A week ago, the European Commission announced the “Opening Up Education” , an initiative that aims to use digital technologies for learning and the wider development of Open Educational Resources and Policies in the European Union. In the framework of this initiative and the German “OERde13 conference, an extremely interesting workshop was held in Berlin in mid-September. The workshop produced some very interesting conclusions for the future of Open Education in Europe.
Open Education in Europe.
At present, the use of Open Educational Content in Europe is limited to various initiatives and policies related to Open Education. Of particular interest are initiatives for the adoption of Open Educational Content such as: public electronic textbooks in Poland, Open Educational Content Repositories such as the Belgian Klascement, the Danish Wikiwijs and the Norwegian NDLA, the “1 on 1” program for the use of computers and open content in Portugal and Open Educational Communities such as the German ZUM Wiki.
There was intense discussion on the expansion and strengthening of such initiatives within the framework of national educational strategies and the formulation of relevant legislation specifically on issues related to Intellectual Property and its limits for the use of content for educational purposes. In general, it seems that while there are few operational policies at the national level that support Open Education, on the other hand there are many “Open Educational Content” initiatives that are carried out with state money.
Similarly, there are many such initiatives at European level, often funded by the European Union. For example, the Open Education Europa portal was created in this context. At the same time, initiatives related to the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in schools, e-learning or quality of education are not necessarily consistent with Open Educational Content issues. This may mean that there are still important stakeholders in the European Educational process who are not aware of the existence of Open Educational Content. At the same time, it is important to gain allies from Information and Communication Technologies in supporting Open Education policies.
What kind of Open Education Policy do we need?
A large part of the workshop dealt with the logic of Creative Commons licenses and their use in Open Education in Europe. The main policy position is summarized as follows: “An open license like CC BY – SA (Attribution-ShareAlike) + Open formats ,WCAG accessibility, and metadata.
So while the common line is very simple, the challenge lies in its widespread adoption across Europe. The workshop participants, discussing the important points of a successful political tactic, came to 3 key points:
Recognition at the level of rights, especially the right to education and knowledge, but also in broader pedagogical theories such as connectivism
Proof that Open Education has results, especially in financial terms, knowing that it is difficult as there are no precedents but relying on the strong argument that the use of Open Educational Content reduces costs for parents and schools.
Examples of implemented Open Educational Content initiatives, even those not listed under this title, as general models.
Finally, a challenge that every European Educational Initiative faces is the limited perspective with which the European Union deals with educational issues, leaving initiatives in the hands of governments and school institutions. In addition to a new Directive (which would be binding on member states), the European Union could introduce an Open Education Model funded by itself. It could also seek further collaborations with national governments by promoting initiatives and good practices and measures.
