Introduction to the Summit - what are the challenges for OER in the Bordic and Baltic countries? How can we achieve a Free Sharing Area`?

1. Nordlet Open Education
Summit 2011:
Towards a Nordic Baltic Free
Sharing Area
#NORDLET
Prof. Dr. Jan M. Pawlowski
Stockholm, 23.11.2011

2. How to make an
―OER difference‖
in the Nordic - Baltic countries?

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http://www.slideshare.net/jan.pawlowski

4. #NORDLET

5. 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

6. Open Educational Resources…
Resources: Learning materials, courses,
simulations
Tools: LMS, collaboration tools, …
Practices and experiences!

7. Sample contents
OpenScout: 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/
7

8. The starting points
Waste amount of content is available in repositories, a
large number of experts and users are active in social
networks
Great potentials for collaboration, sharing and social
innovation
OER is a big topic for the E-Learning community
Current 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
changes
Great starting point for a free sharing area…

9. Experiences from our Case Study:
Sharing of materials made by
others
Whose Materials would you use?
100,00 %
80,00 %
60,00 % Finnish Teachers
40,00 % European Teachers
20,00 %
0,00 %
Colleagues at Colleagues from Colleagues from Colleagues from
the same school the same elsewhere in my outside my
geographical country country
area
Conclusion: Finnish teachers are more willing to use
materials made by others than European teachers

10. Sharing: Who would you give your
materials to?
Who would you give your materials to?
100,00 %
90,00 %
80,00 %
70,00 %
60,00 % Finnish Teachers
50,00 %
40,00 % European Teachers
30,00 %
20,00 %
10,00 %
0,00 %
Colleagues Colleagues Colleagues Colleagues None of the
at the same from the from from outside above
school same elsewhere in my country
geographical my country
area
Conclusion: Finnish teachers are less willing to give
materials to others than European teachers

11. 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…

12. So, why doesn’t it work in
Education?
- Barriers
– ―not invented here‖
+ Potentials & needs
– Education budget
– ―Education is – Focus on new stuff
something special!‖
– ―I have no time‖ – Cooperation and
synergies
– Googling might not be – Skills in the use of ICT
enough and tools
– Complex tools – Enormous resource
– Curriculum integration pools
– Insecurities
–…

13. Experiences from our Case Study:
International concerns…

14. 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!

15. 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?

16. The history of a 10 item
declaration

17. 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
– ….

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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?

25. Conference Outline
18:30 - 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

26. Conference Outline
Theme: Setting the Future Agenda for Open Educational
Collaboration
9:00 - 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

27. Conference Outline
11:45 - 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

28. Conference Outline
14:00 - 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

29. Contact us…
Prof. Dr. Jan M. Pawlowski
jan.m.pawlowski@jyu.fi
GLIS on the web…
http://users.jyu.fi/~japawlow
NORDLET OpenScout
http://www.nordlet.org/ http://www.openscout.net