Image credit: CC-BY-ND Marc Lagneau https://flic.kr/p/8NJcar
Image credit: CC-BY-ND Marc Lagneau https://flic.kr/p/8NJcar

Welcome to the first day #OER17

Welcome to the first day #OER17. We are delighted to welcome 185 participants from across the globe for a packed programme over 2 days and we hope more will be tuning in to the livestream and other remote participant sessions including Virtually Connecting.

Here are key links for today:

In the media release for OER17 both Co-Chairs reflected on the importance of this event:

Co-chair Josie Fraser said: ‘This is a timely conference as governments and organisations across the globe look strategically at how open resources and open licensing can support access to education, reduce costs, help build capacity, and increase collaboration. There is still work to do in ensuring education funders, policy makers, leaders and practitioners understand the huge opportunity of open education. Open education advocates and activists have always put accessibility at the heart of their work – looking to support access to knowledge and resources for all, tackling issues of disability, discrimination and poverty head-on. This conference is an important meeting of all those working at the frontline of education, technology, and equality – exploring “the politics of open” at local, national, international level, as well as at the level of the personal.’

Alek Tarkowski, Co-Chair, said: ‘One of our goals is to look together at areas where our work on open education can extend beyond a focus on resources. An alternative focus on practices will surely be one of the main subjects of debate at our event, but we also hope to identify other such areas. One area that is of particular interest to me is copyright reform. Educational exceptions are one of the key issues debated during the ongoing copyright reform process in the European Union. From the perspective of “politics of open” we need to ask how development of Open Education and copyright reform advocacy can compliment each other.’

Read the full article.

If you need any help during the conference the help desk in the main conference venue will be staffed most of the time or you can email [email protected].

See you #OER17!