UPC ICT4D: Open educational resources: taking charge of technology

"Open source curriculums lower the barriers to entry for schools interested in eLearning. By combining free learning platforms, like Moodle, with open textbooks, schools can dramatically lower the price of online education. John Iglar, who will be speaking at the 2015 eLearning Africa conference , uses open-source software extensively in his role as Technology Director at the International Community School (ICS) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ... Open Educational Resources (OER) can be combined with open software to create robust curriculums with minimum investment.  Many of these resources have been available to students and teachers for over a decade. In 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) faculty decided to allow anyone to use their course content. Since then, over 100 million people have accessed MIT’s materials.  Applying open licenses to educational materials allow for collaboration amongst educators. For example, an English teacher might acquire open-licensed word problems for students but re-write the exercises to include language that is culturally-relevant. That teacher can then share this material with others.  Not all open-source resources are aesthetically pleasing, or easy-to-use, but that’s the price many adoptees are willing to pay for platforms that are free, endlessly adaptable and future-proof ..."