E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

Last Monday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unveiled the Open Book Project:

The Open Book Project is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State, the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization and leading education innovators to expand access to free, high-quality open educational resources in Arabic, with a focus on science and technology and online learning. Open educational resources are materials released under open licenses that allow free use, sharing, and adaptation to local context. Offering access to these resources will help to create educational opportunity, further scientific learning, and foster economic growth.

The initiative will:

• Support the creation of Arabic-language Open Educational Resources (OERs) and the translation of existing OERs into Arabic.
• Disseminate the resources free of charge through our partners and their platforms.
• Offer support to governments, educators, and students to put existing resources to use and develop their own.
• Raise awareness of the potential of open educational resources and promote uptake of online learning materials.

Partners in the project are US Department of State, the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation and our open collegues, such as Creative Commons, the Hewlett Foundation, ISKME, Meedan, MIT OpenCourseWare, the OpenCourseWare Consortium, and Rice University OpenStax College.

The full text of Secretary Clinton's speech.