SLIDES
joeran.de/oeglobalbarcamps/Barcamps represent an unconference format with a common theme but without pre-planned programme. The session schedule is designed collaboratively at the beginning of each (un-)conference day. In Germany there are several barcamps in the field of education. Two of them will be highlighted from the position of members of their organising teams. “Educamps” on digital media in education started in 2008 and have since taken place 21 times. “OERcamps” on Open Educational Resources started in 2012 and have since taken place 9 times.
A recent review of OER-related activities in Germany on behalf of UNESCO (Orr, Neumann, Muuß-Merholz 2017, 8) found: “Since OER activities are mostly driven bottom-up, there has been a need for sharing questions, experiences and materials between players, who have been isolated in their own institutions. These players found opportunities for sharing in cross-sector events and communities. Especially the barcamp/unconference format turned out to fit tremendously well developing a strong German OER community. Indeed, Germany so far has seen a remarkably strong cross-sector community with common interest in OER.”
Barcamps open up new and contemporary formats for learning based on openness, sharing, personal meaning, participation and equality. They are the appropriate format of education for a time in which we are depending on not only transferring fixed knowledge but also co-creating new knowledge. Barcamps are about sharing, discussing, negotiating solutions for a world in change. Barcamps are one way of transforming education through open approaches from bottom-up.
Barcamps are not only a real best practice of open pedagogy and open educational practices. They are also the source of collective development and use of open educational materials. The documentation with collaboratively text documents, blogging, podcasts etc. are mostly shared under a CC BY licence. The organisers also provide templates for documentation and planning under CC BY.
