Monday, October 24, 2005

UNESCO Virtual Conference on Open Educational Resources Begins This Internet discussion forum on open course content will extend for two months and involve hundreds of participants from around the world, "Third in a series of forums on key issues related to the use of ICT in higher education. The forum will explore the concept of open course content, its context, current initiatives, and issues and implications of its use." The virtual conference began today (10/24/05) with a background discussion guided by Dr. Sally Johnstone, Executive Director of the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications. (See  Dr. Johnstone's background note.) "One of the barriers to the use of Open Educational Resources is lack of awareness of current initiatives and available material. The UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning is supporting the OER movement by convening a broad, international group to create a community of interested individuals, institutions and organizations to examine one aspect of OER open content. This community can then share information even more widely through the networks of the individual participants." 10:08:52 AM    COMMENT []