#OER20 #Openscot Tell Your Story , Find out how to become an Open Practitioner , Meet an international community.

I know there is a growing amount of open education activity beyond University and College initiatives in Scotland,  for my  international readership this is the  first and the best UK and international conference on Open Education and associated practices . 

Get a paper in and/or get the date in your diary.

We are delighted to announce that the OER20 Call for Proposals in now open. The deadline for submissions is 1 December 2019.

The 11th annual OER conference for Open Education research, practice and policy will be co-chaired by Mia Zamora, Daniel Villar-Onrubia and Jonathan Shaw. Read more about the conference co-chairs.

The conference will be held from 1-2 April 2020, in London, and is themed around Care In Openness. Covering issues of privilege, equity, precarity, power relations and public interest, OER20 will put the spotlight on both the value and limitations of care in open education.

We are particularly interested in receiving proposals from people who have an interest in the following conference key themes: 

Theme 1: Openness in the age of surveillance
Theme 2: Sustainable open education communities
Theme 3: Open education for civic engagement and democracy
Theme 4: Criticality and care in open education
Theme 5: Caring pedagogies and designing for diverse communities of inclusion.

And also Wildcard submissions : open education practice, research or policy session proposals that address the overarching conference theme.

To submit your proposal, please visit our OE20 Conference website where you will find full guidance, and our submission form. The deadline for submissions is 1 December 2019.

Scottish Training Federation Conference #STF19 September 2019

I was asked to do a quick provocation for the annual gathering of all of the training providers in Scotland. Thanks to Scottish Training Federation for the kind invitation to address all of their members.

I've been about a bit , I can't believe it has been nine years since I last addressed this gathering. Some of the issues have changed and some are stubbornly the same , for training providers it is still the uncertainty of year to year funding and the scramble around the bidding and tendering processes.

My reflections in this presentation are all based on working in and around the English Vocational Reform Programme. While it has different drivers, we do not appear to be learning lessons from this coordinated reform programme in England , rather we have set a number of fires in the heather - and there may be longer term consequences in tackling vocational reform in this more piecemeal way in Scotland. We are the only home nation that does not have something called a vocational reform programme. Though we have been made lots of changes.

Most of key messages are in the presentation, as I spoke I added that we need to make more of SCQF , decide who will actually fix Digital Literacy as a core skill across vocational learning and get on with it , Do more of a push on blended learning and sharing basic learning materials across Colleges and Training Providers and work towards cost effective on-line delivery for all knowledge based areas and some skills based ones too. STF members should tune in to digital skills courses appearing in FutureLearn and from the Education and Training Foundation in England.

 

Scottish Colleges #DigitalAmbition

I am part of this working group, so good to see this consultation now rolling out.

The College Development Network is running a series of consultation events on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council to inform the work of the #DigitalAmbition working group.

What is it all about ? : To find out what staff working in Colleges think the future of learning looks like !

Why is this important ? : There is a pot of capital funding for College buildings, but perhaps we need a pot of capital available for some national digital learning initiatives !

So the question is : What Digital Ambition do you have for Colleges in 2030 ?

Booking is now open for #DigitalAmbition roadshows.

This is your opportunity to shape the future! :

• What will learning look like in 2030 ?
• What will learners expect?
• What will colleges look & feel like?
• What will staff need to meet learner and employer expectations ?

Check out https://www.cdn.ac.uk/courses-events/ for all events.

Book here for Monday 11th of November City of Glasgow College Event https://www.events.cdn.ac.uk/ereg/index.php?eventid=488121&