From the editor: On this European Day of Languages, we are happy to announce the publication of Case Studies of Openness in the Language Classroom, co-edited by Open Up contributors Barbara Sawhill and Ana Beaven, with third co-editor Anna Comas-Quinn (The Open University, UK). The book itself is an open resource and available for free download. COERLL Director Carl Blyth contributes a case study on eComma, an open application for social reading. And frequent Open Up contributor Todd Bryant presents a chapter on his free language exchange website, The Mixxer. Please see the press release below for more details.

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Case Studies of Openness in the Language Classroom is a compilation of case studies written by practitioners in different educational settings who are exploring the concept of openness in language teaching and learning.

The idea for this volume emerged during the conference “Learning through Sharing: Open Resources, Open Practices, Open Communication,” organised by the EUROCALL Teacher Education and Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) Special Interest Groups at the University of Bologna (Italy) in March 2012.

“We felt that there was a real need to make visible the work that individuals across the globe are doing in this area,” said Ana Beaven, co-editor. “It was important to provide an open way to share those practices with others.

The book is structured in five sections, covering open tools for collaboration, sharing resources, sharing practices, collaborative learning and student-generated content, and learner autonomy. “We hope it will provide ideas for language teachers who might want to dip their toes into the world of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP), or maybe experiment further,” commented Anna Comas-Quinn, co-editor.

“Attending the conference in Bologna was an eye-opening experience for me as a language teacher and technologist working in the US.  I realized quite quickly how US-centric my knowledge of my profession had become, and how much I had to learn from the work of my colleagues in other countries,” said Barbara Sawhill, co-editor.  “This volume does a great job of sharing the diversity of ideas and practices about the ideas of OERs and OEP across many countries and institutions.”

Download the book free of charge. In October 2013, the publication will available on Google Books full view. You can also purchase a Kindle edition from Amazon, and as a black and white paperback from Lulu (with 20% discount) or from Amazon (starting in October).

Co-editors:

Ana Beaven (Università di Bologna, Italy)
Anna Comas-Quinn (The Open University, UK)
Barbara Sawhill (Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)

Contributors:

Ana Beaven (Università di Bologna, Italy)
Carl Blyth (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Kate Borthwick (University of Southampton, UK)
Todd Bryant (Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA)
Anna Calvi (The Open University, UK)
Marco Cappellini (Lille 3 University, France)
Alison Dickens (University of Southampton, UK)
Annette Duensing (The Open University in the East, UK)
Matilde Gallardo (The Open University in the South East, UK);
Cecilia Goria (University of Nottingham, UK)
Sarah Heiser (The Open University in London, UK)
María Dolores Iglesias Mora (The Open University, UK)
Terry King (UCL, UK)
David Elvis Leeming (University of Central Lancashire, UK)
Antonio Martínez-Arboleda (University of Leeds, UK)
Anna Motzo (The Open University, UK)
Irina Nelson (University of Southampton, UK)
Alicia Pozo-Gutiérrez (University of Southampton, UK)
Klaus-Dieter Rossade (The Open University, UK)
Barbara Sawhill (Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)
Sandra Silipo (The Open University, UK)
Julie Watson (University of Southampton, UK)
Susanne Winchester (The Open University, UK).