The document describes a pilot project called "OER growers" that aims to connect young agronomists and scientists with citizens interested in home gardening. Through the project, participants will conduct small-scale agricultural experiments using online tools and share their findings. Young professionals can gain ICT training and present their work, while citizens benefit from practical knowledge on growing vegetables, herbs, and fruit. The project will run seasonally, and participants will document their experiments online for others to learn from.

1. Pilot project
“OER growers”
Spread the agricultural
knowledge
Babis Thanopoulos, Nikos Manouselis
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-
Agro-Know Technologies
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
Unported License. cthanopoulos@agroknow,gr, nikosm@ieee.org

2. … The Spark

3. Agro-Know Technologies team
IT Experts
Agro-Know Technologies is a
research SME in developing new
technologies for the organisation
of agricultural knowledge …
Is located in Athens, Greece
Experts in
Agricultural Sciences

4. Due to the crisis
• Many friends, collaborators and relatives start asking for
information on how to grow vegetables, herbs and fruit
trees at their place: balconies, roof gardens, backyards,
etc I would like to replace the
flowers in my backyard to
vegetables. Which varieties
do you suggest for my
region? How can I
Where can I find grow tomato
seeds of vegetables plants in my
for my terrace How often do I have balcony?
garden? to water my herbs?

5. • At the same time a lot of articles in newspapers, web sites,
blogs etc urge citizens to grow their own home garden
Take care the vegetables in your
balcony Vegetables garden in your balcony
Grow your vegetables in your balcony …

6. • Citizens’ communities have already established
vegetable, flower and herb gardens in public places (e.g.
schools)
Vegetable garden in the
Municipal vegetable vegetable garden in
School garden in
municipality of Alexandroupoli
Drama (North Greece) (South Greece)
Peloponnese

7. Emerging need
• Connection of the existing agricultural knowledge of
young agronomists and scientists from related research
fields with citizens’ interest to apply the theory into
practice.

8. OER growers idea
• A training project for young agronomists and scientists
from related research fields on how to use new
technologies
• Enables new agronomists to work on their free time
combing their agricultural knowledge with the use of
o Online tools: e-learning platforms (e.g. moodle)
o Web 2.0 tools: blogs, wiki, Flickr, YouTube
• Agronomists’ experiments are available to the end-users
(citizens)

9. Benefit of participation
• ICT training
• Run an experiment at participants’ own time and place
• Opportunity to present the practical use of the
experiment achievements
• Linkage with other agronomists and researchers from
different domains with common interests
• Support Greek Community of Green OER
(Open Educational Resources)

10. OER growers in seasons
• Depending on the weather conditions and the availability
of participants, an OER grower can join the pilot project
and implement a small scale experiment in …
November -
June - July - August March - April - May
December - January

11. Become an OER grower !
1. Choose the experiment, depending on participant’s
research interest and his/her scientific background
2. Use his own material and place for the completion of
the experiment
3. Participation in the training on specific online & web2.0
tools
4. Frequent record of the experiment progress
5. Presentation & Evaluation of the experiment
6. Certification

12. 1. Choose the topic of the experiment
Compost
Propagate your vegetables
Growing your tulips
Take care your tomato

13. 2. Use your own material and place
Grow the plants in pots in your place
Grow the plants in protected place
Grow the plants in your garden
in you garden

14. 3. OER growers training
• 4 online trainings
• 1 physical training (optional)
Online training Physical training

15. 4. Progress of the experiment
Online calendar - 3 postswiki page
Related material (externalweek
Upload photos & / sources
Report - OER growers’videos on
(http://blog.oergrowers.gr/)
(http://blog.oergrowers.gr/)
e.g. YouTubeYouTube
Flickr and videos)

16. 5. Presentation & 6. Certificate
Final presentation of the
experiment (using the wiki page)
Certificate of participation in
OER growers

17. one of our bright stars

18. introducing Konstantina
18

19. project cucumbers
• Wiki page on rationale/approach – an
urban balcony case study
• frequent blogging on how her plants grew
• proposed interesting techniques for
watering during intensive heat by using
crystals
• had enough time to demonstrate also
collection/harvesting
19

20. rich material produced/re-used

21. Konstantina’s reflection
• “Στόχος είναι η δημιουργία ενός αστικού
N ED
λαχανόκηπου στο μπαλκόνι μας.
IO SH
• Η ιδέα περιλαμβάνει την αντικατάσταση
S I
IS PL
καλλωπιστικών φυτών με καλλιέργειες
M M
που θα χρησιμοποιούνται από το
C O
νοικοκυριό με σκοπό την κατανάλωση
σπιτικών προϊόντων.
AC
• Ως μία πρώτη επαφή με το αντικείμενο
επιλέχθηκε η καλλιέργεια του αγγουριού.
21

22. thank you!
http://www.oergrowers.gr
http://agrimoodle.agroknow.gr