Descripción detallada de la conferencia

From Derechos Digitales WIKI

Latam Commons 2008: Creative Commons, Open Education, and the Public Domain.

Santiago, Chile.

Nov 20-21

Co-hosted by ccLearn, the education division of Creative Commons, and Derechos Digitales.

Latam Commons 2008 is expected to include representatives of different organizations and projects in open education from throughout the Latin American region. The meeting will be a participatory gathering in which all attendees will be able to discuss a range of issues relevant to open education in Latin America, with the goal of developing a broad understanding of major education issues in the region and a focused vision of how open education and widely available educational resources can address these needs. As the workshop will be dynamic and discussion-based, we are inviting anyone interested in these issues to attend and contribute.

This meeting is open to anyone, but space is limited! Please visit the registration page. On Nov 20, the focus will be on open education. On Nov 21, the focus will be on the public domain. The meetings will be connected conceptually, and we expect most participants in the open education meeting to stay for the public domain seminar. You can sign up for one or both of the meeting days at the registration site. Registration is free, and some meals will be provided for all registered participants. Visit other pages of the meeting wiki for additional information about travel, lodging, and the meeting agenda. This meeting is intended to catalyze conversations and projects that will continue after the meeting is over, and to build relationships among people and organizations so that we can bring our collective energies and resources to bear on common challenges for open education. Future meetings are already planned, and we look forward to seeing the progress on this global effort that grows out of Latam Commons 2008.

Additional information

What is open education?

• Open Education (OE) is teaching and learning that uses openly licensed educational materials to provide an innovative, contextually relevant, accessible, and learner-centered educational experience. It refers to:
  • the use of freely licensed educational resources (also called open educational resources, or OER) and technologies, and
  • the collaborative methodologies that these resources enable.
• OER are generally understood to be materials that are licensed in a way that permits sharing, remixing, and re-purposing according to the needs of educators and learners. This flexibility encourages active learner participation and promotes skills such as critical and creative thinking, communication, and collaboration that will often determine students' success throughout life.

Why hold a meeting on open education in Latin America?

• One of the strengths of OE is that it doesn't rely on a limited number of companies or organizations for content production and distribution. Instead, OE facilitates content creation and sharing by people and organizations from all parts of the world, and allows this content to reach learners everywhere. OER are easy to create -- many OER are made using widely available technology such as text documents, PDFs, images, slides, or movie software. They are easy to distribute -- in many cases all that is needed is an internet connection to allow people around the world to use the newly-created OER. And they are easy to access -- no payments, authentications, or access restrictions online, and the ability to download, use, and share materials even in places without internet. In other words, OER make it easy to create, find, access, and use educational materials that are suited to the local context, whatever that context may be.
• With that said, ccLearn recognizes that needs of each region are different – for example, some areas have more technological infrastructure than others, are more economically developed, or have different cultural or linguistic needs. For all of these reasons, it is a priority for ccLearn to include perspectives from many different areas when determining its activities and strategic direction. There are already many interesting OE projects in different parts of Latin America, and the potential impact of OER in the region is great. However, there has been little opportunity to coordinate activities, share information, or develop new projects collaboratively. This meeting is one of several regional meetings that ccLearn will co-host with local partners over the next few years, and hopefully regularly thereafter. We are hopeful that we can help to facilitate regional initiatives and can also help to broaden the impact of such activities beyond the region.

What unique issues are likely to exist in Latin America?

• It is hard to answer this question, hence the need for a conference! We already know that open access to learning materials is only the first step. By enabling learners to actively participate in the process of finding, evaluating, and generating knowledge, open education promotes skills such as critical and creative thinking, communication, and collaboration that are crucial for success in life. Teaching and developing these types of skills require deeper knowledge of local conditions and contexts, and the participants at Latam Commons 2008 will help to define what those conditions might be.

What other reasons are there for regionally focused meetings on open education?

• Open education supports equal educational opportunity, regardless of region, income, or level of technology. While some OER are designed to be used with networked or other technologies, advanced technology isn't necessary -- the open nature of these resources means that they can be easily modified and adapted to different learning circumstances. There is a need for greater clarity about which tools and practices are crucial, and also who is in a position to develop them.
• OE supports local development of language- and culture-appropriate educational materials. Because OER can be easily modified, translated, and shared, they encourage local production of educational resources and encourage education that is suited to both individual and societal values. We also need to establish networks for translation and adaptation so that OER can be more easily shared and re-purposed for the benefit of everyone.
• The OE movement is a global movement. ccLearn strongly believes in the importance of active participation from all parts of the world, both developed and developing. Open Education is not charity. It is not about resource transfer, or technical assistance. Rather, it empowers people from all parts of the world to actively participate in a global dialog on how to improve education. These meetings make such dialog possible.
• ccLearn's goal is to promote open education for everyone, everywhere. Our projects are designed to address the most important legal, technological, and social barriers to open education, and the results benefit the entire open education community. We want to be of service to the global OER community, and we need information about to best achieve that goal.

Are there any relevant projects that ccLearn is already working on?

• In keeping with the philosophy of lifting all boats, ccLearn has already undertaken several projects that we expect to have significant impact in areas of OE where there is the most need, including the open education search and the OER Community site. We are also beginning activities in several parts of the world that will help to shape our agenda over the next 2 years. Our current projects include:
  • Universal Education Search. ccLearn is in the process of building a scalable, extensible, federated search for all educational resources on the web.
  • OER Community Site. This site will serve as a community networking location and a clearinghouse of information and resources for people who want to learn more about open education. In addition, we are designing a licensing portal that will guide educators through licensing decisions, issues of open education, and the identification and utilization of OER.
  • ODEPO (Open Database of Educational Projects and Organizations) Project. The ODEPO project compiles data on existing education projects in an interactive format that allows others to find, sort, and add projects of interest.

We will be sharing information about these projects at Latam Commons 2008. We will also encourage other people and projects in attendance to share their work. We are excited to see and hear about all of the excellent work going on in the region. Come join us!

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