The objective of the webinar is to build capacity of Vocational Education and Training (VET) leaders and practitioners on the use of Open Educational Resources (OER), as a way to increase the innovation potential and inclusion of their educational offer. OER are  teaching and learning materials intentionally released with open licenses, that give users the right to own, share, and in most cases, modify them. Within Higher Education, the use of OER has shown the potential to reduce accessibility barriers and at the same time to support co-creation practices, but in the VET sector the use of these approaches is still limited.

During the webinar, the concept of OER will be introduced and exemplified through some successful practices of VET schools that are using OER in their daily work, followed by a discussion on how to further promote the use of such resources in TVET.

Register here.

Agenda

15:00 Welcome and Introduction to the webinar, Fabio Nascimbeni, ETF

15:05 Open Educational Resources: a smart approach for inclusion and innovation, Lisa Petrides, ISKME and ICDE

15:30 Cases of high-impact OER use within VET

• OER Champions for colleges in Ontario. Mary Gu, eCampus Ontario
• AI and OER, Open Content for Future Learning, Ulf Ehlers, Dual University of Baden Wuttemberg

16: 00 Existing OER support tools for VET practitioners and leaders

• The OER practices collection, Max Ehlers, UNESCO-UNEVOC
• The OER Advocacy Committee, ICDE, Ebba Ossiannilsson

16:20 Ideas and questions collection for future work

16:30 Closing

The call for applications is open.

The World Giftedness Center (WGC) of the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance aims to support best practices and distinguished efforts in gifted education, talent development, and related areas. WGC has launched two awards to enhance quality talented education around the world:

• The School Global Award Initiative of Talented Education, which is intended for all those involved in gifted education and talent development from K1 through pre-university, such as teachers, principals and counselors involved in gifted education in public or private schools all over the globe. More detailed information including eligibility and evaluation criteria is available here.
• The Applied Research Global Award of Talented Education, which is intended for international researchers whose work focuses on areas relevant to gifted education and who have a maximum of five years involvement in research after their PhD. More detailed information including eligibility and evaluation criteria is available here.

The deadline for application to both awards is 19 November 2023 and the award prize is of USD 25,000 for each.

Applications should be submitted here, and any questions should be sent to wgc.awards@ha.ae.

Please consult all the information on the official website of the Award.

Happy to teach: Strengthening supportive school communities

Part III of UNESCO’s Happy Schools webinar series

In many school systems, happiness and academic achievement are seen as competing priorities. However, a growing body of global research shows that positive school environments are important levers for long-term learning outcomes and the well-being of students and teachers. Simply put, a happy learner will keep learning and a happy teacher will keep teaching.

UNESCO helps policy-makers understand the vital role of happiness in – and for – learning through the Happy Schools framework. The framework divides the concept of a 'happy school' into 4 pillars: people, process, place and principles. This framework helps governments adopt a system-wide approach to developing holistic policies that enable safe, supportive, and stimulating learning spaces where all students can learn and thrive.

On World Happiness Day 2023, UNESCO kicked off a Happy Schools webinar series to discuss each of the four pillars of framework in a dedicated discussion. This third installment will explore the people pillar to:

• Discuss systemic changes needed to improve relationships between teachers, students, parents, school leaders, staff, community members, and managers to establish and sustain positive learning environments where teachers are happy to teach and students are happy to learn.
• Share perspectives from around the world on the importance of supporting teacher well-being by strengthening the happiness of the school environment and attractiveness of the teaching profession.
• Encourage all to join Happy Schools in partnership and commit to happiness and a whole school approach to learning as the foundation of quality education.

Strong school-based relationships are the foundation of positive learning environments and outcomes. This webinar will celebrate World Teacher’s Day by highlighting the critical need to strengthen relationships between teachers, students, families, staff, communities and managers to ensure schools are happy places to teach and to learn.

Participants: Policy-makers, development partners, researchers, school leaders, teachers, young people and their guardians.

Format & session logistics: The webinar will take place on Zoom in English and Spanish.

Register here to participate