One important aspect of the Open Education Working Group that we are keen to promote is that we are a global group. We have members from all over the world, something highlighted through our Around the World blog series.

If we are a global group then we need to acknowledge that not everyone speaks English. Although our blog is in English we are really keen to support initiatives that create resources, data and practices in other languages.

ICDE and LangOER, a 3-year network project supported by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme, are looking for your input on the role of Open Educational Resources and Open Educational Practices in less used languages.

How can less used languages, including regional and minority languages benefit from Open Educational Practices (OEP)? How can Open Educational Resources (OER) foster linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe? What policies are favourable to the uptake of quality OER in less used language communities? Answers to these questions will be sought through LangOER, a 3-year network project supported by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme.

To aid in this, you are asked to contribute by answering five very short questions (in Google docs) on your experience of OER and less used languages.

What are less used lanaguages?

Denmark, a country with a population of 5.6 million, has Danish – which is a less used language – the same goes for many others like Greek, Latvian, Swedish etc. But also regional minority languages can be less used languages. And in a broader context, Chinese for example, can be regarded a less used language in countries with an immigrant population from China.

ICDE will produce a working policy paper entitled “OER – challenges and opportunities for less used languages. A global and European perspective.”, which will be published through these channels.