May 2019 - Dr Melinda Bandalaria, University of the Phillipines Open University (UPOU)

On my recent trip to the Phillipines for a Moodle conference, I recorded this interview with Dr Melinda Bandalaria (or Mel to her friends).  Melinda is a very accessible person doing some very important work in the Phillipines.  Not only is she the Chancellor of the University of the Phillipines Open University (UPOU) but she is also the President of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU). I managed to sneak Mel away from the conference lunch to have a chat about open education.

Om Podcasten

Education is at the heart of making the world a better place. Education has always needed technology, but the technology landscape is getting more and more complex. Imagine if you had to license pencils or paper to use in schools, or be forced to use specific paper from one company so that they could see everything you wrote. Education technology is too important to rely on profit-driven market dynamics. This podcast shines a light on key people and projects working around the growing field of *Open Education Technology*, those who are fighting to create a future where any school, university or company has access to a full range of software and hardware with the maximum or freedom and quality. The podcast is produced by Martin Dougiamas, the CEO of Moodle, a very widely-used open source learning management system (moodle.com). He creates each episode on the road while visiting global Edtech events and meetings. The sound quality can be a bit variable, with the view that's it better to record something with whatever you have available (such as a phone) than to not capture anything at all! There is also a related Open Edtech Global Festival, which happens every year in November in Barcelona, Spain. For more on this, see https://openedtech.global