The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand has confirmed their membership as a * founding* anchor partner of the international innovation partnership implementing the OER university network.
The Open Polytechnic is an outstanding distance education pioneer and New Zealand’s first choice for open, flexible learning. Jim Rohn, the american business author suggests that: "There are only about a half dozen things that make 80% of the difference in any area of our lives.” This is probably true for the OERu innovation partnership -- once we achieved the milestone of six founding anchor partners we realised that a viable solution for OER to provide more affordable education was indeed imminent. Now that we have achieved the "perfect dozen" of founding anchor partners this shouts out an open invitation to all institutions that working together we can radically improve access to education for all. The start of our meeting of founding anchor partners on 9 November 2011 is the cut-off date for to be recorded as a *founding* anchor partner of the international OER network. We believe that our work will lead to become one of the most significant improvements in the history of post-secondary education. As an open collaboration -- all institutions will be free to join as we progress with the implementation of the OER university. However, when we write the history of the future, the following teaching institutions will be recorded as the founding pioneers: 1. Athabasca University (Canada)**** 2. Empire State College (State University of New York, USA) 3. Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (New Zealand) 4. NorthTec (New Zealand) 5. Open Polytechnic (New Zealand) 6. Otago Polytechnic (New Zealand)**** 7. Thompson Rivers University (Canada)**** 8. University of South Africa (Republic of South Africa) **** 9. Southern New Hampshire University (USA)**** 10. University of Southern Queensland. 11. University of Wollongong (Australia) 12. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University (BAOU) (India). BCcampus (Canada) and the OER Foundation (International) are non-teaching anchor partners and we support the network to achieve their strategic institutional objectives using open education approaches. UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning will be providing insights and advice from the international governmental organisations at our meeting next week. With due acknowledgment to the funding support from UNESCO, the meeting of founding anchor partners will be streamed on the Internet. To date, 90 participants from 29 different countries will be assisting with our open planning process. You can also help in planing more sustainable education futures by registering as a virtual participant. Don't be missed by your absence, Register today and spread the word: http://wikieducator.org/OER_university/2011.11_OERu_virtual_meeting_participants 2011 is proving to be a quantum shift year for the mainstream adoption of OER in the formal education sector. -- Wayne Mackintosh <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg>, Ph.D. Director OER Foundation <http://www.oerfoundation.org> Director, International Centre for Open Education, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. Founder and elected Community Council Member, WikiEducator<http://www.wikieducator.org> Mobile +64 21 2436 380 Skype: WGMNZ1 Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/Mackiwg> | identi.ca<http://identi.ca/waynemackintosh> Wikiblog <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg/Blog> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com
