open education movement

11:04 AM    

open education movement,Open educational resources

Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes. Although some people consider the use of an open file format to be an essential characteristic of OER, this is not a universally acknowledged requirement.
The development and promotion of open educational resources is often motivated by a desire to curb the commodificationof knowledge[1] and provide an alternate or enhanced educational paradigm.[2]

Defining the scope and nature of open educational resources


The idea of open educational resources (OER) has numerous working definitions.[3]The term was firstly coined at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on Open Courseware and designates “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. Open licensing is built within the existing framework of intellectual property rights as defined by relevant international conventions and respects the authorship of the work”. Often cited is the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation term which defines OER as: "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".[4] The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines OER as: "digitised materials offered freely and openly for educators, students, and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning, and research. OER includes learning content, software tools to develop, use, and distribute content, and implementation resources such as open licences".[5] (This is the definition cited by Wikipedia's sister project, Wikiversity.)[6]By way of comparison, the Commonwealth of Learning "has adopted the widest definition of Open Educational Resources (OER) as ‘materials offered freely and openly to use and adapt for teaching, learning, development and research’".[7] TheWikiEducator project suggests that OER refers "to educational resources (lesson plans, quizzes, syllabi, instructional modules, simulations, etc.) that are freely available for use, reuse, adaptation, and sharing'.[8][9]
The above definitions expose some of the tensions that exist with OER:
  • Nature of the resource: Several of the definitions above limit the definition of OER to digital resources, while others consider that any educational resource can be included in the definition.
  • Source of the resource: While some of the definitions require a resource to be produced with an explicit educational aim in mind, others broaden this to include any resource which may potentially be used for learning
  • Level of openness: Most definitions require that a resource be placed in the public domain. Others require for use to be granted merely for educational purposes, or exclude commercial uses.
At the same time, these definitions also share some universal commonalities, namely they all:
  • cover both use and reuse, repurposing, and modification of the resources;
  • include free use for educational purposes by teachers and learners
  • encompass all types of digital media.[10]
Given the diversity of users, creators and sponsors of open educational resources, it is not surprising to find a variety of use cases and requirements. For this reason, it may be as helpful to consider the differences between descriptions of open educational resources as it is to consider the descriptions themselves. One of several tensions in reaching a consensus description of OER (as found in the above definitions) is whether there should be explicit emphasis placed on specifictechnologies. For example, a video can be openly licensed and freely used without being a streaming video. A book can be openly licensed and freely used without being an electronic document. This technologically driven tension is deeply bound up with the discourse of open-source licensing. For more, see Licensing and Types of OER later in this article.
There is also a tension between entities which find value in quantifying usage of OER and those which see such metrics as themselves being irrelevant to free and open resources. Those requiring metrics associated with OER are often those with economic investment in the technologies needed to access or provide electronic OER, those with economic interests potentially threatened by OER,[11] or those requiring justification for the costs of implementing and maintaining the infrastructure or access to the freely available OER. While a semantic distinction can be made delineating the technologies used to access and host learning content from the content itself, these technologies are generally accepted as part of the collective of open educational resources.[12]
Since OER are intended to be available for a variety of educational purposes, most organizations using OER neither award degrees nor provide academic or administrative support to students seeking college credits towards a diploma from a degree granting accredited institution.[13][14] In open education, there is an emerging effort by some accredited institutions to offer free certifications, or achievement badges, to document and acknowledge the accomplishments of participants.

Read More

Chronicle of the annual congress of European Schoolnet # Eminent2014

6:50 AM  , , , ,  

The annual congress of European Schoolnet (EUN) , EMINENT ( Experts Meeting in Education Networking ), held in Zurich this month, has had as its central theme this year "assessment of key competencies: paradigm shifts". In addition to reviewing policies and innovation projects in European education, the proposal has been to focus the conference on exploring the notion of evaluation and current affairs on this, as outlined in the Communication of the European Commission on " Opening Up Education " , which stresses the need to "explore and try, in cooperation with stakeholders and Member States, the frames of digital skills and self-assessment tools for students, faculty and organizations".

Participants at the conference have been:

collect updated on innovative and educational policy issues assessment information.
make their contributions to the discussions and shaping the future work program of European Schoolnet.
connect with peers and other stakeholders in each sector and field.
The policy of innovation and experimentation have always been at the heart of the work of EUN. In EMINENT 2014, have dedicated part of the program to be presented to the ministries of education, industry partners and other stakeholders in education, the latest results of the projects of innovation and experimentation that promote, as iTEC , inGenious , Creative Classrooms Lab , eSkills jobs for 2014 , Living Lab Schools   and eSafety label . The session was informative posters on projects on Future Classroom Lab , Creative Classroom Lab , Evaluation of Science Fairs, Go-Lab , LangOER and KeyCoNet .

The conference hashtag on Twitter was # Eminent2014. A summary of tweets generated with that tag is in: https://storify.com/conectatic/eminent2014

[ View the story "# eminent2014. Expert Meeting in Education Networking" on Storify ]
Summary of presentations program

Opening session
Giovanni Biondi (Chairman of European Schoolnet Steering Committee) opened alluding to the educational revolution underway Congress, the challenges posed by the new paradigm of key skills and the necessary integration of digital media, involving new forms of assessment. It takes a new teacher for the new school model, but it also requires specifying the powers of the new teacher.

Monika Knill (Head Department of Education of Canton Thurgau) gave institutional welcome from the hosts and stressed the importance of these meetings to address these challenges.

Barry O'Sullivan (Senior Advisor, British Council) made ​​the keynote address. He talked about the necessary changes in systems and assessment practices. He reviewed the history of educational assessment and commented that we evaluated in a similar way as it was a century ago. Society has changed and we must adapt the evaluation systems. The technology supports innovation, but not just because we use technology innovation.

Mesa "Trends and challenges in evaluation"
Roger Blamire (Senior Advisor, European Schoolnet) opened the reflection on what is evaluation, types, purposes and new trends related to competency assessment.

Janet Looney (Director, European Institute for Education and Social Policy / EIESP) gave an overview of the main theories and methods of assessment, either summative (tests), training (referenced criteria, feedback), ipsative (portfolios, tools monitoring of student progress.) Each evaluation method collects various types of information in different ways and times.

Morten Søby (Head of Department, Norwegian Centre for ICT in education, Ministry of Education and Research) discussed the challenges of evaluating new media. He described the evaluation plan digital competition in Norway, according to its own framework. He offered collaborative research group on learning analytics.

Mesa "Learning Analytics and education"
Peter Karlberg (Skolverket, Sweden, Chair of the Policy Innovation Committee) and Patricia Wastiau (Principal Advisor for Studies, EUN) made ​​a summary of the discussion groups digital competition and innovation policies, with the latest trends identified on analytical technologies learning data. It is important to determine what data you wish to collect and how we use them better educational intervention purposes are.

4. Parallel Workshops

A. Learning with mobile devices, evaluation and inclusion: contributions of the network of special educational needs (Sennett) and Classrooms Creative Lab (CCL). Speakers: Roger Blamire (EUN), Jan de Craemer (Flemish Ministry of Education), Leo Højsholt-Poulsen (Danish National Agency for IT and Learning), Patrizia and Silvia Lotti Panzavolta (INDIRE, Italy).

The tablets are becoming more popular in schools. They present unique opportunities and challenges in the evaluation as the inclusion of 15% of students with special needs in Europe. The objective of the workshop was to broaden the debate on changing paradigms of assessment to include students with special needs, based on information from two EUN projects pay special attention to the use of tablets: Sennet and CCL. Case studies were presented video of students with special educational needs who use tablets in regular classes in six countries involved and the work of CCL project with its focus on collaboration and evaluation, which this year will shed light on the opportunities particular tablets that may be provided. Sennet other results on digital content and teacher training is also provided; is also debate about future plans and generalizability.

B. Scientix: education policy recommendations in STEM projects, experiences and results. Speakers: Agueda Gras Velazquez and Gina Mihai (EUN).

The Scientix workshop focused on results and lessons learned from different European STEM projects. During the first part of the workshop, participants had the opportunity to get to Scientix and other STEM projects, highlighting the results and best practices. The second part of the workshop consisted of an open debate, in which participants could share experiences and best practices acquired for their participation in STEM projects and the impact they had in their centers and educational practice. It has also been reflected on a series of recommendations for the projects and their results and how they can help teachers and school administrators.

C. Bridging the digital skills gap: eSkills and digital work. Speakers: Charmaine Kerr and Tommaso Dallavecchia (EUN).

Despite stagnating economic growth and high unemployment, demand for digital work stations in Europe is growing continuously. Studies estimate that in 2015 around 500,000 vacancies in digital positions will not be covered due to the lack of suitable candidates. And this figure can reach almost one million in 2020. "e-Skills for Jobs 2014" is a mainstream Europe-wide campaign promoted by the European Commission and the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs. The campaign consists of hundreds of national and European events, meetings with social partners and political and business leaders, media and social media marketing ... It is that young people, families and educators are aware of the relationship between having and maintaining digital skills and access to jobs. The workshop discussed the digital competence of teachers is one of the most important generalizations in society attention to these shortcomings keys.

D. Promotion of key skills in school: Virtual Guide to learning in entrepreneurship. Speaker: Sofia Aslanidou (EUN)

The materials of the Virtual Guide is a practical and useful tool for teachers in primary, secondary and vocational schools that wish to integrate entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship in the methods of teaching and learning processes that are configured in the classroom. In addition to tools, the guide provides examples of leadership and best practices from different schools in several countries, an overview of policy and strategic documents and two self-assessment tools for teachers and schools. Besides presenting the material of the guide, there is debate about the most appropriate policies and relevant practice in integrating entrepreneurship training in education. The "The Entrepreneurial School" project is co-funded by the 'Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) "of the European Union.

Tables policy experimentation in Europe.
Patricia Wastiau (EUN) presented the outlines of projects and policies experimentation European Schoolnet. The ultimate goal is the mainstreaming of good practices that have been tested, for which, the sharing and dissemination are key elements in the processes developed.

Anja Balanskat (EUN) presented the first results of Project Classrooms Creative Lab , which has allowed to experiment with new methods and devices (Spain does not participate).

Karin Steinmann (Amgen Teach) presented by the pharmaceutical company Amgen educational program .

Jan De Craemer (Coordinator of ICT in Education and Media Literacy Policy, Flemish Ministry of Education & Training) presented the Draft eSafety label, http://www.esafetylabel.eu/ , which provides tools for assessing the safety of infrastructure, policies and practices with digital media in schools and create a personalized action plan.

Closing session: "System-wide and whole school change, building on iTEC School and Living Lab projects".
Will Ellis (Project Manager, iTEC) and Dorothy Cassells (Project Manager, Living Lab School) presented the progress both iTEC Project http://itec.eun.org/ , offering a wealth of resources and examples of good practice in relation to the design of classroom of the future (it would be highly desirable for Spain to participate more actively in this project) and Living Lab Schools, http://lsl.eun.org/ , with examples of models of ICT integration projects educational center. All developments and examples of good practice are reviewed in reference websites of projects.

He closed the conference Marc Durando (Executive Director European Schoolnet) highlighting the importance of using cooperation platforms such as eTwinning, for experimentation and spread of innovation posed new technological challenges for educational processes and actors.
Conferences , Education , Europe , European Schoolnet , European Projects
Conferences , Education , Europe , European Schoolnet ,European Projects 

Tags: Conferences , Education , Europe , European Schoolnet , European Projects 

Read More

The latest advances in technology and education that were in SIMO 2014

6:44 AM  , , , ,  

The past 16, 17 and October 18, Madrid hosted the II edition SIMO Education . Organized by IFEMA in collaboration with Education 3.0 , the show has had a full program of activities which have combined exhibitions, workshops, panel discussions and presentations, as well as presenting pioneering experiences of using technology in the classroom. This scenario has been used to relate different educational experts and technology, publishing, teaching professionals world, ICT coordinators, principals, etc., who have spoken, among other issues, education of the future and the past developments in educational technology, multiple intelligences, learning projects and technological and social inclusion.
Professional Training, Events, SIMO, Technology, ICT,


Those attending SIMO 2014 Education have known firsthand innovative devices such as Google Glass , the wearable   Gear S or virtual reality goggles Gear VR of Samsung ; also educational robotics systems and innovative design bq which connects the project with 3D printing. 3D printers have occupied a prominent place at the fair, and that allowed visitors to closely observe the printing process sample parts and their educational opportunities. The sample of the different tactile tablet devices, whiteboards or smart TVs and various virtual environments with interactive tools aimed at improving the productivity of learning, companies like HP , Promethean , Telefónica Learning Services , Dell or Lenovo , among others , presented at the fairgrounds. As he points K12 Horizon Report , the benefits of intuitive technology are becoming increasingly significant, especially when used for the student to be an active protagonist of their learning.

Among the sessions held in the Auditorium, include interventions Marc Prensky , about the changes necessary to educate in the third millennium, Miguel Brechner , president of Ceibal Plan , María Perhaps , author of rEDUvolution, or Carlos Magro , who encouraged attendees to promote educational change in the current school incorporating new technologies, among other educational experts .

Teachers have a space reserved at SIMO Education 2014 where they shared their experiences on foot classroom, spoke about the importance of eLearning, the MOOC, programming with Scratch, augmented reality or gamification, among others. Similarly, children have had great representation at the fair, as it has been given the opportunity to participate in presentations and discuss things from their point of view.

From the INTEF have also presented the new formation of massive online courses ( MOOC ) of the Ministry of Education , the communication model EducaLab and program eTwinning in Spain. In addition, there has been space Procomún education and all the possibilities for teachers. To complete the program SIMO Education, have conducted workshops that have seen the Project Based Learning as a methodology that allows a better educational use of technological resources, content creation with eXeLearning , CLIL methodology (Integrated Learning Content and Language), examples of educational use of augmented reality or robotics projects with Scratch 2.0, among other thematic units.

Note that the fair has highlighted not only bring new technology trends attendees, confirming SIMO as a technology showcase of reference for the educational community, but also give them the opportunity to actively participate in workshops and demonstrations. You searched this way that teachers could experience firsthand resources and methodologies that promote the improvement of teaching practice. The show concluded with the presentation of awards SIMO , which has been awarded innovation and recognition of the work of professionals who favor the development of ICT solutions in education. Thus, for the second consecutive year, SIMO Education, in collaboration with the magazine Education 3.0 , it has become the Hall of technological reference for education.

Professional Training, Events, SIMO, Technology, ICT, 

Read More

EDUCATION SIMO 2014

6:40 AM  , , , ,  

From Thursday 16 October to Saturday 18 is held in Madrid SIMO EDUCATION 2014 . Under the theme "Teaching in a Digital World", is aimed at education professionals. It offers a wide and interesting program with lectures, workshops, seminars, roundtables and experiences of using technology in the classroom.

Professional Training , Digital Competition , Teacher Training , Teaching resources , ICT

Among the various conferences especially oriented to compulsory education, SIMO Education program will feature speeches by renowned author Marc Prensky , who will speak on education of the future and how to convert the digital natives protagonists of their learning, and Miguel Brechner , president of Ceibal Plan, a program that has allowed providing technology to schools in Uruguay. He also will learn more about multiple intelligences and emotional psychologist and writer Begoña Ibarrola , or the theories presented María Perhaps in his book "rEDUvolution".

In the Hall of Communications teachers tell their classroom experience from the development of different initiatives, such as project work in a rural school, class or Flipped Classroom backwards, the use of video games, assessment practices, or projects Collaborative, among other topics.

In addition, the Board of Practical Workshops topics augmented reality tools and apps will be treated to 'flip the class', creating digital identity, or how to leverage digital 'artifacts'. Mobile Learning in Room will be announced experiences and educational workshops on -apps mobile devices will be developed, the revolution of mobile learning, videos, music, QR codes, etc. And in the Hall of Audiovisual Language, focusing on communications, there will be workshops on the advantages of film, radio, podcasts in class and learn about Stop Motion, among others.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education will present some of the projects we are working at the Institute of Educational Technology and Teacher Education: PROCOMUN , space for easy access to the repository of educational digital resources open ( REA) of the Ministry and the Autonomous Communities. The latest news portal eTwinning and presentation of the latest eXelearning , open authoring tool to help teachers to create and publish web content code. EducaLab, its contents and social spaces, and the experimental plan MOOC for teacher training.

Some of these presentations will be accompanied by workshops in which participants will learn the possibilities offered tools and spaces of the Ministry to education professionals.

The National Institute of Educational Technology and Teacher Education (INTEF) of the Ministry of Education, issued to teachers attending activities SIMO Education 2014 certificate for 8 hours of training, according to the Order EDU / 2886/2011, of 20 October, establishing the call, recognition, certification and registration of the activities of teacher training is regulated.

 Professional Training , Digital Competition ,Teacher Training , Teaching resources , ICT

Read More

Support for undertaking projects to improve learning

6:34 AM  , , , , ,  

From the 4th to October 18, 2014, clusters composed of centers or educational units supported by public funds of at least two different autonomous communities or cities may apply for support to develop and implement projects to improve learning. With this aid is intended to encourage the implementation of organizational and methodological changes that increase the number of students completing compulsory education and continue further studies.
Professional Training , aids , teaching skills , Calls , improved learning , projects

Are at least three strategic lines around which schools should articulate their projects:


  • the application of methodologies that promote the acquisition and comprehensive skills development,
  • personalized attention to student diversity and
  • updating and development of digital competence of the members of the education community.
In your application, will also play a key role coordinating centers with those from students or those which continue their training and performance improvement through direct observation of the organizational and teaching practice of other colleagues profession.

They may be eligible for such aid centers or educational units that impart the following lessons: Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Special Education, Secondary Education, Vocational Training, Adult Education and Special Education System.

To facilitate contact between centers of different communities and autonomous cities, to form groups, has created a professional community in the commons area. To do this you must become a member of the community center PROMECE .

Find all the information on these aids in the resolution published in the BOE and you can register your application pool in the electronic office of the Ministry of Education. Inquiries may be directed to intef.promece@mecd.es .

Also you may find useful the Guidelines of the Call and instructions to fill an application at the Electronic Office.

Professional Training, aids, teaching skills, Calls, improved learning, projects, 

Read More

Connectivity schools

8:35 AM  , , , ,  

Teachers and program designs based on the use of digital educational resources with increasing intensity and frequency activities. In most cases access to these resources is done in school and the entrance to the network, for the students to access content occurs simultaneously. Chances are, at that moment, in the center is conducting a similar activity for another class group and therefore, is competing for the use of a valuable shared resource: bandwidth Internet access.

Connectivity is defined as the ability to connect or make connections. This ability, in the context at hand, ie Internet access of schools, is conditioned by several factors. Within the working group on connectivity Plan for Digital Culture at the School , we are dealing with analyzing and finding the best solutions or, at least, the most viable to help schools and education authorities to optimize the use of this precious.

ADSL , connectivity , fiber optic , digital culture Plan , WiMAX


To advance the search for solutions, we have dissected the problem into three areas or components of connectivity: the communications backbone with which the autonomous region or country has the capillarity of broadband networks throughout the extent of the territory and finally, the distribution of bandwidth within schools. This article will deal only in summary form some of the contributions that have been made in the space of the capillary, leaving for another day aspects of other areas.

First, we have found through reports that have been sent by the autonomous communities, the most common connection of a school in Spain internet is via ADSL technology. We're talking about connections flow means 10 to 30 Mbs. While this technology in the home environment can still offer sufficient performance for most households in the case of access to schools it is weak. Its clear substitute is the connection to the fiber optic network, since both capacity obtained steadily as service quality is much higher.


There are already schools in those regions where they have the ability to hire their own connections, they are making the change of their ADSL lines for fiber optic connections. The same happens when the autonomous communities have centralized procurement capacity of the lines through competitions: install fiber optic where coverage permits. For rural centers, where the fiber has not yet arrived, it is opting in some regions by use of broadband wireless technology (WiMAX). It is a solution to be considered because, as the technology develops, it will obtain a rate considerably higher than the real bandwidth of ADSL transfer in these areas.

Just as a decade witnessed the gradual migration of our Internet access from modems connected to the switched telephone network to broadband ADSL ago gave us, now and perhaps assist in a range of Minor-time consolidation Internet connections over fiber optics, as traders are in full deployment of their networks and the costs begin to be assumable. Fibre connections offer another advantage: you can extend the bandwidth at much higher current levels (50 to 100 Mbs on average) using the same infrastructure. With bandwidth always happens that the more you have, the more they consume and always seems insufficient: content providers are designing new services and applications to be voracious consumers of the same in the next decade.

Read More
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)