Measuring a Critical Impact on Technology in Education: A Tool for OERS Evaluation

Abstract

This paper is part of a wider research project and focuses on the model adopted for evaluating the impact and effectiveness of online teaching and learning, enabling students to adopt a critical approach which could be extended to any online resource which they may use for their lifelong learning. Otten and Ohana, in their The Eight Key Skills Competences for Lifelong Learning (2009), a document issued under the support of the EC DG Education and Culture, focus on the identification of a set of skills needed to overcome present youth unemployment and social exclusion in developed countries. The central concepts referred to are: “critical thinking, creativity, initiative taking, problem solving, risk management, decision taking and managing feelings in a constructive manner” (p.10). There should be a closer connection between the above skills, education and digital education in particular. Technology plays a fundamental role in everyone’s life and must be approached critically, especially by young people entering the labour market for the first time. In the information society, the amount of online content is constantly increasing, and more content is becoming readily available online. Open Educational Resources (OER) are assuming an ever increasing importance in national educational policies. Between 2005 and 2007 UNESCO identified priorities for the spread of OER (OECD, 2007).