Interdisciplinary Center on Open and Accessible Educational Resources: 10 Years Building Inclusive Education in Uruguay and Latin America

Abstract

The year 2020 undoubtedly marks a turning point in the integration of digital technologies in education. The physical distancing necessary to contain the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to approach digital education from a holistic and critical perspective on its capacity for inclusion and exclusion. The Interdisciplinary Center for Open and Accessible Educational Resources (CIEDA) intends to consolidate and expand the approach to the subject of inclusive, open, and accessible digital education, in Uruguay and Latin America, implementing teaching, research, and third mission activities that provide scientific and technical knowledge for innovation, professional and academic practice, integrating diverse disciplines, producing a comprehensive approach, and giving rise to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration. The interdisciplinary and intersectoral development in the university together with other social actors contribute to the informed development of the action of civil society and the government, in the creation of public policies, in permanent dialogue with reference centers of the region and the world. The center is an effort to consolidate the work that has been carried out since 2015 by the Interdisciplinary Group of Open and Accessible Educational Resources together with works of different stakeholders from society. Currently, the center is expanding its scope to three cross-cutting areas for the generation of open knowledge and human development: digital media and educational technologies, education and open science, ethics, and digital rights. On these transversal areas, interdisciplinary and intersectoral lines of work articulate efforts in teaching, research, and third mission, with social appropriation and transferability (products and services): skills for digital citizenship; data and artificial intelligence for education; diversity, equity, and inclusion in education; and critical digital pedagogies. The chapter presents the main developments made during a decade of work aimed at educational inclusion in Uruguay and in Latin America.KeywordsOpen educationInclusive educationInterdisciplinary