UNESCO Chair in e-Learning “Educational Technologies as a Tool for Empowerment and Engagement”
Our Mission The UOC UNESCO Chair in e-Learning was created in 2002 to promote an integrated system of: Research, training, information and documentation ‌in the intensive use of ICTs in education as a tool for empowerment and development. All these academic aims are strongly impacted by: UNESCO spirit, which can be seen in all of the Chair’s activities, giving voice to institutions and individuals engaged into educational practice by promoting the intensive use of technology for the public benefit and development.
Our Subject Areas 1) Equal opportunities in the knowledge society; formal and informal learning; open social learning as a tool for access to education for disadvantaged groups (developing countries, Africa, women, the young, etc.) 2) Promotion of training and skills in the use of open educational resources and free software technology models. 3) Transformation of universities in the knowledge society: leadership, governance and chance management in planning and intensive use of ICTs. 4) Cooperation in a global world. 5) Creativity and innovation: new ways of learning on the web, via mobile devices, new media, etc. 6) The social perspective of e-learning at universities.
Currently the Chair is working on: Educational Resources and Open Learning • Open Educational Repositories • Open Educational Resources (Creation, licenses, etc.) • Open Learning • Teacher Training in the use of OER and more…
Empowerment • Mobile Technologies for Learning and Development • Gender and Technology • ICTs and equal opportunities in the Knowledge Society
Roundtables, Workshops and Seminars The seminars and roundtables organized by the UNESCO Chair in e-Learning focus on subject areas linked to the chair’s activities. They are forums for debate, and discussion of new trends, case studies, best (and failed!) practices, and sharing experiences with invited international experts.
Activities up to date • Roundtable on Teacher Training (In preparation) • DSpace Seminar (In preparation) • Training Workshop on Open Educational Resources (2010) • Roundtable on Education, Gender & ICTs (2009, 2010) • Working Session on Open Social Learning (2009) • Roundtable on Virtual Communities (2009) • Roundtable on Online Social Networks (2009) • Study of UOC Student Behaviour (2008) • Workshop on Web 2.0 (2008) • Roundtable “Educ.ar” for the School 2.0 (2007) • Roundtable on Open Educational Resources (2006)
Annual International Seminars • VII International Seminar: Mobile Technologies for Learning and Development (2010) • VI International Seminar: Open Social Learning (2009) • V International Seminar: Fighting the Digital Divide Through Education (2008) • IV International Seminar: Web 2.0 and Education (2007) • III International Seminar: Open Educational Resources (2006) • I & II International Seminar: Leading Universities in the Knowledge Society (2004, 2005)
Annual International Seminar The International Seminar of the UNESCO Chair in e-Learning has been held every year in Barcelona since 2004 and allows for the sharing of knowledge and experience with the world’s leading figures in the field of e-learning and information and communication technologies applied to learning and development.
International Seminars I - II Seminar: Leading Universities in the Knowledge Society (2004 - 2005) III Seminar: Open Educational Resources: Institutional Challenges (2006)
IV Seminar: Web 2.0 and Education (2007)
V Seminar: Fighting The Digital Divide Through Education (2008)
VI Seminar: Open Social Learning (2009)
VII International Seminar VII Seminar: Mobile Tecnologies For Learning and Development (October, 2010)
#metaOER Project The work in progress… MetaOER stands for “Open Educational Resources on Open Educational Resources” This goal is to promote OERs using an Open Repository, the Institutional Open Access Repository of the University (O2), to collect and centralize key OER documents that show how to create, license, share… other OER resources. This project involves the use of web 2.0 collaborative tools such as del.icio.us to provide an effective way to: • Locate, tag, and share the original location of existing OER documents • Facilitate the process of evaluating and adding this OER documents to the Open Repository • Make this OER documents available in the same place to the OER community
#metaOER Project
Open Repository Workshops Pilot Project Along with the metaOER project, the Chair is organizing workshops to teach Professors and staff members of the University and other institutions how to use a Open Repository to publish their own materials.
More on OER at UOC…
• Adding social networks on top of repositories • Improving searching and browsing of OERs • Revisiting OLCOS Project • Analyzing OER usage through social bookmarking analysis • Creating a network of UNESCO Chairs related to OER ….
UOC Institutional Policy in Open Access and OER In October 2010, The Governing Council of the UOC issued the Open Acess Institutional Mandate that stipulates:
• Members of the UOC’s research and academic communities have to deposit their research publications based on their work at the UOC in the University’s Institutional Repository (O2). • UOC community members are also encouraged to deposit, under open access, any other learning materials that could be of interest to the students or faculty. • UOC students have to deposit their practicums and final degree and master’s projects in the Institutional Repository; these projects will be freely available for teaching and dissemination. Find The Full Policy in the Open Acess Repository of the University: http://hdl.handle.net/10609/4966
Digital identity of the Chair Website http://catedraunesco.uoc.edu Weblog http://unescochair-elearning.uoc.edu/blog Twitter http://twitter.com/uocunescochair Del.icio.us http://delicious.com/uocunescochair Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/uocunescochair/ Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/uocunescochair
• Contact e-mail: catedraunesco@uoc.edu
Contact us
• Emma Kiselyova (Executive Director) ekiselyova@uoc.edu • Julià Minguillón (Academic Director) jminguillona@uoc.edu • Jordi Cornet (Technical Coordinator) jcorneth@uoc.edu