First annual Open Education Week declared for 5-10 March 2012

Next week we organize an Open Education week in the Netherlands. For next year the OpenCourseWare Consortium has taken the initiative to organize a worldwide Open Education Week for 5-10 March 2012:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., (October 25, 2011) – 5-10 March 2012 has been declared the first annual Open Education Week. A global event, Open Education Week seeks to raise awareness about the benefits of free and open sharing in education, especially Open Educational Resources (OER). OER are high-quality, free and open educational materials that offer opportunities for people anywhere in the world to share, use and reuse knowledge.

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“The vision of the OER movement is to improve teaching and learning globally through free and open sharing. OER give people access to the educational content they desire, independent of time or location. The movement encompasses producing, sharing, using and modifying content, as well as innovative models of educational delivery,” said Mary Lou Forward, Executive Director of the OpenCourseWare Consortium. “Open Education Week is going to showcase projects, resources, people and ideas so more people around the world can see its potential and its benefits.”

Open Education Week is being planned by representatives of Open Education institutions and organizations from around the world and coordinated by the OpenCourseWare Consortium. Global events will feature projects and resources as well as more general information about the OER movement. Live webinars will be scheduled in different time zones and languages throughout the week. Information and pre-recorded presentations also will be available on the website, along with a virtual tour of a variety of open educational projects and available OER. All virtual and live events are free and open to the public. Visit www.openeducationweek.org for more information.

Of course Delft University of Technology is one of the participating organisations. Here a list of the participating institutions an organisations that already have agreed to participate (and the list is still growing):