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The “Policy guidelines for mobile learning” developed by UNESCO seek to help policy-makers better understand what mobile learning is and how its unique benefits can be leveraged to advance progress towards Education for All.
UNESCO believes that mobile technologies can expand and enrich educational opportunities for learners in diverse settings. Yet most ICT in education policies were articulated in a pre-mobile era and they do not seek to maximize the learning potentials of mobile technology. The rare policies that do reference mobile devices tend to treat them tangentially or ban their use in schools.
Today, a growing body of evidence suggests that ubiquitous mobile devices – especially mobile phones and, more recently, tablet computers – are being used by learners and educators around the world to access information, streamline administration and facilitate learning in new and innovative ways.
Developed in consultation with experts in over 20 countries, UNESCO’s “Policy guidelines for mobile learning” have broad application and can accommodate a wide range of institutions, including K–12 schools, universities, community centres, and technical and vocational schools.
Policy-makers are encouraged to adopt UNESCO’s policy recommendations, tailoring them as necessary to reflect the unique needs and on-the-ground realities of local contexts.
The document was presented during the UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2013, held from 18 to 22 February in Paris. URL: UNESCO Mobile Learning resources.

The UPV OpenCourseWare online platform offers teaching materials related to more than 100 subjects taught in the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain).
Open, free and accessible to everybody, this initiative is part of the international OCW Consortium and aims to show UPV's potential to attract the best students and to train professionals with a recognised standard of excellence.
Humanities, Law and Continuing Education subjects are included in the UPV OCW e-catalogue of free learning material.
The Universitat Politècnica de València UPV is a public educational and research institution with over 35,000 students and 2,600 faculty and research staff. URL: UPV OCW.

“eKnowledge Project: Developing and piloting a forum tool to support the collaborative construction of knowledge on the UOC's Virtual Campus” is the final report of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s (UOC) eKnowledge project.
eKnowledge is an online forum tool that offers consultants and students the chance to create spaces for asynchronous communication and collaboration in pursuit of different goals and at different levels of structuring by teachers.
The project (2009-11) followed a user-based design concept and a flexible and collaborative learning model. Its development was based on the open-source phpBB Forums platform.
eKnowledge is an eLearn Center innovation project developed in collaboration with the UOC’s Office of Learning Technologies. The design of the tool has involved faculty from the UOC’s Information and Communication Sciences; IT, Multimedia and Communications; Economics and Business Studies, and Psychology and Education Sciences departments. URL: UOC - Intistutional repository.

“Build it and they will come?– Inhibiting factors for reuse of open content in developing countries” is a paper written by Mathias Hatakka, from Örebro University (Sweden) and published in 2009 in the “The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries.“
Open content has the potential to change the playing field when it comes to every individual’s right to education. However, despite the benefits of OER, the usage is very low in developing countries. Understanding why content developers choose not to use it is the first step towards finding a solution to the problem.
Mr Hatakka focuses his qualitative study on the question “Which inhibiting factors for reuse do content developers in developing countries experience with open content?” To find an answer, interviews, questionnaires and observations have been made with content developers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and from UNESCO’s Open Training Platform.
Findings show that many of the inhibiting factors with reuse of open content do not necessarily relate to the actual content. Educational rules and regulations, lack of infrastructure, teaching practices and traditions etc. are major obstacles that need to be overcome if the usage of open content should increase. URL: Paper.

“Collaborative Statistics” is an OER written by Barbara Illowsky and Susan Dean, professors of mathematics and statistics at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. The textbook was developed over several years and has been used in classes that range from 20 to 120 students and in regular, honor, and distance learning classes.
This free online resource presented by Connexions is intended for introductory statistics courses being taken by college students who are majoring in fields other than math or engineering. Intermediate algebra is the only prerequisite.
The book focuses on applications of statistical knowledge rather than the theory behind it, emphasizing on four main concepts:
    * thinking statistically
    * incorporating technology
    * working collaboratively
    * writing thoughtfully
“Collaborative Statistics” contains full materials for course offerings, including expository text, examples, labs, homework, and projects. A Teacher’s Guide and supplemental course materials including additional problem sets and video lectures are also available online. URL: Textbook.

This white paper published in March 2013 sets out to help decision makers in higher education institutions gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), trends towards greater openness in higher education and the implications for their institutions.
Authors Li Yuan and Stephen Powell describe the phenomena of the MOOCs, placing them in the wider context of open education, online learning and the changes that are currently taking place in higher education at a time of globalisation of education and constrained budgets.
The “MOOCs and Open Education: Implications for Higher Education” report is written from a UK higher education perspective, but is largely informed by the developments in MOOCs from the USA and Canada.
A literature review was undertaken focussing on the extensive reporting of MOOCs through blogs, press releases as well as openly available reports. This identified current debates about new course provision, the impact of changes in funding and the implications for greater openness in higher education. The theory of disruptive innovation is used to help form the questions of policy and strategy that higher education institutions need to address. URL: Publication.

Formar para um uso crítico e esclarecido dos meios de comunicação, quer dos tradicionais quer dos que resultam das novas tecnologias, é um imperativo de cidadania que constitui profunda preocupação do Grupo Informal sobre Literacia Mediática - GILM, constituído pelo Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade da Universidade do Minho, Comissão Nacional da UNESCO, Conselho Nacional de Educação, Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social e Gabinete para os Meios de Comunicação Socia
Trazer para a agenda pública esta dimensão da formação dos cidadãos, promovendo a consequente definição e aplicação de políticas coerentes de literacia e educação para os media é o objetivo partilhado das citadas instituições que, para o efeito, têm vindo desde 2009 a desenvolver um conjunto de atividades destinadas a contribuir de forma substantiva para o aprofundamento de conhecimentos e para o debate sobre as múltiplas questões que integram o grande universo do “pensar e agir digital”.
Este 2.º Congresso Literacia, Media e Cidadania constitui, enquanto evento internacional, um importante desafio.
Serão, seguramente, dois dias substantivos em termos de análise de trabalhos de investigação, de discussão conceptual, de sugestões para a criação e implementação de políticas, para programas de formação e para práticas de intervenção.

StudyWorld 2013, the international fair for higher and continuing education, provides first-hand information about Bachelor's and Master's programmes in Germany and abroad. Further topics include internships worldwide, scholarships and other funding sources. Exhibitors include public and private universities from around the world, scholarship and financial aid institutions, student information and consultation services, internship agencies, academic exchange organisations and foundations. The fair's extensive seminar programme comprises around 50 presentations dealing with all aspects of study and careers. Some 170 exhibitors from 25 countries are expected at StudyWorld 2013.
The fair attracts visitors from all over Germany, primarily senior high school students, undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate university students as well as young professionals.
Website: Studyworld.

A thought leadership workshop about harnessing the internet for effective teaching and learning between Secondary FE and HE.
The aim is to bring together a selective group of top independent, state schools and FE Colleges with their counterparts in HE to see how this new online paradigm can be made to work smarter and more effectively for the next generation of our students.
There will be topical presentations on strategy, content, assessment and the deployment of new online technologies, presented by experts within these fields. Website: http://www.connectededucation.com/events/.