Research Spotlights
Research Spotlight pieces are written by various contributing authors and reviewed by two academics in the EdTech field: Dr. Helen Crompton, Associate Professor of Instructional Technology Director of the Virtual Reality Lab and Director of the Technology Enhanced Learning Lab (TELL) at Old Dominion University and John Traxler, FRSA, Professor of Digital Learning in the Institute of Education at the University of Wolverhampton. Both Dr. Crompton and Professor Traxler are members of the mEducation Alliance. If you are interested in submitting a research activity to highlight in a future mEducation Alliance publication, please fill out this form.
Conversation with Jako Olivier
Interview conducted by: Anna Miller, University of Virginia
In this interview Jako Olivier, Professor of Multimodal Learning at the North-West University in Mahikeng, South Africa, reflected on his research regarding self-directed learning and his role as UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and Open Educational Resources (OER).
Open educational resources (OER) — any learning, teaching, or research materials that are published within the public domain — are free to use and redistribute. As such, OERs intrinsically promote a basic level of educational equity. This fundamental equity, which is grounded in the cost effectiveness and shareability of OERs, increases what Jako characterized as “Formal Access.”
While Formal Access is undoubtedly important, OERs also provide the opportunity for increased “Epistemological Access,” which Jako characterized as OERs’ ability to be customized and localized to individual contexts and student needs. This idea of Epistemological Access is central to Olivier’s research regarding the adaptation of OERs for the South African context in a self-directed, localized manner.
Such an approach to OER adaptation is about more than language translation — although this is a large and complex factor that requires great expertise. According to Olivier, an effective process of localization also takes into account a country’s wider context, language variation, and other cultural issues, beliefs, and customs. Moreover, as indicated by Jako in the Journal Of E-Learning and Knowledge Society, localization is often viewed externally and internally.
“External localization usually happens prior to learning and it is consequently done by content experts with or without the aid of language practitioners. While internal localization is done by students throughout the learning process. This can occur formally through structured localization activities which could be linked to certain learning outcomes, but can also be done in a more unstructured or even covert manner in the sense of students localizing and specifically translating for their own needs.”
It is through this internal approach to localization that Jako sees OERs being used as tools for educational innovation and curriculum decolonization in South Africa.
“No knowledge is ever neutral and OERs can be a way to respect differences in thinking and expression.” – Jako Olivier
In addition to localization and language translation, other barriers to OER access include: limited access to electronic devices, lack of skills to use such devices, and poor internet connectivity. While these barriers and others continue to inhibit many countries from closing the existing EdTech divide, according to Jako, there is a lot of diverse work being done on OER globally to open up access.
For example, through his role as UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and OER, Jako has worked to establish the Network of OER and Multimodal Self-Directed Learning in Southern Africa (NOMSA), whose aim is to “research and build capacities regarding OERs and multimodal learning in the Southern African region.” The program’s acronym, NOMSA, doubles as the shortened form of Nomusa, a common name in the South African Nguni language group, meaning “with grace” or “with kindness,” representing the values that are central to the Network’s work and its founders’ vision.
Furthermore, Jako has been involved with the North-West University’s OER Fellowship which “supports lecturing staff who are interested to include new open resources to their classes or adapt their resources to their students’ specific contexts.” The opportunity provides essential funding to its appointed fellows for the creation or adaptation of open learning content or for research of the process. Additionally, Jako is busy with a project “developing student teachers’ self-directedness through the creation of OER in under-resourced African languages within the South African context.”
Through projects such as these, Jako hopes to foster and inspire the implementation of network-driven, participatory practices within institutions and communities of practice such as collaborative authorship of community-driven OER and open educational practice initiatives.
To read more on Professor Jako Olivier’s work: http://jako.nom.za/
To review the UNESCO Chair’s website: https://education.nwu.ac.za/UNESCO-chair
