You can download the final MERCOSUL Recommendation in Portuguese (official), Spanish and English here.
In order to discuss and advance a common agenda for OER in the region, representatives from Ministries of Education and experts will meet in Brasília between the 28th and 30th of November, 2018. State representatives from Brasil and members of organisations will be invited to better understand the theme and co-create policy proposals and actions. Due to space limitations the event will be restricted to those invited, but there will be live streaming (including sign language).
In this meeting, we will reference the Draft UNESCO Recommendation for OER (available in EN/FR),a UNESCO normative document currently under review. See also a brief description of the process that took place to construct this Recommendation.
When: November 28-30, 2018 (live streaming 28th-29th).
Place: CAPES (Brasília, DF)
Organisers: UNESCO-Brasil, Ministry of Education (Brazil) and Mercosul Educational Sector.
Support: CAPES, UNESCO Chair in Distance Education (UnB) and Open Education Initiative (Brazil)
Link to live streaming: https://www.youtube.com/capes_oficial
Hashtag: #reamercosul
Agenda
28/11 (Wednesday)
Live streaming of the morning sessions
8h30 – 9h – Welcome coffee
9h – 9h30 – Opening Representative from CAPES (DED/Distance Education Office)
Representative from Basic Education Secretariat (SEB/Ministry of Education)
Representative from UNESCO-Brasil
9h30 – 10h15 – Lecture “What are Open Educational Resources?”
UNESCO Chair in Distance Education – University of Brasília
10h15 – 11h15 – Roundtable 1: “OER Legislation in Brazil”
Open Education Initiative – Law Project 1.513, de 2011
Secretariat of Education of the Federal District – Law 5.592/2015
Secretariat of Education for the City of São Paulo – Initiatives on OER
11h15 – 11h30 – Break
11h30 – 12h30 – Roundtable 2 “Projects and Programs in OER”
Representative for Open Government Partnership – Office of the Comptroller General
Representative from Basic Education Secretariat (SEB/Ministry of Education)
Representative from CAPES (DED/Distance Education Office) – Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
12h30 – 14h – Break
14h – 18h – Workshop “How to implement an Open Education policy” (no live streaming, local workshop only for representatives from Brazilian States), based on the book Como Implementar uma Política de Educação Aberta. Organised by the Open Education Initiative.
29/11 (Thursday)
Live streaming morning and afternoon
8h30 – 9h – Welcome
9h – 9h30 – Opening roundtable
Representative from the Ministry of Education (MEC) of Brazil
Representative from UNESCO Brazil
Representative from the University of Brasília
Representative from CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel)
9h30 – 10h15 – Keynote
Dr. Maja Makovec Brenčič – Ex-Minister of Education, Science and Sport – Republic of Slovenia
10h20 – 11h – Lecture “OER at UNESCO”
Dr. Valtencir Mendes – UNESCO/Paris
11h – 12h – Lecture “Building open education policies: Models and processes”
Dr. Dominic Orr – Research Institute for the Economics of Education and Social Affairs (FiBS) and UNESCO Consultant
12h – 12h15 – Launch of the publication – Gestão da Educação Pública com o Uso da Tecnologia Digital: Características e tendências (Public education administration with the use of digital technologies: Characteristics and tendencies)
Adauto Soares – Coordinator for the Communication and Information Sector – UNESCO Brasil
12h15 – 13h30 – Break
14h – 15h00 – Roundtable presentations – OER in Mercosul (1)Country presentations
15h – 15h20 – Break
15h20 – 16h30 – Roundtable presentations – OER in Mercosul (2)Country presentations
17h – Closing
30/11 (Friday)
Restricted event, no live streaming
9h – 12h30 – Meeting of Mercosul representatives (by invitation only)Discuss a set of recommendations and next steps around OER, in order to identify possibilities for collaboration.
12h30 – 13h30 – Closing
About the event
The term Open Educational Resources (OER) was adopted within a Global Forum held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in 2002. Fifteen years later, the OERs have definitely been integrated into the agenda of governments and institutions who are interested in promoting values such as equitable and inclusive quality education, which the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) aims to ensure. In 2012, the UNESCO World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress resulted in the Paris OER Declaration, which called on governments to implement open education policies to promote and foster OER. In 2017, the UNESCO World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress resulted in the Ljubljana Action Plan 2017 and a Ministerial Commitment (signed by 11 countries) based on the guidelines of the Paris Declaration (2012).
The 2017 Action Plan reinforces the importance of OER to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education’ (SDG 4 of Agenda 2030). It also suggests clear steps towards achieving these objectives in five priority areas:
- the capacity of users to find, re-use, create, and share OER;
- language and cultural issues;
- ensuring inclusive and equitable access to quality OER;
- changing sustainability models;
- developing supportive policy environments.
The process of developing an OER Recommendation for possible adoption by the UNESCO General Conference in 2019 initiated in 2016. The possibility of its ratification would mean that Member States should periodically report to UNESCO on the progress made in the area of OER. This will both consolidate the work carried out by several Member States and promote OER to other countries, which are still learning about the subject.
In Brazil, this area has had significant progress. The goals 5 and 7 of the National Education Plan (2014-2024) emphasize the importance of open educational resources to foster the quality of basic education. Resolution CNE/CES No. 1, from 11 March 2016, declares the ‘creation, availability, use, and management of open educational technologies and resources released under a free licence to facilitate the use, revision, translation, adaptation, recombination, distribution, and free sharing by citizens, protecting the pertinent copyright.’ More recently, the Ministry of Education (MEC) published an Ordinance in the Official Gazette, which defines the criteria for acquiring OER for basic education produced by public funds from the Ministry. The document stated in its Article 7 that educational resources acquired or produced by public funds should always be under an open licence.
As the adoption of a Recommendation for OER has been discussed within UNESCO, we propose a three-day meeting to bring together representatives of the Ministries of Education and other stakeholders from the MERCOSUR countries with the objective of:
- Presenting their initiatives, policies, and projects around OER;
- Identifying successful practices and major gaps;
- Building an agenda of cooperation around OER.
The first day will be an opportunity for raising awareness and training Brazilian public managers on the importance of OER.