Kenya National Symposium on Open Education

Kenya National Symposium on Open Education

6 & 7 June 2013, Nairobi (#KEOpenEd)

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For more information about this event, please contact Frances Ferreira or Carol Walker at the Commonwealth of Learning or Wayne Mackintosh, COL Chair in OER at Otago Polytechnic

edit   About the Symposium OER is a sustainable and renewable resource The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in collaboration with the Kenyan Ministry of Education will convene a regional symposium on open education with guests from a number of countries. On Friday 22 June 2012, the UNESCO World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress released the 2012 Paris OER Declaration which calls on Governments to openly license publicly funded educational materials. The Kenya National Symposium on OER will bring together educational leaders and policy makers to consider the strategic opportunities for OER in the region and to explore policy enablers and practices for harnessing the potential of open education approaches for the benefit of the formal education sector in Kenya and the region. The symposium will commence work on “proposals for action” building on existing OER foundations to progress the way forward for a sector-wide response to open education in Kenya and the region. Where: Hilton Nairobi, Mama Ngina Street, Nairobi. When: 6 & 7 June 2013 Time: Registration: 8.30am Programme: 9am - 5.00pm Who: Educational leaders from the formal sector, policy makers, international governmental organisations and open education agencies. Tag: #KEOpenEd What to bring: Vision for the future, pen, notebook and/or mobile computing device (optional). Facilitators and presenters Canada India Kenya Namibia New Zealand South Africa Asha Kanwar is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning and is a world leading advocate for learning for development. Former Pro-Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, Professor Kanwar's career includes over 30 years of experience in teaching, research and administration in open distance learning and work with international governmental agencies including both UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA) in Dakar, Senegal and the Commonwealth of Learning in Vancouver since 2003. Frances Ferreira, a Namibian national is Education Specialist for Open Schooling at the Commonwealth of Learning. Frances was instrumental in leading an international project across six countries developing OERs for open schools. Trained as a teacher by profession, Frances was the first Director and chief executive of the state-owned Namibian College of Open Learning. She also became the first female Mayor of Grootfontein in 1994 and, in 1995, and was elected as Vice-President of the Association of Local Authorities in Namibia. She has also served as Chair of the Namibian Open Learning Network Trust and Chair of the Distance Education Association of Southern Africa (DEASA). Wayne Mackintosh is the founding director of the OER Foundation and holds the Commonwealth of Learning Chair in OER at Otago Polytechnic. He is coordinating the establishment of the OER university, an international innovation partnership of accredited universities, colleges and polytechnics which aims to provide free learning opportunities for all students worldwide using OER courses with pathways for these learners to achieve credible credentials. Catherine Ngugi is Project Director at OER Africa, an innovative initiative established by the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide) to play a leading role in driving the development and use of open education across all education sectors on the African continent. Catherine established the AVU Research & Innovation Facility (RIF) in January 2005 and managed it until September 2007. Catherine has worked in both the private and the public sector, in Anglophone and Francophone Africa, and brings to OER Africa her experience in project management and a high level of inter-personal skills.

edit   About Open Education What is Open Education? Open Education is an umbrella concept which incorporates emerging international practices in the formal education sector associated with Open Educational Resources, OpenCourseWare, Open Content, Open Educational Practices, Open Access, Open Licensing, Open Policy, Open Source, and Open Business Models. What are Open Educational Resources (OER)? Open Educational Resources (OER) are materials used to support education that may be freely accessed, reused, modified and shared by anyone (Downes 2011.) Read more ... What are Open Educational Practices (OEP)? Open Educational Practices (OEP) are policies and practices which support and promote the creation, use and reuse of high quality OER. What is Open Access? Open access is a global movement which aims to provide unrestricted access to scholarly research outputs including peer-reviewed journals, theses, scholarly monographs and book chapters (Suber, P. 2004.) What is open licensing? Open licensing refers to the suite of the legal tools used to grant open permissions to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute OER with Creative Commons licenses being the preferred international licensing standard. Read more ... What is open policy? Open policy promotes unrestricted access and open licensing of resources financed through public and philanthropic funding in order to maximize the impact of the investment. Read more ... What is the Commonwealth of Learning? The Commonwealth of Learning is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. COL is helping developing nations improve access to quality education and training. COL is the first international agency to adopt an open licensing policy and OER is a strategic priority in COL's current three year plan. edit   Sponsors