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Susan d'Antoni
Open Educational Resources Project
Division for Education Strategies and Capacity Building
International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP)
Education Sector
UNESCO
7, place de Fontenoy 75352
Paris 07 SP France
Office 3003
Tel. +33 (0)1 45 68 09 93
tel +33 1 45 03 77 16
fax +33 1 40 72 83 66
.


/
Dear Susan:
(1) Many thanks for your msg ( ATTACHMENT I).
I am taking the liberty of forwarding your msg to our list.
(2) I am particularly delighted to read the following in your msg;

“President Barack Obama announced a proposal to commit $50 million for the development of open online courses for community colleges as part of the American Graduation Initiative: Stronger American Skills through Community Colleges.”

Dear E-Colleagues:
(3) Followings are the attached files of Susan’s msg;

(a) Building Knowledge Societies: Open Educational Resources, Panel session
World Conference on Higher Education: The New Dynamics of Higher Education
Paris, 5-8 July 2009

(b) Theme III – Learning, research and innovation, Track 1
Session III.8. Building Knowledge Societies: Open Educational Resources

Pls enjoy reading them.
Best, Tak

ATTACHMENT I

From: "" <
Reply-To: "" <
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:00:03 +0200 (CEST)
To:
Subject: Digest for list iiep-oer-opencontent
Table of contents:
1. News - "D'Antoni, Susan" <

From: "D'Antoni, Susan" <
Reply-To:
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:33:24 +0200
To:
Subject: News
Dear Colleagues,
Last week UNESCO held the World Conference on Higher Education with over 1200 participants from 150 countries. The topic was The New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research for Societal Change and Development.
There was a high level of engagement and exchange, and you can find a succinct overview in the press release in English at . And it is available in French at .
OER is surely a new dynamic in higher education, and we organized a session on OER. An excellent panel made stimulating presentations that were followed by a thought provoking discussion (see attached for outline of the session and notes).
You will find the final Communiqué of the conference at and OER is referred to in point 13! The French translation will be posted as soon as it is available on the link above to the French version of the conference site.
During the conference Dr. Jill Biden, wife of the Vice President of the United States spoke about the importance of the community college mode in a diversified higher education system. And yesterday many of us received a message from Cathy Casserly who was formerly the head of the OER Program of the Hewlett Foundation. She wrote:

“Today at Macomb College, President Barack Obama announced a proposal to commit $50 million for the development of open online courses for community colleges as part of the American Graduation Initiative: Stronger American Skills through Community Colleges. As proposed, the courses will be freely available for use as is and for adaption as appropriate for targeted student populations. The materials will carry a Creative Commons license.”

All of us in the Open Educational Resources (OER) community should pause and take a moment (but just a moment ;-D) to reflect on the tremendous journey that has brought us to this announcement. Individually and collectively we have traveled this promising yet unchartered path to make high quality educational materials available to all. Our collective work has brought us to this point of inflection, where the potential to innovate and scale has become a reality. President Obama has taken a bold step and we hope that Congress will follow.
This is yet another initiative that will incorporate the OER goal of increasing access to knowledge.
My best,
Susan
Susan D’Antoni
Open Educational Resources Project

Division for Education Strategies and Capacity Building
Education Sector
UNESCO
7, place de Fontenoy 75352
Paris 07 SP France
Office 3003
Tel. +33 (0)1 45 68 09 93

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* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education *
* Founder and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of *
* Global University System (GUS) *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-5913, U.S.A. *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Email: *
*
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