfe for leading an excellent conference.

Here are some edited highlights with some links at the end This is not a shout out to all the great key notes, chairs and presenters and all the great folks that gather for these conferences you all know who you are - you all make this gathering great !

If you don't know about this gathering have a poke around #oer18 hashtag on twitter or have a dig around this year's programme

Graphics and key messages were just right !







@MarenDeepwell kicks off #oer18 #oerconf and reminds us about #iwill campaign @A_L_T have been really active in leading the battle for open pic.twitter.com/kLFfvlt4bp





@LornaMCambell set conference theme superbly and some great questions from floor

@OERConf #oer18 good question from @pbacsich institutions are good at business cases but less good at framing initiatives that are for the civic good . I’d challenge College Boards and University Courts on this - Still think driver needs to come from Govt policy though #openscot

I must have a root around UCL publications and see what fits with further education . Potentially some useful home grown open publications.




John Casey City of Glasgow College - led great session and looking forward to rolling out handbook across College and beyond.





From many sessions I picked up some great models of open practice in action and I am going to point my own team back to explore some of these

In no particular order I was impressed by work with web.hypothes.is/

How the University of British Columbia uses an institutional wiki wiki.ubc.ca/

The self hosted Splots from Reclaim Hosting http://cogdogblog.com/2017/09/instant-splot/ and some more information on this approach at institutional leve

I've blogged about Reclaim Hosting before - but tool to clone wordpress blog template - is really useful and or will be when more centres realise what a great way blogging is to empower learners https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/ns-cloner-site-copier/

This is a great institutional project to get learners to reflect on their digital identities - and their digital profiles around the metaphor of their digital tattoo digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/

If you want to reflect on what being an open practitioner is and a lot more a good place to start is having a look at Dr Catherine Cronin's presentation https://www.slideshare.net/cicronin/continually-becoming-open-learners-and-open-educators

I flagged up some innovations to my former employers as I watched themes that have been covered in internal papers for years as I watched an open system for standards and outcomes design being presented and a great example of Wales using Wikipedia in formal assessments in the school sector ( waving to SQA higher education board member who thought Wikipedia was an aberration , it was a long time ago ) I can't do them justice here but I chaired an excellent series of lightening talks - hope the images are just enough to get you to go and find out more







I did it again and will probably forget my user name and password - but I have another Reclaim Hosting Wordpress Blog . I really must do something with it . I've stuck by Blogger since 2001,  Gosh if I switched I could have quickly moved this across from Storify ! The clever folk at Reclaim hosting built a system that moves Storify Stories across to a Reclaim hosting Wordpress Blog with the click of a button.

It was great to see the GCU copyright resources released into the wild https://edshare.gcu.ac.uk/2706/ And being given many timely reminders #OpenEducation needs driven by government policies #openScot





Thanks to our splendid hosts and I look forward to following many of you on twitter over the year ahead








And looking forward to next year already !





and now here is Storify to Wakelet version

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UNESCO Experience V What it is like back in a Scottish College #oer18

Presentation from OER Policy Forum Warsaw June  2017

Those of you that know me,  know I've wandered around both the practical doing things landscape in  many sectors of education and the more reflective shaping and writing policy landscape too, this mainly around the vocational and assessment areas.

The former in Scotland at least can be easier.

If there is not a big sign saying don't do this, I think that gives anyone permission to innovate and experiment. It is a view that I wish more folks working in education and learning would take.  But, too many wait at the institutional or national policy bus stop before setting off in any direction. I think some are worried about setting off in the wrong direction but depressingly many more are still waiting in some queue to seek permission to innovate.

I'll return to that metaphor.

Policy making sounds good, you can influence policy and you may actually be able to change things. The  first part can be fun in the planning,  but often the planning is killed off at the drafting stage as both the other policy makers and the constituencies they serve can be very cautious, conservative with a small c .  What about the unintended consequences? better to do nothing !, is too often the mantra.

'Sorry, we are too busy;  creating frameworks for educational content procurement , dealing with chronic underfunding , the impact of Brexit on education , figuring out what narrowing the attainment gap actually means, creating a new funding formula for a system with ever diminishing resources, creating new models for educational leadership  etc etc...very often simply repeatedly attempting to change the system with the very same toolkit that has failed to change the system in the past.

When you propose !

' Imagine we mandated that schools , colleges , universities and indeed anyone creating learning materials in the public sector, were obliged to share their materials with a sensible open licence. It could be useful for learners and it is  not a unique notion, it is what UNESCO is trying to embed in global education'

You don't get much notice from policy makers,  even direct approaches to successive education ministers don't make much headway, beyond polite and supportive acknowledgements,  though thankfully Open Scotland continues to attract both a grassroots following and a great deal of interest internationally - thanks in a very large part to my co-founder Lorna Campbell and support from ALT.

When you stress UNESCO say that schools , colleges , universities and indeed anyone creating learning materials in the public should be obliged to share these and there is an expectation that there is an identifiable national policy position. You get a bit more notice.  But policy for schools , colleges and universities is actually quite dispersed below the ministerial brief and no one has a brief to look at open education in the round, they are all in school , college , higher education and vocational silos. It is even actually quite hard to get anyone to respond to UNESCO officially from within the administration on Open Education, weeks pass as documents move from intray to intray.

Open Education is a new area and no-one in government really knows what it means in the UK and this is simply mirrored within the Scottish administration.

That is why #OER18 and the community around it is so important.

Now I am back in a College and following my mantra - I am just going to push things on.

At the moment we have all the usual learning tech tools ; a VLE, a plagiarism checker , a couple of e-portfolio systems , nationally ill defined competencies for staff and learners around digital capacities and lots of conflicting priorities.

Open educational resources are just part of open educational practice and perhaps a much bigger open and closed societal change,  there isn't a stop sign , so I will just push on . The vehicle I am going to use is called Citylearning4.0 I know lots of my network across the UK and Internationally will help us on our journey . I'll leverage the #oer community , ALT , JISC, the Wikimedia Foundation   and many other networks as we make the changes that will help learners across Glasgow and beyond.

And through Open Scotland we'll keep lobbying to get the national policy bus to head in a new open direction and most importantly, we will get everyone on board.

If you are a newbee to #OER18 - start learning to be an open practitioner and carry the message back to your institution and to your national policy makers.

Open Scotland Declaration - Still Garnering International Recognition #OER

It is great that this work coordinated and authored by my co-conspirator and co-founder of Open Scotland , Lorna Campbell of Edinburgh University,  continues to attract global recognition and attention.

I've been responding today,  to the Polish Government. I know too  that the work is currently forming the basis of policies in Morocco and beyond in the middle east as well as being the basis for many other global policy initiatives.

But I had to re-iterate today that the Open Scotland Declaration is a statement of intent to engage Scottish policy makers and institutions to support changes across  our system –but it is not,  as yet, reflected in any  government policy.

I know the Scottish Government is currently reviewing its own plans for the next five years - I hope that story changes soon.

Our progress best summarized here in Lorna's post 

In response to the enquiry around adopting Scotland's policy and giving some examples of open policy and practice in Scotland -  I responded 

1. http://declaration.openscot.net/  is the Open Scotland Declaration,  it is a statement of ambition and demonstrates an approach towards having national policy in place.
2. http://openscot.net/     Is the community blog from Open Scotland,  a grass roots organisation to promote greater openness. 
3. https://oepscotland.org/   Is an example of a national initiative led by the Open University in Scotland  to encourage more open practices, this was funded in part as a  response to Open Scotland.
4. http://open.ed.ac.uk  Is an institutional response to becoming more open from Edinburgh University and is in part as a direct response to Open Scotland. 

I know other work is underway at Glasgow Caledonian University and we are fortunate through ALT the Association of Learning Technology to have a strong network of innovators across Scotland and we can see the green shoots of open education appearing across the University and to some extent the Galleries , libraries and museums sector . It would be great to be able to say that the Government were endorsing this approach in Scotland and that schools , colleges , and the training sector were coming on board.

#oerforum #openscot Warsaw European Open Educational Policy Forum

Storify by Joe Wilson

Fri, Jun 09 2017 13:11:01

Edit

#OERForum #OpenScot Warsaw

An Overview of Two days of discussion about Open Educational Policy Across Europe

1. This is a short snapshot of the proceedings of the Open Educational Resources Policy Forum held in Warsaw 1st-2nd June 2017 supported and facilitated by Alec Tarkowski @atarkowski Centrium Cyfrowe Poland . I was invited to talk about Open Scotland openscot.net , the Open Scotland Declaration declaration.openscot.net and Open Educational Developments in Scotland, as co-founder of Open Scotland. I have to make special mention of my co-conspirator @lornaMCampbell who made sure we had a Scottish voice at these proceedings. I cannot do justice to all of the useful things I discovered over the two day sessions so here is just a sample . I will post up the presentations I delivered across two sessions in a separate post. This was an opportunity to hear about some great developments happening across Europe.
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   Lorna M. Campbell@LornaMCampbell

   @josiefraser *Waves* at everyone! So sorry I can't be there to join you all. #oerforum

   @joecar

   ·

   Thu, Jun 01 2017 11:59:59

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3. 

   Evening with the Policy Forum  http://goo.gl/2Cea7E  so many countries around one table! #oerforum pic.twitter.com/abSYEYzwhF

   Josie Fraser@josiefraser

   @joecar

   ·

   ·

   Wed, May 31 2017 19:44:01

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4. #oerforum getting underway looking forward to hearing lots of radical new ideas to feed back into #openscot pic.twitter.com/zoOVKnCATz

   Joe Wilson@joecar

   ·

   Thu, Jun 01 2017 10:56:18

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5. In terms of a nation on the move, the Netherlands was frequently cited as having the most progressive system. Progress is being led by the universities but is embedded in the school system too . This is the policy conundrum . Some Countries have some very ambitious policies - Slovenia , Romania, Georgia , Moldova and USA but less evidence that change is being taken up by the practitioners. In Germany , Poland , Norway , Italy , Spain and France systems at some level are already moving ahead with open educational resources and practices sometimes with fewer policy drivers.
6. In some countries open practice is more developed in the School or Vocational College sectors rather than in the University Sector. In many countries development is being led at grassroots level rather than being driven by a unified government policy - though increasingly governments across Europe are adopting the principles of the UNESCO Paris Declaration within their policies and practice. Some throw away lines showed educational systems that are enormously progressive . Estonia normalised creative commons licensing across education in 2010. That makes them seven years ahead of Scottish system already !
7. 

   #openforum #openscot go the Netherlands ! I think leading on policy across learning pic.twitter.com/cYac2RhrFQ

   Joe Wilson@joecar

   ·

   Thu, Jun 01 2017 11:31:12

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8. Slovenia is really leading charge to influence policy across Europe - but other countries are not far behind, as Education Ministries come to understand the benefits to the whole educational system through the adoption of open educational policies and practices.
9. 

   #OERforum #openscot hope some scottish policy wallahs see this - look how Slovenia moving ahead in this space pic.twitter.com/zGrcqkcUEu

   Joe Wilson@joecar

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   Thu, Jun 01 2017 14:38:45

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10. #oerforum @jatenas outlines open education policy examples: national initiatives in Greece, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands & Romania pic.twitter.com/a8g7MmiqB9https://t.co/a8g7MmiqB9pic.twitter.com/a8g7MmiqB9

    Josie Fraser@josiefraser

    ·

    Thu, Jun 01 2017 11:33:01

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11. We did keep returning to the fact that Open Educational Resources and policies in this space are really a subset of a much broader open movement. But that without some specific policy drivers here developments will not happen. In Spain it is already embedded in teacher training and the formal CPD for teachers.
12. 

    The open education policy landscape across Europe #oerforum #openscot pic.twitter.com/RYmQdwf29J

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    ·

    Thu, Jun 01 2017 11:19:35

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13. Norway are already 10 years down the road of having a sharing economy for school teachers . They have a set of impressive figures that show the materials that are co-created by learners and teachers in Norway are now used around the globe and have had a postive impact on achievement and retention in Norwegian Schools I have linked to a small sample for English teachers below . You can see scope of project and global partnerships here  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Digital_Learning_Arena …
14. Engelsk

    Norwegian Digital Learning Arena, Open Educational Resources

    

    ndla_no
15. They have also developed free tools for creating learning materials and mixing existing #OER Content . When I tweeted this out I discovered that a few UK Educational Technologists are using this already . The Moodle and Wordpress Plugins should make it a tool that many teachers and FE staff should be using.
16. H5P

    H5P empowers everyone to create, share and reuse interactive content - all you need is a web browser and a web site that supports H5P.

    

    h5p
17. These developments now rolling out globally to provide learning materials for the world.
18. Global Digital Learning

    Global Digital Library GDL

    

    name
19. There are some other useful developments on the way Get CC Certfied should be getting embedded in many professions . The European Digital Skills Framework has been refreshed to pick up open practitioner skills for teachers and learners. A study in Poland will show the impact on teachers and learners of having access to a libary of open text books . The Open Knowlege Foundation continues to map a range of initiatives and people engaged in open educational activity around the world. There are growing sets of resources in place to help teachers and administrators navigate through the world of open education - See USA Department of State Play Book to show teachers how to create accessible open learning materials.
20. Some governments are using the lever of the Open Government Partnership to bring in new policies around Open Educational Resources . While Sparc continues to support the open research agenda but is now also supporting open educational resource initiatives,
21. In breakout sessions and in the open forum we spent some time talking through the European Copyright Directives and the aim of getting proper fair usage policies in all European countries. It is worth following this campaign and the broader debate communia-association.org
22. Get CC Certified

    the open project for Creative Commons certification

    

    Get CC Certified
23. 

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    #oerforum hearing how this framework is being used across life long learning in Europe #openscot has #oer inside !  http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC101254/jrc101254_digcomp%202.0%20the%20digital%20competence%20framework%20for%20citizens.%20update%20phase%201.pdf …

    Fri, Jun 02 2017 11:07:42

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24. 

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    #oerforum hearing that there is a study on impact of open books on schools in Poland EU Funded useful evidence of impact of #oer #openscot

    Fri, Jun 02 2017 11:25:56

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25. 

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    Open Education Working Group reminded how useful this is #OERforum #openscot  https://education.okfn.org/ 

    Fri, Jun 02 2017 11:35:18

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26. 

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    #OERforum a nice playbook for #OER #openscot  https://eca.state.gov/files/bureau/open_licensing_playbook_final.pdf …

    Fri, Jun 02 2017 11:59:51

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27. 

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    Open Government and Open Education - SPARC worth a look #OERforum #openscot  https://sparcopen.org/our-work/opengoveducation/ …

    Fri, Jun 02 2017 12:37:53

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28. 

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    Open Government Partnership #OERforum wonder how embedded this is across the UK #openscot  https://www.opengovpartnership.org/ 

    Fri, Jun 02 2017 12:34:29

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29. In the French government presentation some things really jumped out at me . The first is that to date I have not really been aware of the French systems progress in and around open education . There is a rich set of open learning materials becoming available . Here is a sample a self testing language platform  http://certiflangues.univ-littoral.fr/ … and an ambitious plan to embed blockchain technology into national certification - so moving to digital certification for all. For France traditionally often seen as conservative and bureaucratic in Education circles - this is amazingly progressive. This based on work of the Learning Machine learningmachine.com/ and on bokk.io/en/home-2/
30. Our hosts Poland are in the midst of a very ambitious educational reform programme including a lot of teacher training initiatives around embedding open practices new.ore.edu.pl/ and pioneering work around having a national open text book programme  https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/poland-pioneering-worlds-first-national-open-textbook-program … and are building and sharing resources for global learning e-globalna.edu.pl/
31. PIX

    PIX est une plateforme en ligne d'évaluation et de certification des compétences numériques des citoyens francophones (élèves, étudiant•e•s, décrocheur•se•s, demandeur•se•s d'emploi, sénior•e•s).

    

    beta
32. 

    Accueil - sup-numerique.gouv.fr

    

    sup-numerique

    ·

    Mon, Jun 05 2017 13:26:20
33. About the Blockchain

    The blockchain is a decentralized global network of computers that records transactions between two parties in a permanent and verifiable way.

    

    Learning Machine
34. I am looking forward to seeing the full proceedings from two very valuable days of work with some very inspirational people from across the learning universe. I will share this post with the Open Scotland #openscot blog and community.
35. Images from last weeks #oerforum pic.twitter.com/5fXAxT5MNW

    Joe Wilson@joecar

    ·

    Fri, Jun 09 2017 13:09:59

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