COP15 provides an opportunity to create and realise a new global contract to reduce emissions, replacing the Kyoto protocol which is due to expire in 2012. Notable absences from the Kyoto protocol were Australia and the US, which it is hoped will change now that Barack Obama is in power.

The OU communications teams will be co-ordinating to widely cover the event via video and audio, online and print, reporting via numerous channels such as Twitter, Platform (more specifically here), Facebook, iTunes U, YouTube and OpenLearn.

OpenLearn content will be two-fold – there will be content in the LearningSpace to complement the units already available (see below) as well as new material in the LabSpace, which can be freely remixed and repurposed (in adherence to the Creative Commons license). LabSpace allows collaboration on topics, one major new project to create a space there being LLCC.

LLCC (Learning to Live with Climate Change) is a joint strategic collaboration between the Environment Agency of England and Wales and the OU. The project aims to support the development of new collaborative networks and practices required to move to a low-carbon and climate-adapted economy and society.

LabSpace also has a collaborative space for the 10:10 Climate Change Campaign which is led by a coalition that includes the Guardian, NGOs to major companies, leading political figures, and the Carbon Trust.

List of OpenLearn units related to climate change:

Climate change
Climate change is a key issue on today’s social and political agenda. This unit explores the basic science that underpins climate change and global warming.

Climate change: island life in a volatile world
What impact will global warming really have? This unit examines the potential problems faced by the people of the Pacific Island of Tuvalu as a result of rising sea levels. Where would you go if your island is only a few feet above sea level? Who would you blame?

Global warming
This unit provides an introduction to global warming. We will be considering the history of global warming by looking at the pattern of ice ages and analyisis of recorded temperatures. We will aim to gather meaningful information from this data. We will briefly assess the impact and influence of humans on global warming and, finally, we will examine climate models and how to predict future changes.

Managing coastal environments
Coastal environments are by their nature ever-changing. This unit looks at the example of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, England, describing how the current state of the estuary came to be. It examines the contests and conflicts that centre on the estuary in terms of managing the environment for human needs and the needs of the other species who make their habitat there.

Water and human health
Water is a natural resource that is vital for human survival and health, although only a tiny fraction of the Earth’s supply is available to humans and terrestrial animals. In this unit we look at threats, such as pollution, to water’s capacity to support life around the world.

For the unfamiliar, Talis is “an angel fund to further the cause of open education”. Talis launched at the ALT-C 2009 conference last month and provides funding of up to £15,000 to help individuals or small groups realise ideas which intend to further development of Open Education. In return, they request that all research and outcomes are returned to the community via ‘open source’.

Chris Clarke, Programme Manager for the Talis Education Division, gives an overview of the Incubator in the podcast – its motivations, some practical steps and time scales involved in applying and how the review board decides which submissions to take forward.

Other members of the review board involved in the podcast discussion are:

Prof. Andy Lane, former Director of OpenLearn at the Open University
(introduction at 00:08:30-00:12:30);

Steve Ryan from the Centre for Learning Technology at the London School of Economics and Political Science
(introduction at 00:12:35-00:15:16);

Dave Cormier from the University of Prince Edward Island
(introduction at 00:15:32-00:18:30).

The podcast runs for about an hour and is invaluable for anyone considering applying to the Incubator. To be considered for funding from Talis, you need to write a proposal according to the guidelines.

Direct mp3 download

Introducing digital OER into Zambian primary schools through school-based professional development.

This project intends to overcome access barriers, and engage with OER for Zambian primary/secondary school mathematics teaching. Such barriers include issues around infrastructure, awareness and appropriateness of materials, though it is hoped that various experiences and solutions can be drawn upon to make this successful.

Funding is limited and will be used primarily to engage in Spring 2010 with teachers in Zambia through a North-South partnership. The outcomes will be reported at eLearning Africa in May 2010, at Lusaka. Further information is available here.

Continued engagement through the UK National Commission for UNESCO.

OER has been a long-standing theme within the Information Society Working Group. The second proposal, however, recommends a shift in focus to concentrate on issues around OER access and collaboration. To achieve this, UNESCO are running a series of meetings to further focus on feasible projects. The first meeting will take place in Nottingham on the 25th/26th in conjunction with the Nottingham Open Learning Conference and OER Africa

Also blogged by Bjoern Hassler over at Open Education News.

OpenLearn published a research report in July – news story.

The toolkit is hosted on the OER_Wiki and will potentially be released as a refined PDF version in future if there is support from the community. As ever in the OER world, UNESCO advise that the toolkit is a work in progress (hence the wiki hosting) and as such may change and evolve over time as the outlook and oppotunities afforded the OER movement do.

The toolkit is primarily designed for academics with an interest in finding and using OER relevant to the courses they teach, or who wish to publish OER that they have developed – OpenLearn allows people to do this in the LabSpace. Some sections of the toolkit, however, are aimed at institutional decision-makers and academics that may aspire to set up their own OER projects. This content could also be of interest to institutional planners, IT staff or librarians who are interested in setting up an OER project and could benefit from understanding the academic’s perspective.

While we all believe we have a handle on climate change, how much do we really know and are we aware of small things we can do to have a positive impact? Personally, I don’t own a car and take the bus to work. I’m actually moving closer to work and will then be able to walk. I’m not obsessive but I recycle as much as I can and would say that 90% of general packaging now goes in a red bag as opposed to a black one. I started being more proactive about recycling 6 months ago and it’s quite scary to think how much recyclable material I was sending to landfill. I have a small bin on the counter in the kitchen now for regular waste and my 50L bin is now the recycling bin. I suspect many people do the converse and this is one simple way to literally turn climate change around.

I’m lucky that I live in a south-facing apartment and rarely need to use heating (I’ll simply wear an extra layer when I move). My wife is a vegetarian, I switch everything off at the mains (except for the PVR) at night, buy furniture from sustainable sources and, best excuse I’ve found so far, don’t have kids! So there you have it, simple, everyday actions like this mean my carbon footprint is pretty small and I’m sure many of us are able to implement at least one of these changes – though you shouldn’t really give up your kids.

The Open University (OU) had computers setup at their recent 40th anniversary event to calculate carbon footprint which I hope had an impact. The area certainly seemed popular – there’s some pictures of the events here on flickr. If we created the tools ourselves, they’re a well kept secret so here’s a good carbon footprint calculator.

OpenLearn, the OU’s site which gives free access to its learning materials has a number of study units relevant to climate change in the LearningSpace (detailed below). In the LabSpace, you can remix and reuse materials and there is also the opportunity for collaboration with others. There’s a collaborative space for the 10:10 Climate Change Campaign which also links to OU iTunesU podcasts, YouTube videos and use of the OU’s Cohere tool which makes sense of ideas/arguments and shows the connections between these and other people.

So there you have it. There’s plenty of information out there to become better informed and make a positive impact on climate change and global warming. Congratulations to Blog Action Day for informally raising the profile and getting people thinking and, hopefully, acting. You can follow Blog Action Day and OpenLearn on Twitter – @blogactionday & @OpenLearn.

OpenLearn courses related to climate change:

Climate change
Climate change is a key issue on today’s social and political agenda. This unit explores the basic science that underpins climate change and global warming.

Climate change: island life in a volatile world
What impact will global warming really have? This unit examines the potential problems faced by the people of the Pacific Island of Tuvalu as a result of rising sea levels. Where would you go if your island is only a few feet above sea level? Who would you blame?

Global warming
This unit provides an introduction to global warming. We will be considering the history of global warming by looking at the pattern of ice ages and analyisis of recorded temperatures. We will aim to gather meaningful information from this data. We will briefly assess the impact and influence of humans on global warming and, finally, we will examine climate models and how to predict future changes.

Managing coastal environments
Coastal environments are by their nature ever-changing. This unit looks at the example of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, England, describing how the current state of the estuary came to be. It examines the contests and conflicts that centre on the estuary in terms of managing the environment for human needs and the needs of the other species who make their habitat there.

Water and human health
Water is a natural resource that is vital for human survival and health, although only a tiny fraction of the Earth’s supply is available to humans and terrestrial animals. In this unit we look at threats, such as pollution, to water’s capacity to support life around the world.

The Open University’s YouTube channel is the largest and most popular of the UK university channels – our 633 videos have been viewed over 1.6 million times and we have 2600 subscribers. In September, 77% of views came from outside the UK with most views coming from the US.

The Head Spin Trick viral alone received over 480,000 views, after The Thatcher Effect – a psychology experiment from the 80s – was discussed on BBC show QI. Other popular views are a playlist of 90 second lectures with big thinkers at The Open University; mind tricks such as We can read your mind and Mindbender; big questions such as How do they choose the next Dalai Lama?, How beautiful was Cleopatra?; and behind the scenes of OU/BBC broadcasts such as videos from the set of Bang Goes the Theory.

John Naughton, Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at The Open University, was good enough to comment while dashing round the country: “As we move from a media ecosystem dominated by broadcast television into one dominated by ‘pull’ media like the Web, universities have to be where the action – and the demand – is. Given that The Open University has multimedia in its institutional DNA, YouTube EDU is an obvious platform for us and it’s good to see that a significant number of our European partners have come to the same conclusion.”

YouTube staff have developed the portal in the 20% time they are allowed to dedicate to special projects. Anna De Paula Hanika, product marketing for YouTube in EMEA is one of the key people dedicating time to this along with Jack Sheldon. In their PR Anna says what YouTube EDU means to her: “YouTube EDU is a global classroom where everyone – from those who want to see what university courses are like, to intellectually curious graduates – can watch and engage with a range of academic videos that have been uploaded by some of the world’s most prestigious universities. Our education destination is a direct response to our community’s interest in this type of content and we look forward to adding even more institutions over time.”

The Open University launched four official channels on YouTube in August 2008 – OUView for videos about the University, OULearn for learning materials from OU courses and BBC broadcasts, OULife for student and staff events and OUResearch.

The channels aren’t just about OU video content but give us the opportunity to engage people in conversation about the content and encourage viewers to submit their own videos. Recently viewers of the BBC/OU Saving Britain’s Past series have posted videos describing what they consider as their heritage

The latest OU videos include interviews with leading experts in subjects such as Cannabis and consciousness and Why space missions fail,; ‘How to’ videos such as Making a CD case out of a card and How to make diamonds, How to spot a fake pound coin and a home makeover video on eco-renovations.

The conference started off with a keynote from Catherine Ngugi of OER Africa. I’m on the look-out for the session on the P2PU (Peer to Peer University) and I hear there was a lot of heated discussion on fair use in OER. David Wiley has blogged on the “increasingly radical element within the field” that concerns him. Oooh err. Sounds like a good ‘un.

The great news is that it is in Barcelona next year so I might make it!

P2PU intend to leverage the power of the internet and social applications to empower communities and enable people to support each others learning. P2PU combines open educational resources (OER) with structured courses with the prospect of recognition, aiming to offer high quality education at low or no cost – the first course presentations will be free but P2PU are investigating pricing and may charge a fee for sign-up after the pilot.

P2PU’s pilot courses start on 9 September (sign up is by 26 August) and will run for 6 weeks covering a range of topics delivered at university level. Learning will be undertaken in small groups chaired by a volunteer either with expertise in the subject or with connections with others who do. The volunteer will organise the course and disseminate the course package which will contain the syllabus, study materials and schedule. Style of course structure and delivery may change as the process is refined over time with the eventual aim to create a learning platform that can be used by anyone to offer courses – much in the same way as OpenLearn’s LabSpace which allows people to remix and reuse Open University (OU) course materials to suit their purpose/audience. Currently P2PU are using a pbworks site but are apparently working on an open source solution for future – the OU uses a moodle/drupal combination for its virtual learning environment.

The initial course offerings are:

Introduction to Concepts in Behavioral Economics and Decision Making

Copyright for Educators

Introduction to Cyberpunk Literature

Land Restoration and Afforestation

Open Creative Nonfiction – Take Away Narratives

Poker and strategic thinking

Although early days, P2PU have also considered accreditation and recognition, offering a certificate upon satisfactory completion of a course and encourage not only self but peer assessment. Learners provide feedback to other group members, with the aim of improving each others’ work through review. The Open University utilise this same model in its short course T189 Digital photography: creating and sharing better images where fellow students critique one another’s work to improve understanding and technique, leading to better images being submit in the final portfolio.

P2PU is currently run by volunteers and is supported by the Hewlett Foundation and the Shuttleworth Foundation for basic start-up costs and receives admin and legal support from the University of California at Irvine.

The publication documents an early period in the OER movement and many of the foremost debates and discussions at the time that are still talked about today. The publication also brings together the many background papers and reports from these first few years in the open education community.

Incidentally, OpenLearn has also recently published a Research Report on its first two years – further info here.

Also available free online from UNESCO is Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning. UNESCO have other releases in the pipeline from Philipp Schmidt (@sharingnicely) and Bjoern Hassler so watch this space.

The OU has two academic advisors on the series, who are both involved in researching identity and environment in later life. In the next 20 years, the over 80s will be the fastest growing age group in the country with more people in this age group than any other. The OU is also carrying out an online survey to find out how much people know about the options and services available for caring for the elderly.

OpenLearn has study units on retirement and ageing as well as more broadly in the areas of care, community and social work:

Caring: A Family Affair (K100_1)
Care is needed at all stages of life. This unit makes care in the family its focus because the overwhelming majority of care, including health care, is supplied in families, much of it in private, much of it unnoticed and unremarked upon. The meaning of the term (informal carer) and the word (care) itself are explored.

Care relationships (K100_3)
To set up a care relationship that works well is a delicate matter, whether you are at the giving or the receiving end. In this unit we explore the very varied meanings of care relationships and how these meanings arise. Millions of care relationships are going on as you read this, and each carries its own particular meanings for those involved. But where have all those people picked up their ideas of how to relate to each other? How does any of us know where to begin?

The boundaries of care (K100_8)
In this unit, we are going to look at a number of situations which put a strain on the idea that caring is just ‘being ordinary’, including times when people are giving intimate care. In these special circumstances, since the normal rules do not apply, we have to develop a set of special rules to guide practice.

Introducing social work practice (K113_1)
Social work is a vital element in how our society cares for those in need. This unit looks at the meaning of ‘social work values’ as well as the different approaches to social work and the skills involved.

Retiring lives? Old age, work and welfare (DD305_3)
Retirement, pensions, care homes – old age may not be as rosy as we think. This unit looks at old age taking us from the Workhouse to the basic state pension. Why are people expected to stop work at a certain age and what impact does this have on their lives?

Ageing and disability: transitions into residential care (K216_1)
Moving into a care home can have a profound emotional impact on an individual – just the anticipation of residential care is one of the biggest sources of fear for the elderly. This unit discusses the role of social workers and care staff in supporting individuals through the transition, and how residential environments affect quality of life.

Addiction and neural ageing (SD805_2)
This unit looks at two topics that are of immense worldwide social, economic, ethical, and political importance – ‘addiction’ and ‘neural ageing’. You will develop a Master’s level approach to the study of specific issues within these two important subject areas.

What’s in a title: understanding meanings in community care (K222_1)
What do we mean by ‘community’, ‘care’ and ‘welfare’? In this unit you will explore the meanings of these words in their historical and cultural settings. The unit does not discuss these terms exclusively in terms of social work practice so service users, carers or anyone interested in community care and the ways in which welfare services are provided would find this unit useful.

Living with death and dying (K260_1)
This unit will explore how knowledge and beliefs about death and encounters with death affect people’s lives. It will also examine the concept of a ‘good death’ from an individual perspective in order to enhance the quality of dying.

Moral and ethical principles in end of life care (K260_2)
‘The role of medicine in death, dying, and bereavement’. This unit is for people who are interested in issues surrounding the role of medicine for people who are dying and/or bereaved. It will also be of interest to those working with dying …
In many areas of health care, and especially in such areas as palliative care, increasing attention has been paid in recent years to patient autonomy, and the need to respect it. Autonomy has come to be seen as a very important aspect of the interaction between patients and those looking after them, and forms the basis for many ethical commitments, such as telling the truth to patients, and seeking their consent for health care interventions. In this unit we look at quite a wide range of ethical issues. They all have one thing in common, however: autonomy. Each of them is a pressing ethical issue because of our concerns about how best to respect patient autonomy, and about whether it should be ignored or overridden in certain cases.