OPEN LEARNING

UNLIMITED EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES TO ENHANCE HIGHER EDUCATION IN AFRICA WITH AN OPEN AND DISTANCE E-LEARNING (ODeL) APPROACH Dr Karel J De Beer Unit for Academic Development Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) Private Bag X20539 Bloemfontein 92300 SOUTH AFRICA Tel: +27 51 5073911 or 082 789 735 7 Fax: +27 086 605 2336 Email: kbeer@cut.ac.za PERSONAL INTRODUCTION The author is the director for distance education who is responsible for the CUT’s regional learning centre in the Northern Cape. He is primarily tasked with research into Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL) for the Unit for Academic Development (UA). His publications on the subject matter can inter alia be traced in the SA Journal for Higher Education (SAJHE), Progressio (UNISA) and Interim at the CUT. ABSTRACT Ministers of Education acknowledged Open Distance and e-Learning (ODel) at the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) conference of October 2006 in Jamaica (1). COL also hosted the Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) conference in Kenya. Open Learning is a teaching method that is inter alia based on the research of Freinet and Montessori. Open Educational Resources (OERS) were condoned by UNESCO in 2002 which refers to digitilised materials offered freely and openly for educators and self paced learners. It promotes open access to the design process with either relaxed or non-existent intellectual property restrictions (2). This could be achieved with a net based educational infrastructure on the African continent. Subsequently the SA Government approved a policy to implement FLOSS to enhance technology skills with the assistance of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) (3). Due to the wide variety of methodologies for andragogical as well as pedagogical applications, Open Learning also has a holistic philosophy of its own (4). Cf. Appendix: A (5). KEYWORDS: Afrcan Union of Universities, Commonwealth of Learning, OdeL, OERS, FLOSS, Open Access, Democratic, Virtual Knowledge Production and Learner Centrednes.