Towards Crossing over the Digital Divide: the use of OER to promote digital literacy Murilo Matos Mendonça; Patrick McAndrew; Andreia Inamorato dos Santos

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COLLABORATION use provide promote uptake understand impact

USE - Promote OER use amongst DE faculty and other members of staff. - Encourage students to use OpenLearn. - Include OpenLearn courses as complementary materials in the VLS.

PROVIDE - Publish, translate and localise material (8 Portuguese-speaking countries = 273 million people; 5th most spoken language in the world. - Share our own intellectual production in both Portuguese and English (cross-cultural studies).

PROMOTE UPTAKE UnisulVirtual Continuing Education Programme - Digital Literacy Project: - Searching Information on the Web - Word Basics - Introduction to Power Point - Excel for Beginners

UNDERSTAND IMPACT - Collaboration with OLnet Project. - Fellowship. - Research. OLnet:

ILLITERACY IN BRAZIL (Base: 15+ year-old persons) - Brazilian population = 201 million - Absolute illiterates = 14.1 million (7%) - Functional illiterates = 30 million (14.9%)

DIGITAL LITERACY - Ability to organise, understand, evaluate and analyse information by using digital technology. - Learning how to use, summarise, evaluate, create and communicate information while using digital technologies.

ATIVIDADESATIVIDADES I N S C R IT O S Minicurso1Minicurso in s cr it o s Minicurso2Minicurso in s cr it o s M i n i c u r s o in s cr it o s Minicurso4Minicurso in s cr it o s COURSES 2009ENROLLMENT 2009 Mini Course 1- THE CONCEPT OF INNOVATION 215 students Mini Course 2 – THE USE OF THE FINANCIAL CALCULATOR ON THE INTERNET 201 students Mini Course 3 DESIGNING THE USER INTERFACE 136 students Mini Course 4 EXPLORING THE FINANCIAL FUNCTIONS OF EXCEL® 253 students

UnisulVirtual OER-BASED DIGITAL LITERACY PILOT PROJECT - Searching Information on the Web (385 sts.) - Word Basics (33 sts.) - Introduction to Power Point (25 sts.) - Excel for Beginners (48 sts.) TOTAL = 491 students

UnisulVirtual OER-BASED DIGITAL LITERACY PILOT PROJECT - Searching Information on the Web (385 sts.) Translation + localisation from OpenLearn - Word Basics (33 sts.) - Introduction to Power Point (25 sts.) - Excel for Beginners (48 sts.) Originally written in Portuguese by UnisulVirtual lecturers specifically as OER

UnisulVirtual OER-BASED DIGITAL LITERACY PILOT PROJECT - £20 registration fee - Tutor - Certificate - Double platform (VLS + OpenLearn)

Activities and Interaction Course Material UnisulVirtual VLS OpenLearn Moodle

Open Learning: Bridge to Success (B2S) OER used to gain skills to learn - core developmental mathematics requirements - learning to learn Goals / Benefits - increase learner capability and confidence - help transition into Tertiary Education - get under-prepared sts. ready to complete college work - provide skills required for lifelong learning

IMPACT - Written feedback from students - Course: “Searching Information on the Web” students responded (49.4%)

IMPACT – Students Quotes - ‘(...) raised awareness of the need to acknoledge authors’ intellectual merit and avoid plagiarism.’ - ‘(...) acquired new knowldege and skills as the Web is something new to me.’ - ‘I belong to the Internet generation. I’d thought this course might be “silly” but it ended up being more than I’d expected.’

IMPACT – Students Quotes - ‘(...) I used to find difficult to do searches. The course showed the way (...) valuable to my personal, professional and academic life.’ - ‘(...) raised important questions regarding quantily x quality and information reliability.’ - ‘Lack of knowledge and skills prevents us from advancing and gets us unmotivated. (...) extremely relevant for us studying at a distance’

IMPACT – Students Quotes - Teachers could use learning objects in the classroom to make their classes more interactive and dynamic and less ‘traditional’. - ‘(...) little contribution to me. I already new about 90% of what was taught.’ - ‘Honestly, I expected more. There was nothing different from what I already knew.’

EXPECTATIONS - Cascading effect with the help of students. Latest breaking news from yesterday: “Word Basics” and “Excel for Beginners” enrollment numbers increased 4-fold and are still going up! - Replication through uptake by other institutions.

SOURCE: INPE – BRAZILIAN INSTITUTE OF SPACE RESEARCH Western Europe in relation to the Brazilian Amazon

G ERÊNCIA DE M ERCADO Unisul: students UnisulVirtual: students Regional Centres in all 27 states of Brazil

DAVID WILEY’S 4 “Rs” - Reuse: copy verbatim - Redistribute: share with others - Revise: adapt and improve - Remix: combine with others

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Image credits: Murilo Matos Mendonça – Patrick McAndrew – Andreia Inamorato dos Santos – OBRIGADO! THANK YOU!