Open Educational Resources within a Knowledge System for Achieving Quality Education SDG
Loading...
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The high levels of poverty and poor access to quality education, among a myriad of other challenges, have contributed to economic and social exclusion in Africa. These exclusions must be viewed against the backdrop of the emergence of a global knowledge-based society in which the production and dissemination of knowledge has become critical for meeting social and economic needs. Education, in the view of Breidlid (2009), is critical for poverty alleviation and economic and social inclusion. Education is central to promoting sustainable development. It is therefore essential to mobilize necessary resources, including openness resources to steer the global south towards economic and social inclusion.
This paper will discuss the exploration of a ‘knowledge system’ that facilitates the networking of open educational resources (OERs) to strengthen the educational system in Africa. The bringing together of contributors who use appropriate technology for innovation will enhance the educational process which will in turn advance learning for growth and development. Key to the effective contribution of knowledge systems to SDGs is information and communication technologies (ICTs). Libraries have responded positively to the potential of ICTs and have recently been utilising that potential to offer publishing services using Open Source Systems (OSS) such as Open Journal Systems (OJS), DSpace, and the Open Monograph Press (OMP). These open source systems, which are a significant component of the openness movement, are exploited to deliver open content which includes open access publishing and sharing of scholarly content. The bias in this paper is the publishing of open educational resources for the development of education in the global south. An educated and informed society will contribute to the broadening of access to wealth for social justice, growth and development.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Ahmed, A. 2007. Open access towards bridging the digital divide–policies and strategies for developing countries. Information Technology for Development, 13(4): 337-361. DOI: 10.1002/itdj.20067.
Breidlid, A. 2009. Culture, indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable development: A critical view of education in an African context. International journal of educational development, 29: 140-148.
Butcher, N. 2015. A basic guide to open educational resources. Common Wealth of Learning: British Columbia, Canada 2015. Available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002158/215804e.pdf [2017, April 23].
Cash, D., Clark, W., Alcock, F., Dickson, N., Eckley, N. Guston, D., Ja¨ger, J. and Mitchell. R.2003. Knowledge systems for sustainable development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(14). Available: http://www.pnas.org/content/100/14/8086.full.
[2017, April 20].
Frank, M. 2013. Open but not free-publishing in the 21st century. New England Journal of Medicine. 368(9): 787-789. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1211259.
Griggs, D., Stafford-Smith, M., Gaffney, O., Rockström, J., Öhman, M.C. Shyamsundar, P., Steffen, W., Glaser, G., Kanie, N, & Noble, I. 2013. Sustainable development goals for people and planet. Nature, 495: 305-307.
Lara-Alecio, R., 2016. Reflections regarding open-access journals and social justice, Journal of childhood and developmental disorders, 2: 1-2.
MDG Monitor. 2017. MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education. Available: http://www.mdgmonitor.org/mdg-2-achieve-universal-primary-education/ [2017, June 22].
Ng’ambi, D. and Luo, A. 2013. Towards a sustainable inter-institutional collaborative framework for open educational resources (OER). In McGreal, R., Kinuthia, W. and Marshall, S, Eds. Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice. Commonwealth of Learning: British Columbia, Canada.
Potent, J. 2014. Employing a knowledge systems approach to creating a sustainable future. Available: http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/02/21/employing-a-knowledge-systems-approach-to-creating-a-sustainable-future/ [2017, April 24].
Raju, R. 2016. Not a knee-jerk reaction: openness - a UX imperative. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2016 – Columbus, OH – Connections. Collaboration. Community in Session 136 - Social Science Libraries with Asia and Oceania. Available at: http://library.ifla.org/1355/ [2016, September 15].
Singh, V., 2014. Open source software use in libraries: implications for social justice?, Qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries (QQML), Special Issue on Social Justice, Social Inclusion, (2014): 49-57.
Tafuri, N. 2014. Prices of U.S. and Foreign Published Materials 2015. Association for library collections and technical services, (2014): 424-459. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v10i4.705 [1017, April 20].
Thakrar, J. Zinn, D and Wolfenden, F. 2009. Harnessing Open Educational Resources to the Challenges of Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. International review of research in open and distance learning, 10(4). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v10i4.705 [2017, May 15].
Umar, A., Kodhandaraman, B. and Kanwar, A. 2013. Can open educational resources thrive in closed educational systems? Some reflections on OER in developing countries. In McGreal, R., Kinuthia, W. and Marshall, S, Eds. Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice. Commonwealth of Learning: British Columbia, Canada.
UNESCO. 2012. Open Educational Resources. World Open Educational Resources Congress. Available: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/ [2017, April 20].
UNESCO. 2017. Open Educational Resources. 2nd World Open Educational Resources Congress. Available: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/ [2017, April 20].
United Nations [n.d.]. Gathering a body of global agreements gathering a body of global agreements: our common future, chapter 2: towards sustainable development. Available at http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm [2017, April 20].
United Nations. 2015. Sustainable development Goals. Available: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/ [2017, April 20].
United Nations. 2015. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Available: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld/publication [2017, April 20].
Van Deventer, I., Van der Westhuizen, P. and Potgieter, F. (2015). Social justice praxis in education: towards sustainable management strategies. South African journal of education, 35 (2015). DOI: 10.15700/saje.v35n2a956.