OER: insights into a multilingual landscape - EUROCALL 2014 conference
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Transcript of OER: insights into a multilingual landscape - EUROCALL 2014 conference
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OER: insights into a multilingual landscapeTita Beaven, Kate Borthwick, Linda Bradley,
Sylvi Vigmo, Katerina Zourou
EUROCALL 2014 Conference Symposium August 22, Groningen, 2014
About the LangOER network
European Comission funded network (2014-2016), 9 partners:
• Fryske Academy, The Netherlands
• Web2learn, Greece
• European Schoolnet, Belgium
• University of Gothenburg, Sweden
• Jan Dlugosz University, Poland
• Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania
• International Council for Open and Distance Education,
Norway
• European Foundation for Quality in E-learning, Belgium
• Rezekne Higher Education Institution, Latvia
Strands of activities
• State-of-the art of OER in less used languages• International policy makers capacity building• Teacher training• Regional and minority languages & OER• Challenges for language learning• Mainstream good practice at European policy making
level
Scope of the LangOER project
• Enhance the linguistic and cultural components of OER
• Foster sustainability through OER reuse• Address needs of policy makers and educators• Raise awareness of risk of exclusion of less used
languages from the OER landscape• Offer training to educators of less used languages,
face-to-face and online• Embrace stakeholders of regional and minority
languages in remotely located areas of Europe to gain knowledge, develop skills
Set-up of today’s workshop
• Which languages are represented in repositories of OER (ROER) and what kind of subjects do they cover?
• How do multilingual repositories cope with the management of OER in various languages? How is the management (upload, sharing, updates, monitoring) of these resources possible? How do language teachers and learners engage with OER in these repositories?
• Is OER uptake a far-fetched idea or current practice? What kind of evidence does exist of OER uptake in a language learning/teaching context?
• How plurilingualism can fit to Open Educational Practice? How OER can enact plurilingual varieties?
Keywords from UNESCO’s definition
Definition of OER -teaching, learning and research materials in the public domain -released under an open license -no-cost access -possible to adapt and redistribute
with no or limited restrictions
UNESCO, 2012, Paris OER Declaration
State-of-the-art investigation results
Diversified picture
Less used languages with considerable OER resourcesActive and vibrant; state-supported or grass-root initiatives
State-of-the-art investigation results
Less used languages with considerable OER resources
Active online communities
State-of-the-art investigation results
Languages with few or any OER resources–Dependent on international initiatives–Not really OER: rather ABOUT OER
Multilingual OER repositories
• Lemill as an example “Web community for finding, authoring and sharing learning resources for school teachers” http://lemill.net/
Multilingual OER repositories
OER: insights into a multilingual landscape – the case of LORO
Tita Beaven The Open University
Eurocall SymposiumEUROCALL 2014
GRONINGEN, 20-23 AUGUST 2014
Outline
• A brief introduction to LORO and the OU context• LORO as a multilingual repository• Some “translated” resources• Open Educational Practices in a multilingual
context
Languages at The Open University -UK
• English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Welsh & Chinese (beginners to advanced) to 7000+ language students
• Blended approach: independent study using mixed media and support inc. face-to-face, synchronous and asynchronous online teaching
• Course materials produced centrally, teaching support provided locally
• Course developers and course directors: 50+ academics plus support staff
• Teaching staff: 320+ part-time teachers
What was the problem?
• Storing and managing resources for teaching (servers, the VLE…)
• Finding out what others are doing
• Avoid reinventing the wheel…(30-40 teachers might be delivering the same course in parallel)
• Sharing resources produced by all colleagues
Languages Open Resources Online (HEA/Jisc 2009) http://loro.open.ac.uk
LORO is about: • ...making all teaching materials for all levels and
languages available to all users• …making OU tutorial materials available to the wider
languages community• …allowing users to share their own materials with the
whole languages community • …starting a change in the way we work (OER, access,
transparency, quality)
LORO is about: • ...making all teaching materials for all levels and
languages available to all users• …making OU tutorial materials available to the wider
languages community• …allowing users to share their own materials with the
whole languages community • …starting a change in the way we work (OER, access,
transparency, quality)
• To find resources for their teaching“I often also check what other teachers
have done to teach the same topic or a similar structure”
• To find inspiration and ideas“even if I don’t find anything I can use, it
starts the ideas flowing in my head”• To standardise their practice and ensure
comparability of the student experience “to make sure the contents covered in
my own tutorial are similar to those used by the rest of the course team and tutors”
Teachers are using LORO…
A ‘‘collaborative, developmental activity in which professionals offer mutual support by observing each other teach; explaining and discussing what was observed; sharing ideas about teaching; gathering student feedback on teaching effectiveness; reflecting on understandings, feelings, actions and feedback and trying out new ideas’’.
(Bell, 2005, p. 3)
Peer observation of teaching
POT needs to be extended to other media where teaching takes place
It should cover areas such as curriculum design, the creation of teaching materials, online teaching, and the whole range of what teachers do to support learners. (Hatzipanagos and Lygo-Baker 2006, Bennett and Barp, 2008 Swinglehurst et al, 2008).
POT in the context of blended teaching and learning?
In the context of the OU? In the context of LORO? - Collaborative writing of resources- Professional conversations about the use of OER
Collaborative writing of OER
Translation…
And additional steps…
And additional steps…
Professional conversation: planning an Italian beginners’ tutorial
Looking for inspiration in LORO-French
“This is the kind of thing I didn’t want to do… I give them the language and they just repeat it… I don’t want to do this…. I might want to elicit it, but I want to come up with a more creative way of doing it, so I discarded this…”
LORO: Spanish resources…
“Now this is the thing that started me thinking….”
Sorting activity – learning strategies
Back to the Italian resources: more ideas and reflection on teaching practice
“It made me think that my colleagues are much more slow in how they present things…. Nice, slow, very simple explanations… I am impressed by how good my colleague is in doing this explanation – if I want to explain something, I want to do it as slowly as that…”
The final ingredient…
OER—as resources that lend themselves to collaboration, knowledge sharing about practices, adaptation and reuse—support conversations and practices that may not traditionally be available through professional development.
(Petrides et al, 2010)
OER: insights into a multilingual landscape
OEP: enabler and lifeline for multilingualism
Kate BorthwickModern Languages, University of SouthamptonEuroCALL 14, Groningen, August 2014
Outline
•Context•OEP/OERs as enabler of multilingualism•Challenges and issues•OEP/ OERs as lifelines for multilingualism•Closing remarks: how do we realise the potential of OEP?
Some context…
Community Café 2010-11FAVOR (Finding a Voice through Open Resources) 2011-12OpenLIVES (2011-13)• All funded by JISC (a UK organisation which supports technology in education)•All explored aspects of OER and OEP and involved creation of OERs•Worked with different communities of language teachers
OEP and OERs – enablers of multilingualism
Increased sharing – more resources, more collaboration, wider range of resources, esp. in LWULT languagesCommunities of open practice•Neutral, democratic, levelling space e.g. www.languagebox.ac.uk •Sharing cross-language•Focus on practitioner, not language itself
…but there are some challenges
•Management issues around an English-medium repository and other scripts/languages•Searching, discoverability and shareability•Copyright and quality•Concepts of the culture of OEP and reflective practice could be alien and novel to some groups•Teachers engaging with OEP need encouragement and support•For some teachers, resources are not be shared as they are ‘their stock-in-trade’
… Lifelines for multilingualism
•LWULT languages: increased resources offers potential to broaden learner group; collaboration and wider exposure•Undervalued and under-resourced•Engaging with OEP offers CPD for all teachers - especially useful for part-timers/CL teachers who have limited access to CPD opportunities
Closing remarks
•OEP has the POTENTIAL to be an enabler/lifeline…•Need to be proactive: promoting OERs, sharing work, collaborating…•Offer guidance and scaffolding (e.g. translations, guidance on use, examples of resources in use)•Consider how we reach new and wider audiences alongside increasing OERs available
Forthcoming activities
• Webinar, September 19: “OER for less used languages in an increasingly digital everyday culture”
• Teacher training activities in GR, LV, LT, PL, SE, NO in Spring 2015 and possibly also remotely through e-Twinning of European Schoolnet
Staying in touch
http://langoer.eun.org/
#langOER
LangOER
OER and languages
OER and languages
LangOER teachers’ group (in
preparation)