 I'm Maaren Deepol and I'm the Chief Executive of the Organizing Organization, the Association for Learning Technology and I am very honoured to introduce to you our conference co-chairs. ALT as an organisation has strong values around openness, participation and collaboration and I always feel when this event happens each year that it's really the event that walks the walk of our values and I'm really proud to help organise this event. But it's really all about the volunteers that have made this happen and we've been led with compassion and heart and vision for a whole year now by two outstanding co-chairs. So you're going to have to stop tweeting and typing and writing because you're going to need your hands to give the very warmest Galway welcome to our wonderful co-chairs Catherine Cronin and Laura Cernovich. What a lovely sight. Thank you all so much. Thank you so very much for coming to OER 19, for coming to Galway. We know it's a little bit difficult to get here particularly for some of you. What we'd like to do is say thank you for making the journey if you're here in the room and for those people who are joining virtually at whatever time that might be. We want to welcome you also and we expect a lot of virtual participation over the next two days so we'd like everyone in the room to feel very connected with all the people who are joining virtually over those two days. It's a really important part of the conference for us. The theme of the conference which Laura and I have been working on for the past 14 months, as you know, is re-centering open, critical and global perspectives. And we knew from our very first conversations about that that there were multiple interpretations of all of those concepts, multiple interpretations of open, of critical, of re-centering. But we felt that was generative and that would create a space for some really interesting and innovative and critical work. And our hopes have been realized in the amazing program that we have for the next two days. So for example, re-centering could be seen as expanded concepts of openness within institutions, within universities in a time of tumult. It could also mean re-centering open on the lives and experiences of those who are marginalized often in multiple and overlapping ways. So we thank all of you for contributing your work. We think this is going to be an important two days to have critical conversations not just about open education, but about equity and about social justice. So Laura has a few more things to make and then we have a couple of people who want to give you a warm welcome to go away. And I have. So it's clear, as Marin said, that the conference is sold out and it's clear that the conference and the theme has touched a nerve. And we feel that the importance of open education has never been more pertinent than it is at the moment. At this point in time, higher education is rethinking itself and its own destiny. And it's a situation where, as Robin Mansells describes it, the dominant social imaginary is a marketized one. It's one where higher education is business. It's data-fied. It's a platform higher education. It's about the casualization of academic labor. It's about profits. It's about competition. And it's about a whole value set that is counter to what open education is about. And we think it's no coincidence that the theme that received the most number of papers was that of back to basics. So at this conference we're going to be talking about going back to basics beyond the easy optimism of open education and really being in the real world embracing the challenge of providing an alternative social imaginary. One that looks at higher education from practice to teaching and learning provision to governance, providing an alternative vision and reality that's commons based and that's open. And that's what this conference is about. And everyone here has really brought that vision to the papers. We've seen that in the program. They're amazing. They really speak to these issues. So the first thank you has got to be to you all and to the fantastic thoughtful papers that you have brought to this conference. But there are other people to thank too. Catherine and I have worked over the last 14 months with a really wonderful conference committee. One has had a feeling that people are not just ticking boxes. People have participated. They've practiced. They open us through their blog postings. They've engaged. They've written in preparation. People have walked the talk of openness preparing for the conference. So thank you to the wonderful conference committee too. And then I'd like to thank the Galway planning team. There have been a number of people on the ground here who have made it possible to have the conference, not in Dublin, but locally in this gorgeous place with the sun shining today. I'm sure the Galway planning team organized that too. But also the helpers and the people who are cooking for us and the people who are going to tidy up after us too. Thank you very much to them. And then of course to Alt. Marin, you've done more than simply support us. What's been wonderful about Alt and Marin and Martin and Jane is they've shared our vision. They've bore with us as we thought through the kind of agenda that we've set. And we have felt very much part of the same project. And we really appreciate that. And then lastly, but definitely not least, we've been very mindful that this is the 10th OER conference and that the work we've been doing boils on the work done by previous OER chairs, many of whom are here today, and that it's an ongoing conversation nudging a particular kind of agenda forward. And we want to thank the previous OER chairs too. And of course, at the end of the conference, we'll be handing over the baton to the yet unidentified future OER chairs. So thank you to everyone. We want to keep this short. But in addition to being in beautiful Galway, we are on the campus of beautiful NUI Galway, the National University of Ireland in Galway. So there are two people from NUI Galway who would like to welcome you personally to Galway. And the first is the President of the University, Professor Kieran Ohogerti. Thank you very much, I'm Fawcha Rove. I'll serve and I'll imagine the Fawcha Rove. As Catherine mentioned, my name is Kieran Ohogerti, I'm President of NUI Galway. Really delighted to come into a place, a space this morning that I feel immediately has a great energy, great passion, great enthusiasm. And it's great to come in as University President to a space like this. And great to welcome you to Galway. As the Van Morrison son says, we wish it was like this all the time, weather-wise. But certainly the great thing about weather in Ireland and Galway in particular is if you don't like it, it'll change. So hopefully it won't change too much while you're here. Second reason I'm particularly pleased to welcome you is my sense, and even mentioned early on here, my sense of values that are here. We're just developing our next strategy as NUI Galway. And we've decided that would be values led. Because my sense was that that captures the heart and hopefully the imagination more than things like vision and mission and those kind of other concepts. And I think we've caught a particular moment in NUI Galway where this has captured the imagination. And we've surveyed staff and colleagues and students and external stakeholders. And we've come up with four values, if you like, that we'd like to NUI Galway to be known for. And I take one in particular that I take pertinent to this conference, but the four and possibly a fifth one we'll take about in a second is respectful of being the first one. And this is one that certainly there was great support for this idea of respect to NUI Galway. And that means just not just respect for each other and setting high standards for each other, but also respect for our stakeholders and constituents outside. And humility as a university. Very often universities are to talk about being proud and so on and that comes through, but very often we need to be respectful also to our communities. And that's part of what I see as a value of respect, as well as the very important value that would hopefully be pervasive across everything we do in the university. The second value we've talked about alongside respect is expertise or excellence. And again that idea of high standards not only for each other, but for our stakeholders as well. And we owe that. Being respectful I think is also you owe high values to others. And the third value which I pick up further just for a few minutes after I talk about through these ones is accessible. And we've talked about it and I see also here that that idea of being open, accessible, inclusive. We've talked about whether our board we would use. And we talked about the word inclusive or accessible. To me, you include people by doing them a favor, making yourself accessible gives power to the other. And therefore we're thinking about any way is accessible anyway, go away. And I think particularly with the team of this conference, I when I saw the value openness, the sense of openness that's here, and the concepts that you're looking at, I think that idea of being accessible is particularly powerful in that regard. And then the third area we're looking for, which the students are telling us about is sustainability. So when we surveyed students, they particularly picked up this idea being the next generation of sustainability, but anyway, go away. And to me, that's not just about environmental sustainability and environmental science, which is clear, would be good in Galway and has great strength here already. We sit by the sea, we have the marine, we look over the horizon. So all of that aspect of sustainability is important to us, but also sustainability of programs, ourselves as an institution ourselves as people, and that we have that much broader concept of sustainability, that that's particularly important to us. Underpinning all of this is that we will be distinctive as anywhere in Galway, distinctive as a university. And to me, being distinctive also is in plugs in or is in tune with this conference, in that we have great strengths in the ecosystem in Galway, but we see those as having international impact and really being a way of developing our more international reputation and reach. So being part of an ecosystem in Galway that has openness and friendliness and welcome at its core, but also areas like med tech, culture and society, and the environmental area and environmental science board generally making us distinctive as a university. But back to accessible, I think particularly these here that we have here today, and over the next two days, you'll be talking about that sense of openness that university should have that we should have not only as individuals, but as institutions. And I welcome that. I think that's a particularly important calling for university. I would like our walls to be permeable, that we would come and touch with people that we don't normally come and touch with. So as universities and certainly as president, coming back to Galway after 30 years, I grew up here and went to work in Dublin, the States and the New Zealand, coming back to Galway and to Ireland. My sense is that universities have a have a hinterland that's obvious to them and people who engage with the university as a matter of course as a natural part of their lives. There's a whole other community that universities don't engage with. And that those communities are ones we'd like to engage with more and to have a sense of what their needs are. And that to me is so open as to me and access accessibility is not just about technology and not just about the way we engage with people, but also it's about philosophically about conceptually how we see ourselves as a university, serving as the society in which we are situated. So particularly pleased with the conference here, that you're doing all of those things. You've that sense of openness, that sense of accessibility, but also a conference that's coming to Galway, but is international to its core. And that sees no contradiction between that local setting and the international reach that one can have in this context. And that's something again we don't see as a university, we see ourselves as in Galway of Galway, but in the world and for the world at the same time. And that's particularly important part of where we see ourselves going next. So particularly pleased to welcome you, our middle market was up top. And I hope wish you all the very best for the days ahead. I'm sorry I can't stay for longer than I can. But I'm sure you'll have a very fruitful number of days here. Make the most of the hinterland that's here, those that are visiting. And I just finished by translating the Irish for thank you. So an Irish we say, Goromahagwif, which when you translated literally means may you have good. And I think that's the best way I think I could finish by saying Goromahagwif, may you have good. Thank you. Thank you, Kiran. We have one more word of welcome from someone who's a very active and longstanding member of the open education community. And that's the associate director of Celts here at annual Galway, Sharon Flynn. Thanks, Catherine. And it's my absolute pleasure to welcome you to OER 19 this morning. It's the first day of the conference. But actually the third day of Open Science Week at annual Galway, which has been organised by Elaine Toomey on campus, and she's been doing a fantastic job. We had a Wikipedia editor on on Monday, which I was involved in. And there's a real sense of of openness and something happening and and people coming together on campus, which is lovely. I've known Catherine a long time, very long time. So I was absolutely honoured when she asked me to welcome you here today. And because I know how much this conference means to her. Our paths have not always gone in the same direction. We've worked on projects together and then diverged and then come together again. And from time to time, like when we ended up in in offices next door to each other a couple of years ago, which was nice. And we both joined Twitter in 2009, within a couple of months of each other. And I do remember a conversation. I don't know if you remember this one. We sat up on the Science Concourse talking about how we would both dip our toes into this new online environment together. And and the rest is history really isn't it? And I was reminded of this over the last couple of days, as I've been watching the tweets from people travelling to Galway from all over the world. And I've been so excited because at this stage, I was saying to Marin this morning, there are people in this room that I feel I know well. And I've never actually met you. So it's just it's hugely exciting for me to to see you arriving here and to see all the chat going on. And I virtually accosted Laura yesterday when I saw her because I feel I know her so well. We have met before. But she did have to say, hold on, tell me who you are before you have me. But each of us has has navigated our own journey in the whole openness landscape. And whether it's open education, open resources, open licensing, open practices, and our respective paths have converged and diverged. And we've met people, we joined groups, we've we've followed people, we've moved away from things. And and my first introduction or my first steps with with open education was with the NDLR project from many years ago. Is there anybody here from the NDLR? I'm sure there are. It was a really ambitious national project here in Ireland, which involved I think 23 higher education institutions across Ireland. And you know, it was the national digital learning repository or national digital learning resources, depending on when you hit the project. And it really set the scene for open education resources in Ireland. But it also highlighted the importance of communities, whether those are communities of practice, disciplinary communities, formal informal communities online. The theme of community is something that has repeated itself many times. And in my own journey through openness, over the last 12 years. And I just like to give one shout out, there's loads of communities I can mention, but I'd like to give one shout out to the Femme EdTech community. Looking forward to connecting with you all over the next two days. And I hope that Marin has stickers for us, I don't know. Okay, but now we've all converged at this one time and this one place in Galway. And who knows what seeds are going to be planted over the next few days, what what conversations we'll have, what projects will emerge. And will we look back and say, remember that time in Galway? I think we will. I'd like to really congratulate Catherine Laura on an amazing program. The theme is wonderful. And I just wish that I could replicate myself many times so that I could actually go to all of the talks that I would like to go to. I'd like to congratulate Marin, Martin, and the whole organizing team, including some of our own local team, Fiona and Kate, for organizations here. And I'd like to ask you all to do two things for me over the next two days. First, I want you to introduce yourself to someone you've never met before, and ask them about their work. And second, I'd like you, if you can, this is this is a challenging one, to go to a talk you wouldn't have considered before. Because you never know what you might learn. And above all, I'd like to welcome you to Galway, to NUI Galway, and to OER19, and wish you all a very successful conference. Killer sperm, blue and humpback. 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