UNESCO Chairs in OER International Meeting

Professor Rory McGreal from Athabasca University– Canada’s Open University based in Alberta, Canada held the first UNESCO Chairs in OER international meeting in conjuction with the Open Education Global 2015 conference in Banff, Alberta. The meeting included the four already existing ‘older’ Chairs and the newly appointed Chairs. The meeting revolved around a few topics such as presenting the UNESCO OER Programme for 2014-2017, the UNESCO Chairs in OER common Plan of Action, OER Projects from the other invitees with emphasis  on strengthening collaboration among the UNESCO Chairs in OER. An important discussion was held on creating  more synergy between the UNESCO OER Programme operated by Paris and the Action Lines run by the UNESCO Chairs in OER. The chairs also had a presentation for PhD students in OER at the GO-GN network meeting.

Current UNESCO chairholders:

Rory McGreal, Canada
Fred Mulder, Holland
Wayne Mackintosh, New Zealand
Mitja Jermol, Slovenia
Tel Amiel, Brazil
Sana El Harbi, Tunisia
Jane-Francis Agbou, Nigeria
Maria Soledad Ramirez, Mexico

UNESCO Chairs in OER at GO-GN meeting

UNESCO Chairs in OER at GO-GN meeting

UNESCO Chairs in OER at GO-GN meeting

UNESCO Chairs in OER at GO-GN meeting

UNESCO Chairs in OER meeting

UNESCO – NOUN OER/MOOCs project

UNESCO Chair on open technologies for OER gets first project ExplorEdu

The Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport issued a Call for proposals for development projects and the establishment of e-services and mobile applications in advanced ICT use in education in between 2014-2015. The newly appointed UNESCO Chair is taking part in one of the winning projects ExplorEdu.

ExplorEdu will be a system of freely available web services and mobile applications for automatic identification, capture, enrichment, editing, in-depth analysis and intelligent use of freely available educational resources, existing web and mobile educational services, studies and results of research projects, lesson plans, rules and legislation in Slovenia and the world.

UNESCO Chair press conference

The UNESCO Chair press conference is to be held on Tuesday 18 November 2014 at 10.15 am the Jožef Stefan Institute with four speakers:

• prof. Jadran Lenarčič – Director of the Jožef Stefan Institute,
• Stanislava Setnikar Cankar – Minister of Education, Science and Sport,
• Marjutka Hafner – Director Slovenia National Commission and
• Mitja Jermol the new Chairholder.

Following the press conference the new Chair will present his ideas and reasons for establishing the Chair in Slovenia. Check the Chairholder website for strategies and action.

Jadran Lenarčič – Director of the Jožef Stefan Institute, Marjutka Hafner – Director Slovenia National Commission and Mitja Jermol the new Chairholder

Jadran Lenarčič – Director of the Jožef Stefan Institute, Marjutka Hafner – Director Slovenia National Commission and Mitja Jermol the new Chairholder

Mitja Jermol, new UNESCO OER Chairholder

STA jurnalist Sonja Poznic Cvetko @ UNESCO Chair OER press conference

Mitja Jermol, new UNESCO OER Chairholder

JSI team

Mitja Jermol, new UNESCO OER Chairholder

Dunja Mladenić, Head of AI lab @ JSI

Jadran Lenarčič – Director of the Jožef Stefan Institute, Marjutka Hafner – Director Slovenia National Commission and Mitja Jermol the new Chairholder

New UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Learning in Slovenia

In recent months OpeningupSlovenia managed to follow its strategy in providing funding for OER related projects, building partnerships and pushing the OER research agenda further into computer science and other national open education domains. On September 30th 2014 the UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Learning was established in Slovenia. UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, and the Director of the Jožef Stefan Institute, Professor Jadran Lenarčič, signed an agreement establishing a UNESCO Chair at the Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Institute being one of the leading powers behind OpeningupSlovenia.

The signing ceremony took place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, in the presence of the Chairholder, Dr Mitja Jermol and the Permanent Delegate of the Republic of Slovenia to UNESCO, H. E. Ms Veronika Stabej. The Chair will serve to promote an integrated system of research, training, information and documentation on online learning for OER and open learning. It will facilitate collaboration between high-level, internationally-recognized researchers and teaching staff of the Institute and other institutions around the world. The signing coincided with the holding at Headquarters of a UNESCO Chair Workshop organized with the Jožef Stefan Institute, the Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO and the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Slovenia to UNESCO.

According to the new Chairholder, Dr Mitja Jermol, the Institute has been working on OER since 2001, pushed by the conviction that education needed a new approach. “We started a national initiative to set the country in the direction of open learning, from infrastructure to legislation, in order to make use of technologies for learning.” commenting on OpeningupSlovenia.

OuS to organize event at UNESCO HQ

The Jožef Stefan Institute together with other OpeningupSlovenia members and K4A foundation directors will organize a workshop in AI methods and Big Data in education. This will be an introductory scientific and technological workshop and meeting to present planned and important activities within the framework of the implementation of the UNESCO Chair Open Technologies for OER. The workshop will precede the signature of the agreement between UNESCO and Jožef Stefan Institute to formally establish the Chair.