2nd Open Education Global Conference to Take Place in Ljubljana

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. 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.

On 30 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.

The world congress will combine both areas. It will run as a Category II Conference, as 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.

Cankarjev dom will act as the venue and PCO of the 2nd Open Education Global Conference. “The congress 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,” said the spokesperson for the Congress and Event Management of Cankarjev dom.

Photo: Tadej Bernik, Foto Zate