Paper presented at OER16: Open Culture, University of Edinburgh, 19th April, 2016.

1. Irish 101:
Incorporating Cultural and Strategic Drivers
Mairéad NIC GIOLLA MHICHÍL, Mark BROWN,
Eamon COSTELLO, Enda DONLON & Collette KIRWAN
Edinburgh
18th April, 2016

2. Outline…
1. Irish 101 and DCU Platform
2. Cultural and Strategic Drivers
3. Open Educational Resources

3. 1. Irish 101 and DCU Platform

4. 1. Irish 101 and DCU Platform

5. 1. Irish 101 and DCU Platform

6. 1. Irish 101 and DCU Platform
Irish 101 Learning Outcomes…
• Understand basic spoken words, phrases, questions and short
dialogs
• Understand basic greetings and in written texts and how to
respond to them
• Express orally and understand more complex phrases and
questions
• Compose a short greetings card or simple e-mail/text message
using set phrases
• Give a brief description of socio-linguistic circumstances of
Gaeilge in Ireland and abroad
• Consider the link between Gaeilge and contemporary culture and
society in Ireland

7. 1. Irish 101 and DCU Platform

8. 1. Irish 101 and DCU Platform

9. The DCU Open Academy and Irish 101 will be launched as
soon as we have a Minister…
1. Irish 101 and DCU Platform

10. 2. Cultural and Strategic Drivers

11. “Resilience requires
adaptation and evolution to new
environmental conditions, but retains core identity”
(Weller & Anderson, 2013, p.55).
2. Cultural and Strategic Drivers
2.1 Strategic Institutional Drivers…

12. 2. Cultural and Strategic Drivers

13. Part of Irish State’s National
Commemorative Programme 2016
2. Cultural and Strategic Drivers
2.2 Strategic Cultural Drivers…

14. • Irish one of the oldest written languages
• Diminishing population of native speakers
i.e. Irish as a community language
• Language seen as integral to cultural
identity
• Increasing numbers of learners of Irish
globally
2. Cultural and Strategic Drivers

15. Aimed at Global Irish Diaspora
Tweets in Irish - #Gaeilge
2. Cultural and Strategic Drivers

16. • Small but increasing number of LMOOCs
• Global languages: ENGLISH, SPANISH, with more
Chinese MOOCs coming on stream
• Mainly Ab initio courses
• Example ENGLISH MOOCS can be divided into…
- Majority Ab Initio
- Small minority targeting Intermediate learners
- Tiny fraction aimed at English in specific purposes i.e.
business domains, etc
2.3 Strategic Language Drivers…
2. Cultural and Strategic Drivers

17. 2. Cultural and Strategic Drivers

18. 75%
English
Language
2. Cultural and Strategic Drivers

19. 3. Open Educational Resources

20. • Irish State supports several Digital Humanities projects
• Sense of place important to diaspora
– Resources representing places openly available
• Crowd engagement used to connect with Diaspora in
development of resources:
– Logainm.ie
• Placenames Database
– Dúchas.ie
• Bailiúchán na Scol or na School’s Collection
• A collection of writings collected from School Children
3. Open Educational Resources

21. Logainn.ie
3. Open Educational Resources

22. 3. Open Educational Resources

23. 3. Open Educational Resources

24. 3. Open Educational Resources

25. Conclusion…

26. • Exciting ‘open’ initiative
• Convergence of key drivers
• Promoting identity in a digital world
Conclusion…

27. http://langoer.eun.org

28. “A prudent question is one-half of wisdom”
Francis Bacon
http://www.slideshare.net/mbrownz
mairead.nicgiollamhichil@dcu.ie

29. Go raibh
maith
agaibh!

30. National Institute for Digital Learning
• DCU Connected
• Teaching Enhancement
• Digital Learning Research