What is OWLTEH?

OWLTEH is an initiative that aims to gather resources and examples of inspiring practice related to the Open Web and its use for educational purposes. It is the result of the generosity of educators and learners who want to share their knowledge and experience of the Open Web, enabling others to understand and take advantage of its potential for learning and teaching.

The phrase ‘Open Web‘ might be traced back to the original vision behind the creation of the World Wide Web (WWW), imagined by its creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee as “an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries.”

OWLTEH looks at online infrastructures that somehow enable this, with a particular focus on how they can be used within educational context. While the concept is often associated with open source, open standards or open licences, we welcome different interpretations of the concept and understand it as a continuum that can encompass different levels of openness.

Types of Resources

OWLTEH consists of different types of contributions organised around three collections:

• Catalogue – Instances of the Open Web: applications, platforms, techologies, or concepts
• Perspectives – A series of videos contributed by educators and learners who are actively engaged in using the Open Web within their practice.
• Stories – A selection of accounts narrating how specific instances of the Open Web can be used for teaching and learning.
• Worlds – A collection of people’s drawings of their online worlds as they see it.

You can contribute by sharing your own experiences and knowledge. Step-by-step information on how to do so is available at each of the three sites liked above.

Contribute!

OWLTEH aims to cover as many instances (applications, platforms, etc.) of the the Open Web as possible and to gather accounts of their use for teaching and learning within a highly diverse range of contexts.

In each of the collections of resources you will find detailed instructions on how to share your expertise.

As a contributor you will be able to decide the licence under which you want to release your content.

Participation is regulated by the Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines.

Who are OWLTEH?

OWLTEH has been initiated by a group of educators at Coventry University’s Disruptive Media Learning Lab with the help of colleagues around the globe. The initial idea was refined and further developed through the 5th cohort of the Mozilla Open Leaders programme. You can read more about the process on the blog.owlteh.org/.