Educadigital and Instituto de Tecnologia e Sociedade (ITS-Rio) will join efforts to disseminate the concept and importance of open education and open educational resources in Brazil
Tradução: Beatriz Cruz e Ana Luiza Feres
Sérgio Branco, Priscila Gonsales and Ronaldo Lemos
From June 2016, Educadigital Institute (IED) and the Institute for Techology and Society (ITS-Rio) are formally partners in the cause of Open Educational Resources (OER). The cooperation agreement between the two institutions was signed with the aim of developing joint activities in favor of open education, open innovation and OER.
Open education in digital culture is part of IED’s mission since its founding in December 2010. Through advocacy in public and governmental spheres, events organization, community mobilization, and training of educators and managers of technical education teams, we aim to amplify the understanding and creation of policies that favors the widespread adoption of OER. IED is part of a global community of open education, and is making its presence in the major forums on the subject. In 2014, the OER.br project, created by the lawyer Carolina Rossini, currently advisory counselor of IED, was a winner of the ARede Award.
One of the aspects related to the OER cause involves the use of flexible licenses, especially the Creative Commons (CC), offering a new copyright management model while dialogues with the Copyright Law in force. And the ITS-Rio is one of the two Brazilian institutions that represents the CC in Brazil (the other is FGV-Rio). “The founders of ITS, Sergio (Branco) and Ronaldo (Lemos), have always been part of our network of activists, collaborating in many of our activities. The idea now is to formally join together to further strengthen and disseminate this subject in the country,” said Priscilla Gonsales, founder of IED.
The copyright and defense of open educational resources always been at the core of ITS. Years before the ITS-Rio was created, its founders directors have worked together to promote constructive discussion about copyright law in the digital society and about the use of Creative Commons licenses for supporting artists and other creative producers. Currently, ITS has developed activities related to democracy and technology, innovation and right, but always closely linked to education and culture. “For this reason, this partnership with Educadigital is so appropriate,” emphasizes the lawyer Sergio Branco, one of the ITS’ founder.
“Educadigital is one of the most important names in open education and teachers training in Brazil, carrying out fundamental work to adapt education to the demands of present times. We believe that the joint work between Educadigital and ITS will yield many fruits, such as organization of meetings and development of activities that aim to promote discussion about the importance of open educational resources, its adoption and dissemination,” says Branco. For Claudio Ruiz, regional director of Creative Commons in Latin America, this alliance is important because all member institutions of CC in the world have as its main theme OER. “CC and OER need to be closely linked,” he stressed.
One of the first actions that will be co-created by both institutions is the Open Innovation Event, oriented to the publishing and education startups, scheduled for the second half of 2016. Also, to encourage governments and educational institutions to implement all the aspects pointed by Unesco’s OER declaration, held in 2012 in Paris (France) where Educadigital was the representative of civil society within the Brazilian representatives commitee.
