News Archives

Presentation at Mobile Learning Week 2018

Our Chair had a presentation at the Mobile Learning Week with the title “Landscaping global jobs and skills dynamics”. The Mobile Week is UNESCO’s flagship ICT in education conference and is being organized in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for ICT.

UNESCO Chairs presentations at 2nd World OER Congress

The UNESCO Chairs in OER together with Open Education Consortium and Creative Commons have been presenting their work at the 2nd World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress.

The congress was organized by UNESCO and the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport in close collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning, Creative Commons, the Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO and the UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for OER and Open Learning (Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia) with the generous support of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The Chairs presenting the role of the OER Community:

  • Ms Jane Agbu, National Open University of Nigeria
  • Mr Tel Amiel, Universidade Estaduale de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
  • Mr Daniel Burgos, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Spain
  • Ms Mary Lou Forward, Open Education Consortium, USA
  • Mr Cable Green, Creative Commons, USA
  • Mr Colin de la Higuera Université de Nantes, France
  • Mr Mitja Jermol, Jozef Stefan Institute. Slovenia
  • Mr Rory McGreal, Athabasca University, Canada
  • Mr Robert Schuwer, Fontys University. Netherlands
  • Mr Maria Soledad Ramirez Montoya, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, Mexico
  • Chair: Professor Fred Mulder, Emeritus UNESCO/ICDE Chair in OER at the Open University Netherlands

Launching “Open Education for a better world” international online mentoring programme

 

Launching "Open Education for a better world" international mentoring programme
Launching “Open Education for a better world” international mentoring programme

University of Nova Gorica and UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for OER and Open Learning are launching a new, free and exciting international online OPEN EDUCATION FOR A BETTER WORLD mentoring programme.

The first round will take place from January to July 2018. Candidates with concrete ideas for open e-learning courses aligned with SDG goals are invited to apply by 20 October 2017. Fifteen candidates will be chosen to be guided on-line towards the implementation of their course.

Design and implement an open e-learning course that will unlock potentials and bring benefits to many at no cost for participants. Applications from all over the world for courses in different languages are expected.

Call for nomination: UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Education

The Call has been launched for nominations for the 2017 edition of the UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize, and the theme for this edition of the Prize is the use of ICTs to increase access to quality education.

ICTs have the potential to accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities.” This comprehensive goal, taken forward through the Education 2030 Agenda, recognizes the necessity to focus on both access and learning. Quality education must ensure that all students acquire the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy as well as a range of cognitive, interpersonal and social skills, in order that they might be able to lead fulfilling lives, contribute fruitfully to their societies and cope with rapid change.

Funded by the Kingdom of Bahrain, the UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize was established in 2005 to recognize innovations in teaching and learning that leverage technology to improve outcomes. Since then, the increasingly powerful capacities and lower costs of ICTs have led to the rapid diffusion of digital devices and applications, as well as to freely accessible digital content, with direct impact on education, including in low-income countries.

The 2017 edition of the Prize will reward the organizations and individuals that are carrying out innovative practices to leverage ICTs so that they can significantly increase access to quality education and lifelong learning opportunities, including for out-of-school children and youth, internally displaced persons and refugees, persons with disabilities, illiterate populations, adults who cannot access relevant skills development or higher education opportunities, and other socio-economic disadvantaged groups. The winning project also should promote the values that underpin Education 2030 and the broader Sustainable Development Agenda.

Two prizewinners shall be designated by UNESCO’s Director-General on the basis of the recommendations of an international jury, and each will receive a monetary award (US $25,000) and a diploma. They will be announced during a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in early 2018. The Statutes and financial regulations of the Prize, approved by the 195th session of UNESCO’s Executive Board, are attached herewith for your ease of reference.

To prepare a nominated proposal, your Government may wish to consult with your country’s National Commission for UNESCO. The deadline for submission of all nomination files is 20 October 2017.

Visiting the German Commission for UNESCO

The UNESCO Chair in OER had a meeting with the German UNESCO National Commission on contributions to the official programme of the 2nd World OER Congress as well as the organisation of the Congress and especially running a parallel OER BarCamp.

Sucessful 1st Regional Consultation in Asia in lead up to 2nd World OER Congress

The UNESCO OER Chair together with the Government of Slovenia and the Slovenian UNESCO National Commission was present at the Asia Regional Consultation on Open Educational Resources (OER) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 1 and 2 December 2016. This is the first in the series of six in the lead up to 2nd World OER Congress.

THe Slovenian representatives presented  the invtation by the Slovenian Minister of Education, Science and Sport, dr. Maja Makovec Brenčič, to join us at the “2nd World Congress on Open Educational Resources (OER)” which will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 18 – 20 September 2017.

The presentations at the Asia Regional Consultation were recorded and wil be officially published on the world’s largest public educational platform VideoLectures.NET which is run by the UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Learning.

Presenation of OER technologies @ UNESCO HQ

The UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Learning (OER), was invited at UNESCO headquarter on 26 October 2016 at 10 am to make a presentation on “OER Techniques”. The presentation was aimed at UNESCO ED and CI colleagues working in or interested in this field.

The presentation to be threefold:

  • Presenting the OpeningupSlovenia collaboration model with the multiplier potential for an OpeningupMemberState model – placing the UNESCO National Commissions in a centrefold social innovation position for the OER/Open Education global agenda in connection with the SDGs, particularly the SDG 4
  • Presentation on a set of Data Science based applications that could tackle OER as a big data phenomena with the logic that OER are in their nature digital files. These could be applied also as a layer on top of other UNESCO themes and SDGs, concluding and
  • Capitalising on these approaches for the 2017 OER Congress as leverage mechanisms for reaching SDG 4 in the rapidly changing landscape of open education and OER on a global digital scale.

Commonwealth of Learning invitation to the First Meeting of the Task Team and the Steering Committee for the Regional Consultations for 2nd World OER Congress

Professor Asha Kanwar, President and CEO of COL , invited our Chair to the first meeting of the Task Team for the Regional Consultations/2nd World OER Congress 2017, during 9‐11, and the Steering Committee on 11th and 12th August 2016 at COL in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

The purpose of the meeting of the Task Team was to guide the Steering Committee in planning and implementing the Regional Consultations leading to the 2nd World OER Congress.

As a representative of Government of Slovenia that has a strong commitment to the cause of Open Educational Resources (OER), and we have hopefully enriched the working of the Task Team, the Steering Committee and shape the 2nd World OER Congress.

Publication event for “Making Sense of MOOCs: A Guide to Policy Makers in Developing Countries”

The Chair was present at the launch of a new UNESCO-COL publication, entitled “Making Sense of MOOCs: A Guide to Policy Makers in Developing Countries”. The event was co-chaired by COL’s President and CEO, Professor Asha Kanwar and UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education, Dr Qian Tang at The Organization’s Headquarters in Paris. The audience consisted of representatives of Permanent Delegations of Member States to UNESCO, high-level experts (China, France, India, Malaysia, The Netherlands) and UNESCO staff.

— download here —

 

2016 Annual Informal Meeting of the European Network of National Commissions for UNESCO

The UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Learning had a successful presentation at the Annual Informal Meeting of the European Network of National Commissions for UNESCO on 24th until 26th February 2016 in Krakow, Poland.

The Chairs team presented in the session “New challenges for education in Europe concerning the 2030 Agenda and SDGs: with special focus on media and information literacy (MIL), arts education, vocational education”.