Dr. Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria, Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), attended the 29th International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) World Conference in San Jose, Costa Rica. This was held on 6-10 November 2023 and it carried the theme “Joining hands in peace for the Future of Education.”
Dr. Bandalaria is the ICDE Ambassador for Open Education Resources (OER) and is also a member of the ICDE OER Advocacy Committee (OERAC).
At 29th ICDE World Conference, Dr. Bandalaria was part of three panel sessions. One panel was about the “Global Advocacy Campaign on OFDL” which she shared with Torunn Gjelsvik, ICDE Secretary General, and Ebba Ossiannilsson, Chair of the ICDE OERAC and member of the ICDE Quality Network. Another panel session she spoke on was about “OER and AI” with Dr. Ossiannilsson, Prof. Rosa Leonor Ulloa Cazarez, from Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico and co-member of the ICDE OERAC. Dr. Bandalaria was also a panel member for the session on “Knowledge Equity Network.”
On the occasion of the 29th ICDE World Conference, the Global Presidents’ Forum and the ICDE Board Meeting were also held, which Dr. Bandalaria was also part of.
Dr. Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria is serving another two-year term as ICDE Ambassador for Open Education Resources (OER) and a member of the OER Advocacy Committee (OERAC). She was first appointed as ICDE Ambassador for OER and a member of the OER Advocacy Committee from January 2021 to the end of 2022.
The ICDE World Conference is widely recognized as the leading international event for Open, Flexible and Distance Education, and normally attracts around 1,000 participants from all over the world. The World Conference offers a forum for the presentation of cutting-edge developments in the field, as well as a platform to directly impact and contribute to future international, regional and national educational policy discussions. The 29th ICDE World Conference was hosted by Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED) Costa Rica, an ICDE institutional member.
Written by Anna Cañas-Llamas ♦ Edited by Myra C. Almodiel ♦ Photo from ICDE Facebook Page ♦ Details from Chancellor Bandalaria’s Facebook Page
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