SKSI/Video interview notes

Q1 - Introduce yourself and your role in the SKSI

 * Wayne
 * Talofa, My name is Wayne Mackintosh and I direct the Open Education Resource Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports governments and institutions with the implementation of open education solutions. I also hold New Zealand's UNESCO Chair in Open Educational Resources or 'OER' for short. My role in the Samoan Knowledge Society Initiative was to provide strategic direction and support to colleagues at the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture to select open source software infrastructure tools for the Lifelong Learning Lab that would maximise reuse and adaption of OER-enabled resources for capacity development in digital fluencies in Samoa.


 * Dave
 * Talofa lava, I'm Dave Lane and I work with Wayne at the OER Foundation in the role of Open Source Technologist. I build and maintain our technical systems, implementing open source software services giving our learners access to learning materials, providing places for them to interact with one another, and helping educators develop new materials. I also create tutorials and facilitate hands-on training sessions to help other educational technologists replicate the sorts of technologies I run for the Foundation so that their learners can similarly benefit. My goal is to help educators deploy and use technology sustainably and with agency, to increase access to education to learners around the world, like we're doing here with the SKSI in Samoa.

Q2 - What the project was about for yourself/organization and its benefits and desired outcomes

 * Wayne
 * The project enabled the OER Foundation to live out its core mission of sharing knowledge and experience in using open solutions freely with our Pacific neighbours. There is no form of educational delivery that is more cost effective, more scalable or more sustainable than OER and we feel privileged to join Samoa on this journey open sourcing education for the public good.


 * Dave
 * I was excited by this project because it meant helping others see the incredible possibilities that I see for these educational technologies, and the new universe of knowledge - freely shared - they can open for people who previously haven't had that access. Just as important, I love the idea of helping people in Samoa who are interested in technology, learn how to exercise this amazing software power - because that's really what it is! - for themselves, and for the benefit of their communities. It's different from the software they get from overseas multinational corporations, who rent access to their tools. The more you use them, the more dependent you become, and the more you have to conform to the narrow perspective of those corporations. And every year they cost more and more. These Free and Open Source Software tools we're using and teaching people in Samoa are different. They are yours, they're ours. They belong to communities who build and use them. People in Samoa have the power to make them uniquely Samoan if they choose to. My ultimate motivation is that I think the world will be a better place if everyone has a chance to reach their own educational potential. I especially want to see that happen in ways that celebrate those learners identities and cultures rather than forcing them to conform to new ones. I want to see Samoans able to learn all they want and need without having to sacrifice personal and Samoan sovereignty.

Q3 - Sustainability and future goals

 * Wayne
 * Samoa has played a leadership role demonstrating the viability of open solutions, that in our opinion should be replicated across the Pacific region. The Ministries of Education in many Pacific Small Island Developing States, typically with national populations under half-million people, do not have the fiscal resources to provision expensive proprietary solutions for digital delivery in their respective countries. Therefore, building on the experience we have gained from the Samoan SKSI project, we will establish the FOSSDLE Commons - which is an acronym for the Free and Open Source Software Digital Learning Ecosystem Commons. The FOSSDLE Commons will provide shared digital infrastructure for Pacific nations to host their own OER-enabled capacity development courses. This cooperative will function like community garden where individuals build skills and confidence in how to set up and maintain these systems for themselves. Working together we will achieve more than working alone.


 * Dave
 * I would love to see folks in Samoa create their own lessons for the world, from their perspective. To use the 'federation' of networks to be the source of Fa'a Samoa in the digital world, sowing the seeds of Samoan culture in the wider world - especially the emerging digital community of South Pacific islands - and carving out a place for digital Samoa to thrive.