[Oer-community] Introduction to the discussion

[Molly E. Uzoh]

Susan,

Thanks for restarting the discussion. I have invited 

Our company, Learning Right Technologies, LLC. is a consulting small
business headquartered in the heart of the Silicon Valley of California
whoever we are involved in a let of educational and ICT activities in
Africa. Our company specializes in Information Technology consulting and
educational services/tools. We provide curriculum R&D for instructor-led and
web-based content: interactive multimedia instructional design, learning
simulations, educational software, games and video production; e-learning,
e-government, e-business, e-health such as EPIC consulting; and new program
implementation; leadership and technical training; documentation, technical
writing, e-library, users manual; database, knowledgebase, LMS and project
management. We produced a prototype of a series of interactive multimedia
software for learning African languages like Igbo, Yoruba and Swahili. We
saved over $1.5 million in training materials for implementing Epic modules
in all Kaiser facilities in Northern California. This includes the
curriculum for training Kaiser Health Connect project management,
application development and training teams as well as over 40,000 end users.
We migrated one chapter of US Department of Air Force paper-based
professional development guide to interactive rich digital media exercises
for web offering (http://pdg.af.edu/Interactive_Website_2/index.html) We
facilitated a very successful "Empowering Technology in Africa" event for
Google which helped smoothen Google's expansion to Africa. 

We use a lot of OER in our community activities through Silicon Valley
African Production(www.svap.org) while working with the Silicon Valley
Future Stars. We are constantly looking for the latest opensource technology
for our interactive digital media production programs for the youth. I look
forward to learning from and contributing to any of the topics that might be
of value to the majority in the list. Thanks again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mary (Molly) Uzoh, CEO/Principal Consultant 
Learning Right Technologies, LLC 
P. O. Box 51616 San Jose, CA 95151
Phone: 408-649-5872, Cell: 408-826-2167
http://www.learningright.com
http://www.rightvarsity.com
http://www.svtradexpo.com 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----Original Message-----
From: oer-community-bounces at athabascau.ca
[mailto:oer-community-bounces at athabascau.ca] On Behalf Of Susan D'Antoni
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 4:20 AM
To: oer-community at athabascau.ca
Subject: [Oer-community] Introduction to the discussion

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the first interaction in our OER Community from Athabasca
University.  As I noted in my last message, we will hear about a number of
OER related meetings and this first discussion will be on the meeting of the
OpenCourseWare Consortium held in Vietnam this year.

A little background

In 1999, MIT Faculty considered how to use the Internet in pursuit of MIT's
mission-to advance knowledge and educate students-and in 2000 proposed OCW.
MIT published the first proof-of-concept site in 2002, containing 50
courses. By November 2007, MIT completed the initial publication of
virtually the entire curriculum, over 1,800 courses in
33 academic disciplines. Going forward, the OCW team is updating existing
courses and adding new content and services to the site.

The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of higher education
institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a
broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model.  It is
a worldwide community of hundreds of universities and associated
organizations committed to advancing OpenCourseWareand its impact on global
education. The Consortium serves as a resource for starting and sustaining
OCW projects, as a coordinating body for the movement on a global scale, and
as a forum for exchange of ideas and future planning.

Our discussant

Mary Lou Forward, the Executive Director of the OpenCourseWare Consortium,
will lead our discussion and will be joined by several of her colleagues.

Mary Lou provides leadership for the organization's efforts to support
OpenCourseWare use and development globally.  Prior to joining the
Consortium, she served as Dean of African Studies for SIT Study Abroad.  In
that role, she provided academic and strategic leadership for 29 programs
across the African continent, leading SIT's incorporation of technology and
distance learning in international programming and developing innovative
opportunities to collaborate across countries and between diverse student
groups.  Prior to that position, Mary Lou served as Academic Director for
undergraduate programs in Madagascar, focused on Environmental Studies and
Cultural Geography.  She has also worked on community-based development in
Africa, with an emphasis on the incorporation of appropriate technologies
and sustainable resources in small-scale enterprise development.

Background paper

The attached paper has been prepared as a brief overview of the organization
of the conference and some of the key issues discussed.

I am looking forward to our ongoing conversation.

My best regards,

Susan