Forum Topic

Open Education Resources: The Future of Education

Technology and the prevalence of the Internet has allowed for the dissemination and sharing of information on a scale and at a pace hitherto unknown to mankind. Just as the invention of the printing press made possible a new paradigm in the way in which we share and communicate knowledge, the technology we have today now allows us to virtualize, search, collaborate, adapt and share material cheaply, pervasively, instantaneously and without regard to physical limitations and national boundaries.

The Open Education Resources (“OER”) movement has embraced these tools and calls for educational resources to be widely accessible, adaptable, interoperable, and discoverable, challenging traditional proprietary, closed-end publishing approaches to the development of educational material.

What then is the future direction of education? This forum will provide a platform for academics, publishers and other stake-holders to consider and debate the implications of OER as a new paradigm, including issues such as:

  • How will OER influence the way we teach, learn and communicate?
  • What are the pros and cons of traditional proprietary approaches to development of educational material, relative to OER?
  • Are there any impediments to widespread adoption of OER?
  • Will OER provide universal benefits to education, or will it only work best for some sectors in education?
  • Who should be the creators of OER?
  • Is there a role for governments and institutions to promote the adoption of OER?
  • How can business models for educational publishing be established around OER?

The forum will build upon the ideas discussed in Dr. Catharina Maracke's keynote address on Creative Commons licenses as an essential foundation for creating OER materials, vis-a-vis the conference theme of "Inspired Solutions, Empowering Learning".


Forum Panel

Lam Chung Nian

Chair
Lam Chung Nian

LAM Chung Nian heads the Intellectual Property, Media & Technology Practice at WongPartnership LLP. His main areas of practice are intellectual property ("IP"), media, telecommunications and information technology ("IT") law and he handles both contentious and non-contentious matters. He has worked on numerous projects involving the creation, licensing and exploitation of intellectual property, having advised on many projects involving entertainment, film production, book publishing and new media initiatives. Chung Nian also advises government agencies on media issues, licence schemes, content creation agreements and new media research and development projects. He speaks regularly at public talks and lectures on intellectual property law, legal clinics and seminars organised by various government and public sector. He has been appointed to the WIPO Panel of Film and Media Mediators, Arbitrators and Experts, and to the International Bar Association Communications Law Committee as the Regional Representative Asia General. He also contributes to the Computer Law & Security Review, published by Reed Elsevier, and in a pro bono capacity, is legal lead for Creative Commons Singapore.

Jeff Borden

Panellist
Jeff Borden

Senior Director of Teaching & Learning at Pearson eCollege, Jeff Borden has his M.A in Rhetoric/Human Communication and is currently a doctoral student (ABD) in Education Leadership at Argosy University in Denver. Jeff has created, taught, and administered several upper and lower division Communication and Computer courses for several Universities and Community Colleges around the country since 1998. Additionally, he has assisted faculty, administrators, and trainers from diverse fields in conceptualizing and designing both on-ground and online courses as well as given direction to schools for total program success. Finally, Jeff speaks around the world giving keynote addresses, presenting his “Master Teacher” workshops, performing stand-up comedy, giving creativity seminars, and continues to publish within his field of study. Most recently, Jeff has spoken to the U.S. Congress’ Education Committee, keynoted at a 12,000 audience member conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, spoke in the 2nd Life NMC Symposium for the Future, and been asked to determine the "Academic Vision" for eCollege where he reports directly to the President. To read Jeff’s blog or get more information, check out: http://jeffpresents.com

Giorgos Cheliotis

Panellist
Giorgos Cheliotis

Giorgos Cheliotis is Assistant Professor of Communications and New Media at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the National University of Singapore (NUS). Before joining NUS, Giorgos was a visiting professor at the School of Information Systems of Singapore Management University He has worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company and with a new media startup in Switzerland, and was a post-doctoral researcher with IBM Research at the Zurich Research Laboratory, where he also worked as a doctoral student, earning a PhD in Telecommunications and Information Systems from his home institution, the National Technical University of Athens. Giorgos is an associate fellow of the Center for Asia Pacific Technology Law and Policy (CAPTEL) at Nanyang Technological University and the public lead of Creative Commons Singapore. Giorgos is also editor of the International Journal of Communications Law and Policy and founder of the Free Culture research conference, an annual interdisciplinary event promoting academic dialogue on issues of freedom, sharing and control on the Internet. His work has appeared in several refereed journals, books and international conference proceedings, while he is a frequent speaker on open licensing and new media trends, in public events, on television and in the popular press.

Yeo Ai Hoon

Panellist
Yeo Ai Hoon

Ms. Yeo Ai Hoon has worked in the media industry for 20 years with primary focuses in academia, training, and television production. Currently, she runs her own media consultancy company and serves as an associate faculty at the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM).

At SIM, Ms. Yeo develops online curriculum for communication courses and also acts as Course Chair for several of these courses. Prior to SIM, she was a faculty member at the School of Communication Studies, Nanyang Technological University (NTU).


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