Everything open

OER18: Open to All 9th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy18 – 19 April 2018, Bristol, UK

OER18 turned the focus on one of the often-cited benefits of ‘open’ – the promise of inclusivity. How do the resources, methods and projects that make up Open Education support making education available to all? As a movement over 15 years old, has Open Education made an impact – on learners, on society and on education? What can we do to to support learning in the open – and how can we use open to support learning?

The conference was chaired by academic and Open Education researcher Vivien Rolfe, alongside Wonkhe Associate Editor David Kernohan

The U.S. Department of Education’s first grant for open educational resources, totaling $5 million, will be awarded in late September to between one and three applicants, the department announced today in a call for proposals published in the Federal Register.

It’s often said that history is written by the winners. At this year’s OER18 conference all the keynotes took had a touch of history about them. Lorna Campbell got the conference off to a great start with her long view of changing perspectives on OER.  Momodou Sallah inspired everyone with his pedagogies of disruption, infectious activism and counter narratives, particularly around the history of access and control over and to, education and  culture in Africa. In the final keynote,  David Wiley took us through his potted history of open, open source, learning objects.