Every March educators around the world mark Open Education Week - a week dedicated to removing barriers from education through the promotion of open access textbooks and openly-licensed educational resources (OERs). In Ontario alone there were 85 distinct activities attended by more than 1800 people in 19 institutions! The OCAD U Library was among them and, partnering with the Inclusive Design Research Centre, and with generous support from eCampus Ontario, we presented Guerilla Education! A Very Hands-On Open Education Week Event.
On Friday, March 8th educators, researchers, and open source advocates exchanged ideas in a wide-ranging discussion. Starting off the day was Jairus Khan of the Mozilla Foundation who talked about the fundamentals of open and his work with the Internet Health Report which examines the health of the internet in terms of privacy and security, openness, digital inclusion, web literacy, and decentralization. Jairus' slides are viewable here. Next Sheila Batacharya (University of Toronto Mississauga) discussed her experience as an educator publishing in an open access as co-editor of Sharing Breath: Embodied Learning and Decolonization (available free online via Athabasca University Press and in print at the OCAD U library). Next librarian and open advocate Amy Buckland, Head, Research & Scholarship, University of Guelph Library talked about the nuances of open access, avoiding blind zealotry, and how privilege and inclusivity must be considered in all our work. Check out Amy's slides here. Next OCAD U's own Serena Lee and Alexandra Hong reflected on their mentorship work through the Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers, specifically the Five Person Support Model and Experiential Learning.
After lunch Ella Dawn McGeough facilitated an Art+Freminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, part of a global campaign to improve coverage of cis and transgender women, non-binary folks, feminism and the arts on Wikipedia. Participants learned the complexities of Wikipedia - itself an OER - and found making edits to be "wicked empowering."
Chris Landry
Scholarly Communications Librarian
T 416 977 6000 x224
E clandry@ocadu.ca
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For more information on Scholarly Communications at OCAD U visit our Scholarly Communications library guide.