Blogging from the OLE Global Assembly in Kathmandu, Nepal – As the first-ever Global OLE Assembly has unfolded here, it has taken on the dimensions of a constitutional convention – or perhaps something more like the inaugural meeting of a “united nations of learning.”
Founding members are here from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and North America – in addition to partners from these regions and Europe. They are building consensus on fundamental tenets of the global OLE Network’s mission to improve access to a quality basic education for all the world’s children. The evolution of this mission reflects the experiences and challenges OLE members are also sharing in Assembly sessions.
Richard Rowe
OLE Founder Richard Rowe is leading discussions on the building blocks of what could become OLE’s global charter, starting with the words “Open,” “Learning,” and “Exchange.” Early consensus includes the following:
Open
To what degree should OLE International and OLE Centers open their content to all users? As vanguards in the open educational resources movement, Assembly participants agreed that all materials in their interconnected local and global digital libraries should be freely available to be downloaded and localized or otherwise revised for use by anyone. That said, a discussion about whether this content could then be commercialized by a third party proved inconclusive.
Learning
What is the role of the teacher? The conventional top-down model of teaching has come under increasing pressure in the digital era. Can children instead teach themselves using new technologies, or does education still need to be driven by teachers, even if that education includes a significant self-learning component? The OLE consensus was that in building an environment where students can themselves learn and help each other to learn, OLE must also help teachers become better intermediaries between content and students, through means including teacher training.
Exchange
What is the power of a global network? Assembly participants – one after another – said they had benefited significantly from their relationships with OLE International and with their peers in the OLE Network. They concluded that the network itself is a vital part of the OLE model, and that it should evolve into a mesh network among equal partners, rather than a hub and spoke network with any one organization at the center.
Later this week, Richard will lead a discussion of another fundamental question: What constitutes a basic education? OLE International has posed nine abilities that should be engendered, going well beyond the traditional “reading, writing, and arithmetic.” Among them: Engaging in productive uplifting work; promoting cooperation and managing conflict; and contributing meaningfully to the wellbeing of one’s family, community, and nation.
About the Global OLE Assembly
The Open Learning Exchange (OLE), an emerging global network dedicated to educating the world’s children, is holding its first meeting of educational innovators from across the developing world in Kathmandu on November 2 to 7, hosted by OLE Nepal.
Among those attending have been Mahashram Sharma (Director General of Department of Education); Lawa Dev Awasthi (Joint Secretary of Nepal’s Ministry of Education); Haribol Khanal (Executive Director of Nepal’s Curriculum Development Center); Prativa Pandey (Chairperson of the Board of Directors of OLE Nepal and Chair of the opening session); Richard Rowe (Founder and CEO of OLE International) and members of his team; Kedar Bhakta Mathema (Former Vice Chancellor of Tribhuvan University and the Chief of the advisory board of OLE Nepal); Rabi Karmacharya (Executive Director of OLE Nepal) and members of his team; and representatives from OLE Centers and partners in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Rwanda, and other countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America.
