Andy Lane has a number of recent publications and presentations, including:
Bateman, P., Lane, A. and Moon, R. (2012) ’Out of Africa: A typology for analysing open educational resources initiatives’, Journal of Interactive Media in Education (in press).
Lane, A. (2012) ‘A review of diagramming in systems practice and how technologies have supported the teaching and learning of diagramming for systems thinking in practice’, Systemic Practice and Action Research, 11pp, 2012 doi 10.1007/s11213-012-9254-8
Lane, A. (2012) ‘A review of the role of national policy and institutional mission in European Distance Teaching Universities with respect to widening participation in higher education study through OER’, Distance Education, 33(2), pp 135-150, 2012, DOI: 10.1080/01587919.2012.692067
Lane, A. and Darby, J. (2012) ‘Fostering communities of open educational practice: lessons from the Support Centre for Open Resources in Education’, EADTU 25th Annual Conference, 27-28 September 2012, Paphos, Cyprus.
Lane A. (2012) ‘OER Projects, Programmes and Users – Where does Video fit in?’ A ViTAL – video in education HEA/ALT Special Interest Group webinar, 6th June 2012.
Lane, A., Caird, S. and Swithenby, E. (2012) ‘How green is your course? Understanding the impacts of ICTs’, presentation at Greening the FE and HE sectors: promoting environmental, economic and social sustainability, 30 May 2012, London.
John Woodthorpe and Associate Lecturer Anna Peachey spent two weeks in Kathmandu in November working on several potential projects on behalf of the OU’s International Development Office. Details can be found on the Digital Heart Nepal Facebook page.
The most highly-developed proposal concerns ways to support training activities for health workers in remote villages by providing and delivering teaching and training materials. The project idea came from an interview with Dr Saroj Dhital, head of surgery at the Kathmandu Model Hospital. During filming for the ‘My Digital Life’ module (TU100) he was asked to look into the future at new developments that would help Nepal. He said:
‘Actually, we’re dreaming of an explosion of education and health in this country by the use of ICT. Our plan of virtual classrooms scattered in the remotest northern areas at high altitudes where people can listen to a very good teacher from Kathmandu or Pokhara or any other city while they are in the very, very local stone and mud houses.’
This quote has become the driving force for the main project which plans to provide exactly this support and training for health workers in remote parts of Nepal.
Other discussions were with the Nick Simons Institute, Save The Children, workers on a range of health information projects and the OU in Nepal. This last one culminated in discussions with the Minister of Education for Nepal and three under-secretaries for Education to look at how the OU in the UK could work with the embryonic OU in Nepal.