Presentation by Carl Blyth at "The Power of Openness: Improving Foreign Language Learning Through Open Education", held at the University of Texas at Austin and online on August 9-10, 2012.

1. Session 1: Defining Open Education
Carl Blyth
Director, COERLL
August 9, 2012

2. Symposium (n.)
1. A meeting for the discussion of a single
topic, usually including many speakers
and an audience (virtual and F2F).
2. (in Ancient Greece) A convivial gathering
that included eating, drinking and
intellectual conversation.

3. Agenda
1. Introduction to COERLL
2. Presentation: “The Impact of Open
Education on Foreign Language
Learning”
3. Activity: “Envisioning Open Education”
4. Lunch (in the Atrium)

4. Coral
Coral by flightsaber
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flightsaber/2204190345
CC BY-NC 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

5. Curl
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19melissa68/4479055267/

6. Corelle
Corelle_Snowflake Garland Cream &; Sugar with Salt & Paper (1974) by catface3
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jfholloway/1456419986/in/photostream
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

7. Corral
Working on the cattle in the corrals.jpg by Alister.flint
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Working_on_the_cattle_in_the_corrals.jpg
CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

8. OER in COERLL

9. About COERLL
Newest of the 15 National Foreign
Language Resource Centers (2010 –
2014), grant from US Department of
Education
Located at The University of Texas at
Austin
Formerly the Texas Language Technology
Center (TLTC)
Focused on Open Educational Resources
(OER) for Language Learning

10. Mission
LRC Mission: to improve the teaching and
learning of foreign languages by producing
resources (materials and best practices) that can
be profitably employed in K-12 and higher
education settings.
COERLL's Mission: to produce and disseminate
Open Educational Resources (OERs) (e.g., online
language courses, reference grammars,
assessment tools, corpora, etc.).

11. Agenda
1. Introduction to COERLL
2. Presentation: “The Impact of Open
Education on Foreign Language
Learning”
3. Activity: “Envisioning Open Education”
4. Lunch (in the Atrium)

12. What we mean by Open Education
US Dept. of Education, Creative Commons
& The Open Society Foundations sponsored
“Why Open Education Matters Video
Competition”
http://whyopenedmatters.org/videos/
…first place winner from Blinktower Creative
Agency, Cape Town, South Africa

13. Defining Open Education
“A collective term that refers to forms of
education in which knowledge, ideas or
important aspects of teaching methodology
or infrastructure are shared freely over the
Internet.”
(Wikipedia)

14. Open Education Movement
“The open education (OE) movement is based
on a set of intuitions shared by a remarkably
wide range of academics: that knowledge should
be free and open to use and re-use; that
collaboration should be easier, not harder; that
people should receive credit and kudos for
contributing to education and research; and that
concepts and ideas are linked in unusual and
surprising ways and not the simple linear forms
that today’s textbook present.”
(Baraniuk 2007: 229)

15. What we mean by OER
The term OER refers to any
educational material offered
freely for anyone to use,
typically involving some
permission to re-mix,
improve, and redistribute.

16. What we mean by OPEN
1. Free Access (online, no passwords, no fees)
2. Enable the “4 R’s”
Reuse - copy verbatim
Redistribute - share with others
Revise - adapt and edit
Remix - combine with others

17. “Gratis” vs. “Libre”
Photo source: free (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonx/2698947622/) / tonx
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonx/) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

18. Degrees of Open: Materials
CLOSED OPEN
Traditional OERs
Material Reuse / Redistribute /
All rights reserved Revise / Remix

19. Degrees of Open: Classrooms
CLOSED OPEN
Traditional Online
• Physical classroom • Virtual classroom
• Enrolled student • Formal (enrolled) student
• Informal learner

20. Degrees of Open: Research
CLOSED OPEN
Traditional research Open research
• Methods/data known to few • Known to group
• Traditional print journals • Online journals
• Foreign Language Annals • LL&T
• Subscribed readers • Internet public

21. Big vs. Little OER
Big OER Little OER
Typically generated by institutions. Typically generated and shared by
individuals.
Advantages = high reputation, good Advantages = cheap, web-native, easily
teaching quality, little reversioning remixed and reused.
required, easily located.
Disadvantages = expensive, often not web Disadvantages = lower production quality,
native, reuse limited reputation can be more difficult to
ascertain, more difficult to locate
Examples: MIT Courseware, UK’s Examples: Blog posts, podcasts, etc.
OpenLearn
Source: Martin Weller http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2009/12/the-politics-of-oer.html

22. OER Enablers
Open Licenses Open Standards
Permission to How to design
share OERs OERs for sharing
Technology Communities of
Tools for practice
creating & Sharing ideas &
sharing OER OERs w/ others

23. Open Licenses
Creative Commons
“some rights reserved”
Attribution
(Derivatives)
(Commercial)
(Share Alike)
Mosaic Cow in St. Joseph, Michigan : taken from -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vxla/6183285404/in/photostream/Author:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

24. Degrees of Open: Licenses
CLOSED OPEN
Mosaic Cow in St. Joseph, Michigan : taken from -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vxla/6183285404/in/photostream/Author:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

25. Standards
National Standards
LARC Standards-Based Lesson
State Standards Plan Generator (California)
https://lpg.sdsu.edu

26. Technology
Social sharing sites
Reuse :: Redistribute
Revise :: Remix

27. COERLL’s Technology Strategies
Modular content
Embeddable Media
(YouTube)
Editable formats (Google
Docs)
Multiple formats (print-on-
demand and mobile)

28. Communities
Collaboration among
communities of:
Educators
Learners
Administrators
Developers
.edu + .org + .com

29. Hybrid Spanish (U of Utah)
Fernando Rubio

30. Open Learning Initiative (CMU)
Chris Jones

31. Acceso (U of Kansas)
Amy Rossomondo & Jonathan Perkins

32. Français interactif (UT-Austin)
Georges Détiveaux & Amanda Dalola

33. Open LCTL Textbooks
Yoruba Yemi
http://coerll.utexas.edu/ye
mi

34. Open Spanish Corpus & Materials
Spanish in Texas Website
http://sites.la.utexas.edu/spanishtx

35. Projects: Open Source Tools
eComma collaborative annotation tool
http://coerll.utexas.edu/ecomma

36. Other COERLL projects:
OERs for LCTLs
Gateway to Chinese
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/ppp
Suite of tools for students to practice with online interactive
exercises. Portal site will launch in July, 2012.
Conversa Brasiliera
http://www.coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/cob
Set of 35 high-quality conversation videos with
annotations and commentary
Aswaat Arabiyya
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/aswaat
Authentic Arabic videos for listening practice. New
exercise sets for 20 videos will be released this summer.

37. Benefits to Learners
Lowering costs.
Materials can be adapted to meet local and
personal needs.
Community involvement = quality control and
a better overall product, “inreach”
Learners can be part of the creation process
and feel a sense of ownership

38. Benefits to Educators
Greater impact; reach more learners and gain
recognition
More control over materials
Program fees from print-on-demand help with
sustainability for updating materials
High quality materials for less commonly
taught languages
Become a member of a community of practice

39. Challenges of OER
Work involved in selecting and assembling
all the pieces needed for a complete
language program.
Educators need training and support.
Skepticism about quality control
Lack of awareness about OER
Sustainability

41. Visualizing Cognitive Surplus

42. Slides and Links
Check website for details:
http://sites.la.utexas.edu/power-of-openness

43. Q&A Period
What questions do you (still) have about Open
Education and Language Learning?

44. Agenda
1. Introduction to COERLL
2. Presentation: “The Impact of Open
Education on Foreign Language
Learning”
3. Activity: “Envisioning Open Education”
4. Lunch (in the Atrium)

45. “Envisioning Open Education”
1. React to what you just heard about Open
Education. What are your reactions to this
presentation? [10 min discussion]
2. Imagine your ideal OER. What do you want
future pedagogical materials to look like? [10
min]
3. Brainstorm solutions to one or two of the
challenges to Open Education. What can we
do to overcome the obstacles? [10 min]

46. Lunch Period!
School lunches from around the world