Carmen Holotescu

Introduced in 2009 as the core mechanism for the Bitcoin, Blockchain technology enables the creation of a decentralized environment, where transactions and data are not under the control of any third party organization. Any transaction ever completed is recorded in a public ledger in a verifiable, secure, transparent and permanent way, with a timestamp and other details. In the first part of the paper, we explore the blockchain technology and platforms. Next, there are presented existing global and governmental initiatives, together with potential applications of blockchain in different domains, with focus on education. The need to learn about this emerging technology is discussed, together with pioneering cases in formal and informal learning settings. There are also introduces the educational projects developed by the author, such as OpenEduChain, a permissioned blockchain designed as a repository for open educational assets, but also for issuing digital certificates. Offering a fresh perspective over blockchain technology and educational initiatives, the paper could be useful for educational actors and policy makers wanting to explore and to integrate blockchain in institutional projects and curricula.

Abstract Although since 2004, when the term PLE was coined by JISC and Scott Wilson, a whole literature and projects around PLE are being created, a relatively small number of studies and research integrate the microblogging technology. In this context our paper focuses on how the PLE can be built, modeled and conceptualized on a microblogging platform, as a result of an exploratory study carried out by the authors on the platform Cirip. eu, during the last two years. Cirip. eu, a microblogging platform specially designed for ...

Over the last years, the worldwide education faces the challenges brought by the growing ubiquity of Social Media and mobile technologies, and by the integration of Open Educational Resources/Practices and Massive Open Online Courses. One of the approaches that proved to be effective in implementing open/social learning platforms is the Design Based Research (DBR) methodology. After presenting the DBR framework, this paper reviews five projects developed by using it. A case study illustrating the adaptation of DBR for implementing the Cirip educational microblogging platform makes the subject of a separate section of the article.

This paper reports on the status of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP) initiatives and policies in Romania. Drawing on the POERUP (Policies for OER Uptake) research, we also highlight a number of significant OER and OEP initiatives in other countries which may provide effective exemplars for Romania to consider. The POERUP policy recommendations, which have been mapped against the EU Opening Up Education initiative are reviewed and related to the current situation in Romania, with suggestions to facilitate the development of OER and OEP in the country.

In spite of the fast development of eLearning and distance learning in our countries (Romania and Bulgaria), the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) phenomenon is not popular enough among educational actors: teachers, researchers, students, lifelong learners or policy makers. More specifically MOOCs are not integrated in the area of higher education at curriculum level. While in Bulgaria there is no research that can confirm or reject the important role of MOOCs for introduction of new reforms, for needs of scientific explorations and for implementation of innovative solutions in university settings, in Romania the situation is a bit different: there are some initiatives related to Open Education (Open Educational Resources-OER, Open Educational Practices-OEP) and Massive Open Online Courses, like those developed by University Politehnica Timisoara in the last two years. But in both countries, at this moment there are no clear answers to questions like: Will universities accept the i...

Over the last years, major challenges in academia are represented by blended courses/flipped classrooms enhanced with Social Media (SM), Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Such blended courses become more deeply integrated into the teaching-learning process and also involve tremendous development and innovation. The main aim of this workshop is to explore the Massive Open Online Courses phenomenon: classification, platforms and directories, and the relations between MOOCs and Open Educational Resources and Practices. The participants will be able to learn about and discuss possible scenarios for integrating MOOCs in university-blended courses for Language Learning and Communication.

The activities of teachers in social networks have a certain place in their personal advancement and professional progress. Studying the organization of Personal Learning Networks (PLN) could support the optimization of teachers' efficacy and productivity. For this purpose, an analysis is performed after a literature review and taking into consideration the opinion of the international educational society including teachers from Primary schools, High schools and universities. The received data shows very different PLN structures consisting of preferred and favorite social networking sites, online authoring tools, search engines, software for communication and collaboration, socially-oriented learning management systems. Most often used and very popular among teachers are the social networks Facebook and Twitter that are studied in detail in the form of friends number, reasons for adding/excluding someone from friends' list, frequency and directions for usage, influence on pe...

ABSTRACT Over the last years, microblogging has become one of the first words associated with online interactions, conversational discourse, communication and collaboration through social networks, having important applications at all educational levels.