It seems like I am constantly writing about Open Educational Resources (OER) these days. But they are so important for the future of education, especially in developing countries, that I think they warrant lots of publicity.
Remember, OER are learning and teaching materials that are offered freely to anyone under licenses that allow to use, modify and distribute the items. But that's not all. Through the world-wide movement of OER, magnified with user-generated content and underlying Web 2.0 technologies, the advantages and opportunities are numerous for teachers, authors, eLearning practitioners, developers and content providers, researchers and decision-makers, and last but not least: the learners.
Different models to develop, use and make OER content available have evolved. Examples vary from leading educational institutions that have made their content available for users who otherwise would be deprived of it, to communities of educators who collaboratively create content and share it. Moreover, new effective technical architectures are now in place to enable better discovery of Open Educational Resources across learning repositories on the international level, which allows users to access larger and more varied collections. Also, easy-to-use ways to acquire re-mix and mash-up user-generated content are around, examples of which are seen in the educational context too.
Against this background, the eLearning Papers invites contributions in the area of Open Educational Resources.
With this issue, we want to support the establishment of a new kind of ecology of Technology Enhanced Learning that focuses on Open Educational Resources as a chance to make a real difference in education and lifelong learning. We want to give a possibility to share OER-related practices and experiences that support people in acquiring the competences, knowledge and skills they need as individuals in the political, economic, social and cultural life of a modern society.
The papers should focus on one or more of the following themes:
- Lessons learned and best practices of OER projects, tools and initiatives
- New findings, facts and figures of OER development and usage
- Discussion and position papers on how the OER movement can be supported
- Pedagogical innovations and OER, does OER make any difference?
- Transferability and usability of OER
- OER as a way to create and support sustainable development
- Business models around OER
Please consult the eLearning Papers website for writer guidelines:
http://www.elearningpapers.eu/index.php?page=collab_guide
The deadline for article submissions is June 30, 2008
Authors will be notified by July 27
The provisional data of publishing is September 30, 2008.
For further information and to submit your article, please contact: editorial@elearningeuropa.info
Invited Editors:
Sandra Schaffert
Riina Vuorikari
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