UNESCO 2nd Open Education Global Conference to take place in Ljubljana in 2017
12 Oct 2016
Slovenia is quickly becoming one of the forerunners of open educational resources (OER). OER are invaluable tools that are useful for freely-accessible teaching and learning. Slovenia has systematically funded OER since 1994, fostering production of openly licensed and accessible documents and media.
© G. Murn
10 million EUR has been invested into multimedia and interactive educational e-materials as well as the Opening Up Slovenia initiative between 2006 and 2010. To Slovenia, this represents a formal acknowledgement and strategically important national, economic and developmental position. UNESCO (represented by its Director General, Irina Bokova) supported the initiative and proposed Slovenia to host the 2nd Open Education Global Conference.
In September 2014 Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, and Director of the Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS), Prof. Jadran Lenarčič, PhD, signed an agreement on the establishment of UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Learning, based at the IJS Ljubljana. This is the leading Slovenian scientific research institute, covering a broad spectrum of basic and applied research, whose staff of more than 960 specializes in natural sciences, life sciences and engineering.
The event, which will take place from 18 to 20 November 2017, will run as a Category II Conference - an intergovernmental conference including participation of high-ranking ministers or their deputies in partnership between the Republic of Slovenia, UNESCO and some prominent foundations and institutions involved in OER. It will furthermore bring together researchers and various scientists from diverse disciplines who will address the issue from their respective angles.
CD Congress Centre Ljubljana will act as the venue and PCO of this global conference. They report that the event has garnered a lot of attention, and Ljubljana looks forward to hosting approximately 500 high-profile guests from abroad. Apart from working out good logistical solutions the rules of professional and political etiquette will also have to be followed.
