Celebrating Una Daly as she looks towards her “rewirement”

After 12 years of dedication to OE Global and specifically as the Director of CCCOER, Una Daly is embarking on a personal and well-earned “re-wiring” (Una’s term for it).

Una Daly has directed the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER), since 2011. CCCOER is a regional Open Education Global (OEGlobal) hub that promotes open educational policies, practices, and resources.

Una played a pivotal role in developing and supporting the 101 member community colleges that hail from 35 states in the USA and two provinces in Canada. Una has driven the CCCOER vision to raise awareness and encourage the adoption of open educational initiatives throughout the region. Una’s stewardship of CCCOER has led to innovative support programs for faculty in their open education application through such initiatives as CCCOER’s monthly webinars and the former Regional Leaders of Open Education (RLOE) program.

Her dedication to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within the community college system has seen the development of innovative programs such as the Open For AntiRacism (OFAR) and the Summer EDI Book Club, among others. She has been dedicated to walking the talk by implementing internal additions to CCCOER’s advisory structures and creating an EDI committee to guide EDI programs.

Collective action, partnerships, and collaboration to activate change towards open education change have been an effective part of Una’s strategy for CCCOER. This has resulted in the California Consortium for Equitable Change in Hispanic-Serving Institutions OER Project, the California Zero Textbook Cost Degree initiative, and the Achieving The Dream OER Degree program.

Listen to the history of CCCOER from Una’s perspective and the thoughts of incoming program director Heather Blicher in the OEG Voices podcast, Looking Back and into the Future of CCCOER with Una Daly and Heather Blicher.

Before joining OEGlobal, Una was director of College Open Textbooks and the ePortfolio Coordinator at the California Virtual Campus and Foothill College, where she taught in the Computer Technology Information Systems department. She holds a Masters in Teaching and Learning with Technology from Santa Clara University and an @One Online Teaching Certificate. Her initial career was in the computer industry, where she was a software engineer and manager at Apple, 3Com Corporation, and Motorola.

We will miss you Una! We know that the CCCOER community will do too!

The CCCOER Community’s wishes for Una

The staff at OEGlobal have set up a KudoBoard to share our experiences of Una and our wishes for her rewired future. Here are a few of the snippets from this board.

“Thanks for being a guiding light in the ever-changing world of OER. You were there facilitating every CCCOER webinar when I first started focusing on open and you grew and developed the community that I depended on to develop my work. Now I’m in the unique position to continue your work and I won’t let you down! Many hugs to you for the times you reached out and offered me the chance to be on a panel, a webinar, or write a blog post. It meant the world to me when you feel so isolated in certain positions. Enjoy your re-wirement and I hope to visit you on the West coast one day soon!”

Heather Blicher on Una’s Farewell KudoBoard

“Una, how will we feel your absence when your presence is so intrinsic to the field of Open Education that you helped to create? The presence of care, consideration, and kindness. The presence of wit and wisdom and whimsy. The creativity that arises from studying math and computer science. The workshops that once attracted single attendees and are now standing room only. The giant leaps that come from dreaming big. The goodness and kindness, as well as the stubbornness and determination, that you embody are so firmly the foundations of the field, that your absence won’t cause a collapse. Your presence will live on in thousands of future students who find a place in education because the door is open more widely, who see themselves in their learning materials, who are welcomed and supported by teachers who co-create with them, and who are inspired to learn their whole lives long. You will be present with us and with future generations of learners, in our minds and in our hearts.”

James Glapa-Grossklag on Una’s Farewell KudoBoard

“You have such a gift of bringing people together to share their strengths – which you did so beautifully in bringing the professional learning network around OER that CCCOER is. The relationships that you fostered, the knowledge you shared and the projects you have led, have created the foundation of much of OER in the community colleges. I feel so fortunate to be able to have worked with you but even more importantly to be able to call you a friend.”

Lisa Young on Una’s Farewell KudoBoard

“It was wonderful to work with you at OE Global! Thank you for all of your support and guidance for the RLOE program, and everything you built for the CCCOER. You have truly set the stage for the CCCOER to move into a bright and creative future!”

Karen Cangialosi on Una’s Farewell KudoBoard

“You have made an indelible mark on CCCOER and the broader open education community. You have been a source of inspiration for so many. I am deeply grateful that I got a chance to work closely with you these last few years on the CCCOER Executive Council. I’m thrilled that we saw one another again in Edmonton. Wishing you all the happiness and fulfillment in the next chapter of your life. With deep gratitude,”

Shinta Hernandez on Una’s Farewell KudoBoard

Share your wishes for Una’s Re-wirement!

Please add your experiences and stories of Una on the Farewell KudoBoard.

OEG Voices – Latest Podcasts

OE Global Voices

Welcome to the home of podcasts produced by Open Education Global. These shows bring you insight and connection to the application of open education practices from around the world. Listen at podcast.oeglobal.org

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OE Global Voices
OEG Voices 078: Significant Impact OER Award Winner Frontiers for Young Minds
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OEG Voices 078: Significant Impact OER Award Winner Frontiers for Young Minds

Put this episode of OE Global Voices on your “Must Listen List” and be prepared for waves of inspiration and awe for Frontiers for Young Minds, an outstanding project that publishes on the order of 250 papers a year on complex areas of science. But more importantly, these papers are written for kids and reviewed by kids in a process that, when you hear it, will make it clear why Frontiers for Young Minds was recognized with a 2024 Open Education Award for Excellence in the Significant Impact category.

Frontiers for Young Minds https://kids.frontiersin.org/

Frontiers for Young Minds believes that the best way to make cutting-edge science discoveries available to younger audiences is to enable young people and scientists to work together to create articles that are both top quality and exciting.

Distinguished scientists are invited to write about their discoveries in a language that is accessible for young readers, and it is then up to the kids themselves – with the help of a science mentor – to provide feedback and explain to the authors how to best improve the articles before publication.

This unique process produces a collection of freely available scientific articles by leading scientists, shaped for younger audiences by the input of their own young peers.

https://kids.frontiersin.org/about/journal/

In this episode we will learn more about the journal and its publishing process, but also dive into an example of how a paper on the science of secrets was drafted by clinical psychologists at Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands), reviewed by kids in the Science Club at Disley Primary School (United Kingdom) mentored by neuroscientist Caroline Lea-Carnall at the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) and then published in the Frontiers for Young Minds journal as Shhh! What Are Secrets and How Do They Affect Us?

In the podcast recording studio with top row, left to right) Laura Henderson and Hedwig Ens (Frontiers for Young Minds) and bottom row,Caroline Lea-Carnall (University of Manchester), Ildikó Csizmazia and Minita Franzen (Erasmus University Rotterdam).

In This Episode

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

In this episode of OE Global Voices, host Alan Levine delves into the inspirational story behind the award-winning project, “Frontiers for Young Minds,” which uniquely involves children in the peer-review process of scientific articles aimed at young readers. Alan engages with key figures including Laura Henderson, head of the program, along with contributors and reviewers Caroline Lea-Carnall, Hedwig Ens, Ildikó Csizmazia, and Minita Franzen. They discuss the project’s origins, its mission to make complex scientific concepts accessible and engaging for kids, and the enriching experience it provides for both young reviewers and established scientists. The conversation highlights the project’s significant impact on science communication and education, celebrating its collaborative spirit and success in fostering a new generation of science enthusiasts.

  • Intro Music, Opening Quotes, and Welcome
  • Meet the Guests: Laura Henderson and Team
  • The Origin Story of Frontiers for Young Minds
  • The Review Process: Kids as Gatekeepers
  • The Impact of the Project on Kids and Scientists
  • Future Plans and Closing Remarks

(end of AI generated show notes)

Additional Links and Quotes for Episode 78

 It was very interesting to see their thinking was about the whole idea. There were places where we [thought] this might be an important part to share, but there is not really much research on that so we cannot say anything.

So I just didn’t [add] anything in the article. And then kids were like, “Okay, but can you tell us something about it? Is there research on it?” I liked that feedback.

They also picked up on the positive things — this made us enthusiastic to continue to incorporate their feedback. And we really thought we are contributing and doing something that younger readers also find very important.

Ildikó Csizmazia on responding to the reviewers

One of the great privileges of our work is that we work with the most engaged, the most passionate people, the researchers, the science mentors, the kids themselves. It’s a kind of self-selecting group who come to be part of what we do. And the real common thread is always that passion and that engagement.

So it gives us energy and thank you to everybody who’s been part of our process, the people here on this call today, so Ildikó, Minita, Caroline, but also all of our authors, science mentors, editors, young reviewers who’ve been part of our process over the years.

We’ve worked with about 900 editors and 9,000 plus young reviewers in 65 countries and however many authors, it’s, an incredible number of authors.

Laura Henderson, Frontiers for Young Minds


Our open licensed music for this episode is a track calledScience Summit by Serge Quadrado licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).

Finally, this was another episode we are recording on the web in Squadcast, part of the Descript platform for AI enabled transcribing and editing audio in text– this has greatly enhanced our ability to produce our showsWe have been exploring some of the other AI features in Descriptbut our posts remain human authored except where indicated otherwise.