Contribute to the Open Consultation on the Draft Dubai Declaration on OER. The Draft Dubai Declaration on OER is available here: Draft Dubai Declaration on OER.pdf
To attend the 3rd World OER Congress in Dubai, click here.
Introduction
UNESCO Member States adopted the 2019 Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) at the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference. The 2019 Recommendation on OER calls on Governments to support the creation and sharing of content for learning and teaching through open licenses that respect intellectual property rights of the copyright owner and provides permissions granting the public the rights to access, re-use, re-purpose, adapt and redistribute educational materials.
The use of emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, by the public, has been a testament to the value of free software and open content. At the same time, the advancement of Generative AI has fostered significant debates in regard to the new ways in which content can be created, used, reused, and shared. In the field of law, there have been intensive discussions on the status of creative works generated through AI techniques, the legality and ethics of using both copyrighted and open content to train AI models, and the relevance of current open licenses in light of the challenges presented to content creators.
With a view to examining mechanisms for optimizing openly licensed learning content to address the challenges and opportunities posed by emerging technologies, including AI, UNESCO organized the 3rd UNESCO World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress: ‘Digital Public Goods and Emerging Technologies for Equitable and Inclusive Access to Knowledge’. This Congress was hosted by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation (MBRF) and United Arab Emirates Authorities in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) on 19-20 November 2024.
The deliberations of this Congress aimed to identify how the implementation of this UN Normative instrument can contribute to the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Road Map for Digital Cooperation, Commitment 7 of ‘Our Common Agenda’: to “Improve of digital cooperation”. In particular, the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress aimed to make a contribution to the Global Digital Compact by putting forward targeted actions to promote the digital commons as a public good, drawing on the implementation of the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER.
The objectives of this 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress were to:
- Share best practices and innovations in the implementation of the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER in the five years since its adoption;
- Identify strategies for supporting the implementation of the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER to meet emerging challenges;
- Identify collaborative mechanisms to mobilize more stakeholders to implement the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER, with a view to expand access to quality, free, accessible, openly licensed learning resources in support of the Global Digital Compact and the Transforming Education Summit 2023 Call for Action.
This outcome document of the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress, ‘The Dubai Declaration on OER’, focuses on how the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER can optimize openly licensed learning content to address the challenges and opportunities posed by AI and other emerging technologies.
The UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER, addresses practitioners and decision makers in governmental and institutional settings and encourages knowledge sharing, capacity building and policy support related to digital public goods for learning. It outlines recommendations to Member States in 5 areas of action: (i) building capacity of stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute OER; (ii) developing supportive policy; (iii) encouraging inclusive and equitable quality OER; (iv) nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER; and (v) facilitating international cooperation.
In preparation for the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress, six Regional Consultations on OER were organized with the generous support of the Hewlett Foundation and the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF). These regional consultations were held online and in hybrid format, as follows: the Africa Consultation (hybrid, at eLearning Africa 2024, 31 May 2024); the Caribbean Consultation (online, 10 July 2024); the Asia and the Pacific Consultation (online, 30 July 2024); the Europe and North America Consultation (hybrid at Digital Learning Week, UNESCO on 4 September 2024); The Latin America Consultation (online, 8 October 2024); and the Arab States Consultation (online, 21 October 2024).
These consultations raised awareness on the objectives as well as discussion on regional needs related to the objectives of the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress, and identified best practices in the implementation of the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER.
Further, the 3rd World OER Congress drew on the expertise and participation of the UNESCO/Internet Governance Forum (IGF) OER Dynamic Coalition. The UNESCO/IGF OER Dynamic Coalition fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing amongst stakeholders on the implementation of the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER. The IGF Dynamic Coalition status allows for enriched multistakeholder deliberations on the implementation of the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER within a wider intergovernmental framework: a global multistakeholder platform established by the UN Secretary General to facilitate the discussion of public policy issues pertaining to the Internet.
A key theme for the Congress is ‘Digital Public Goods’ (DPGs), which are defined by the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, as "open-source software, open data, open AI models, open standards and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable laws and best practices, do no harm, and help attain the sustainable digital goals (SDGs)”. Digital public goods available with an open copyright license have become essential in a variety of areas including education, with OER. Open solutions are aligned with the principles of DPGs. Due to their intellectual property regime, they allow flexibility, scalability, and interoperability to promote knowledge sharing and access to information OER is an open solution and, by nature, a digital public good, that supports the enrichment of the global knowledge commons.
To attend the 3rd World OER Congress in Dubai, click here
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Contribute to the Open Consultation on the Draft Dubai Declaration on OER.