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The UNESCO June meeting in Paris last week spawned a declaration which you might be interested in. I was not there, but here is my short take on first and second reading and a link to the full draft. I know that some of you were there so if you have comments/insights please share. Here is my 'take': 1. Locates OER within a wider range of aspirations by reminding of a number of international declarations with relevance to OER, e.g.:'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 26.1), which states that: “Everyone has the right to education' and note that OER promotes the aims of these international statements. 2. Emphasises use of the UNESCO 2002 definition: 'teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. Open licensing is built within the existing framework of intellectual property rights as defined by relevant international conventions and respects the authorship of the work'. I find this quite long as a definition and it reminds me of the reusable learning object IEEE definition (so anything used for education/research in the public domain or with an open license). I presume its not shortened as, ten years on, some people still won't know what open licensing is. 3. Specifically recalls existing Declarations and Guidelines on Open Educational Resources such as the 2007 Cape Town Open Education Declaration, 2009 Dakar Declaration on OER and the 2011 Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO Guidelines on OER in HE. 4. Recommends that 'States': a) Foster awareness and use of OER to widen access, improve cost-efficiences and quality of teaching/learning outcomes. b) Facilitate enabling environments for use of ICT Very wide-ranging aspiration from improving 'media and information literacy' to reliable power supplies and broadband. Mobile specifically mentioned. c) Reinforce the development of strategies and policies on OER. This one (frankly) worries me a little. It talks of 'Promoting the development of specific policies for the production and use of OER within wider strategies for advancing education'. Fine if these are enabling, but could they also be (unintentionally) restricting? d) Promote the understanding and use of open licensing frameworks 'while respecting the rights of any copyright holder'. I'd be happier with 'respecting copyright' not sure what the distinction is between this and 'the rights of any copyright holder' but happy that its 'rights' and not 'wishes'. e) Support capacity building for the sustainable development of quality learning materials. Personally I like this one as its about developing staff 'taking into account local needs and the full diversity of learners' however it reaches into the trickier areas of promoting quality assurance/peer review and into assessment/creditation. So very ambitious and directly reflecting more than other recommendations community concerns (I feel). f) Foster strategic alliances for OER g) Encourage the development and adaptation of OER in a variety of languages and cultural contexts. Note that this talks of favouring production/use of OER in local languages. h) Encourage research on OER. No surprises here about the areas and all good (my opinion). Like specifically that one area is 're-contextualisation of OER'. Initiatives like Bridge2Success is one that points at this, as does previous work in sharing RLO. Re-contextualisation is not that easy to do (see e)). i) Facilitate finding, retrieving and sharing of OER. Open standards and user-friendly tools as you would expect. j) Encourage the open licensing of educational materials produced with public funds. Yes! As with e) this one is one which I am particularly happy to see. But I note that the phrasing is much gentler (more informercial than a)-i): 'Governments/competent authorities can create substantial benefits for their citizens by ensuring that educational materials developed with public funds be made available under open licenses (with any restrictions they deem necessary) in order to maximize the impact of the investment.' So all good and sound and no particular suprises. This is the DRAFT, so it may change but it seems to be welcomed. The full version is: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/Events/Paris%20OER%20Declaration.pdf Chris Chris Pegler Senior Lecturer, Institute of Educational Technology ________________________________ From: Leonardo Montenegro [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 26 June 2012 05:40 To: Open Educational Resources - an online discussion forum Subject: Re: [OER] UNESCO OER Declaration Hello Carolina Thanks for sharing the document! and gongratulations to oll of you who work for building a better world! Regards Leonardo Montenegro 2012/6/24 Sabu K C <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Dear Carolina Rossini and all members of the OER Community, This is really an achievement of a long process of or collective discussions and hard works coordinated through the 'net' from all over the world. It gives us all the reason to look forward to a 'world of learning' and a 'learning world'.... of course without the digital divide. Congratulations to all of us... Regards Sabu K C Ph D Doha, Qatar --- On Fri, 22/6/12, Carolina Rossini <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: From: Carolina Rossini <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Subject: [OER] UNESCO OER Declaration To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, "Open Educational Resources - an online discussion forum" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Date: Friday, 22 June, 2012, 10:03 PM http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/Events/Paris%20OER%20Declaration.pdf -- -- Carolina Rossini Support OER in Brazil! www.rea.net.br<http://www.rea.net.br/> + 1 6176979389<tel:%2B%201%206176979389> *[log in to unmask]<http:[log in to unmask]>* (for www.eff.org<http://www.eff.org> related matters, pls contact me at [log in to unmask]<http:[log in to unmask]>) -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ OER-forum mailing list [log in to unmask]<http:[log in to unmask]> http://lists.esn.org.za/mailman/listinfo/oer-forum Unsubscribe: [log in to unmask]<http:[log in to unmask]> _______________________________________________ OER-forum mailing list [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> http://lists.esn.org.za/mailman/listinfo/oer-forum Unsubscribe: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).