This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Policies for OER in regional and minority languages: are

regional and minority languages side-lined?

Moderators: Marit Bijlsma & Cor van der Meer, Fryske Akademy (Netherlands)

26thth of September 2016, Crowne Plaza - Brussels

This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

What Characterizes Regional and Minority Language Communities?

This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Presentations • Zora Popova (European Centre of Minority Issues, Germany)• Ľudovít Hajduk (National Institute for Education, Slovakia)• Eleni Sella (University of Athens, Greece)• Madoka Hammine (University of Lapland, Finland)• Maria Luisa Gurrutxaga (Donostiako Berritzegunea – Basque Government, Spain)

This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Open Discussion- What can OER offer for Small Languages and

Regional and Minority Languages in Particular?- What concrete actions should be taken for further

uptake?

Recommendations

• Governments should: Support collaboration with other nations or regions in establishing quality OER in lesser used Languages (LuL);

• The European Commission should: Revitalise the commitment to OER that it expressed in Opening Up Education, with a particular focus on OER in LuL as a means of maintaining cultural and linguistic diversity;

• Institutions should: Facilitate teacher and support staff training in the creation, adaptation and use of OERs.

This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Concluding Remarks

Bottom-up initiativesBottom-up, community-driven initiatives of less used language speakers demonstrate how speakers who actively engage in digital practice can contribute in the linguistic and cultural expansion of their language;Wikimedia Foundation:

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/05/09/bangla-translations-odia-womens-history/

Stimulate the production of multilingual OERThe production of most of the OER are in English, therefore, creating a barrier to guaranteeing the universal use or understanding of the content. Develop methods to translate and re-contextualize resources from English and other large languages

Moving the field forward

This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

What can OER offer for Less used Languages?

What are the advantages for Less used Languages when using OER?

• Maintaining Linguistic DiversityExample: Arbëresh (Southern Italy): Arbëresh is spoken in Southern Italy in the regions of Abruzzi, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Apulia and Sicily. With almost no written tradition of the language, it is a challenge to keep the language alive. OER can offer a great opportunity to produce more learning materials in the Arbëresh language.

• Quality of educationOER facilitate the implementation of a CLIL method at low costs as OER learning materials can be adjusted at no costs to a specific (language) context. In addition, it facilitates Computer Assisted Learning (CALL). Computer assisted language learning refers to “any process in which the learner uses a computer to improve language competences”

• EmpowermentIn Friesland (Netherlands) a MOOC is being developed to empower the Frisian language. It also offers diaspora languages the opportunity to reach out to their culture and language while abroad.

• Decrease educational costs

What are the advantages for Less used Languages when using OER?

In summary:

• Allow legal extensive use of the resources free of charge.• Enable increased and low cost access to education.• Enable increased quality assurance for the learning materials

used by learners.• Enable innovation, creativity and sustainable use.• Enable the rapid development of courses and programmes.• Lower the cost of delivering online and blended learning.• Make available high quality materials  at any time when

delivered online.