Day 4 Reaction Blog
Written by Danyal Hayat, a member of the #OpenEd20 Communications Committee & Steering Committee
What else would you call a unique experience than hosting an early morning show right after having your dinner? Trust me... I did that today. I hosted an early morning show at the virtual event of Open Education Conference 2020 after having my dinner here in Pakistan. As much as it seems funny, it also gave me the realization of how we humans are evolving in the form of open societies by default, where we can co-create and co-design thoughts and knowledge without any prejudices and barriers of time, place etc.
My journey from being a student advocate of Open Education in Pakistan to becoming a steering committee member of Open Education Conference 2020, has been nothing less than immense doses of learning and community building. Attending today’s session of “Rebuilding Open Courses for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: A Community College Perspective” reminded me of my student advocacy days when equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) were some of the factors I used to advocate for to be integrated in to the education system of Pakistan, and I’m glad to have not only refreshed my perspective around EDI but have also got new ideas about it’s effective integration in the design and development of Open Courses.
As an international participant, speaker and steering committee member of Open Education Conference 2020, I thoroughly enjoyed how this conference was designed as a community driven and community led conference, which dawned upon me as new horizons of Open Education.
“In addition to networking with new people, establishing potential linkages for joint initiatives in the future, and learning from such diverse set of speakers, my main takeaway from the fourth day of the conference, which is exactly what I was looking for, is how can the concept of Open Education be localised while maintaining its basic principles, so that it can be effectively adopted and implemented in not only the developed countries but also the developing countries.”
“Open education might not be the sole solution for revamping the global education system, but it indeed is an accessible, affordable, equitable and inclusive blueprint to reimagine the education system”