Thank you #gognpb

Our GO-GN picture book project is coming to an end (at least officially). After six month of close and fruitful collaboration we have achieved not just what we planned to but so much more, I feel.

Helene, Penny, Paola, Gino, Verena, Bryan, Ody and Nassi (who joined us in the last few weeks) none of this would have been possible without you.

We have captured our individual and collective journeys in great detail from the very beginning via a series of GO-GN blog posts:

Pulker, H., Bentley, P., Fransman, G., Roberts, V., Nerantzi, C., Corti, P., Frank, O. and Mathers, B. (2021) A collaboration like no other, reflections by the team as the GOGN picture book project is coming to an end #GOGNpb, 7 April 2021, GO-GN blog, http://go-gn.net/research/a-collaboration-like-no-other/

Corti, P., Pulker, H., Nerantzi, C., Bentley, P., Fransman, G. and Roberts, V. (2021) Our story and our connection to it… #gognbp, GO-GN blog, 12 February 2021. GO-GN blog, http://go-gn.net/research/our-story-and-our/

Nerantzi, C. & Mathers, B. (2021) To illustrate or not to illustrate?
Bryan mentoring Chrissi for the open picture book, a GOGN Fellowship project #gognpb, 21 January 2021. GO-GN blog, http://go-gn.net/research/to-illustrate-or-not-to/

Nerantzi, C. (2020) GOGN Fellowship project: Co-creating an open picture book about open education, 22 October. GO-GN blog, http://go-gn.net/research/fellowship-open-picture-book/

Pulker, H., Bentley, P., Corti, P. Fransman, G. Roberts, V. and Nerantzi, C. (2020) Why on earth did I join this project? 18 November 2020, GO-GN blog, http://go-gn.net/research/w hy-on-earth/

Roberts, V. Nerantzi, C., Corti, P., Pulker, H., Bentley, P. and Fransman, G. (2020) The seeds in our data basket, reporting findings, no penguins found…, 10 December 2020, GO-GN blog, http://go-gn.net/research/the-seeds-in-our-data-basket/

We also shared our project at a series of events:

Nerantzi, C., Pulker, H., Corti, P., Roberts, V., Bentley, P., Fransman, G., Mathers, B. & Frank, O. (2021) The joys of open collaboration, stories from the GOGN picture book team, OER21 Conference, 22 April 2021, presentation

Corti, P., Fransman, G., Roberts, V., Nerantzi, C., Pulker, H. & Bentley, P. (2021) Collaborative creative writing in the open can foster community, 26 February, #creativeHE meetup: Fostering community in imaginative ways

Nerantzi, C. (2020) An open collaborative picture book project about open education, a GOGN Fellowship 2020 project, GOGN seminar, 14 Oct 2020, online

Nerantzi, C., Fransman, G., Pulker, H., Roberts, V., Bentley and P. Corti, P. (2020) Interested in picture books? Then keep reading and find out more and help us shape one about open education, Open Education Global Connect, 16-20 Nov 2020, https://connect.oeglobal.org/c/oeg-2020/convo-collab/18

Our picture book Together has been published in English on the Zenodo platform

Nerantzi, C., Pulker, H., Bentley, P., Corti, P., Roberts, V., Fransman, G., Frank, O. and Mathers, B. (2021) Together (Versions 1, 2). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4703978

Further work and outputs

Many translations are ready. Over 20, thanks to members of the team, their colleagues and friends and the wider community. We are grateful to everybody who helped us achieve this. Twenty three are now available as Google slideshares.

We have been invited to record a podcast for OEGlobal. Here comes the recording completed in August 2022 together with curated resources about our project.

I submitted the GO-GN Fellowship report.

Helene Pulker and I have submitted a chapter about our collaborative working practive for a book on Collaboration. This has been accepted and will be printed shortly (edited Aug 2022).

Paula Corti and I have written another chapter with a focus on using the open picture book format for learning, teaching and assessment for a book on Open Education. This will also be published shortly (edited Aug 2022).

Nassi has released Doodlefan for Together, a companion for the book which will enable further creative expression and engagement with the story. It is available here.

Shunak Patil has kindly created a Doodlefan demonstration. See below

We are looking forward to working with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in spreading Together further.

The work on the translations will continue (over 20 GD slideshares of the book have been prepared.
Audio recordings in different languages will be a useful addition.

For now members of the team, Gino Fransman, Verena Roberst and Molya Vundamina, a further open educator have created an exciting and very lively reading of the story based on the original for #OEGlobal21 Enjoy!

The above reading has won the 2021 Best Storybook Reading for Children and Adults, at the Open Education Global Conference 2021. Our warmest congratulations Gino, Verena and Molja!

In October 2021, the Together project was awarded the Open Education Award for Excellence in the Category Open Innovation by OEGlobal.

This is what the Awards Committee said: “This award is selected by the OE Awards Committee to recognize truly exceptional work in Open Education. We applaud your dedication to openness, access, high quality, and innovation, shown by your work and vision.”

We are delighted and humbled by this global recognition.

All 2020 GO-GN Fellowships can be accessed here. Our project page through which we share our outputs can be accessed by clicking here.

I would like to thank one more time, everybody who embraced the idea, GO-GN for the Fellowship, all those who contributed and supported us generously, dared to do something different to spread the values of open education beyond higher education and help us grow individuals that value diversity and see value in collaboration that brings growth and happiness.

Chrissi