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= **Open Education and Open Educational Resources** =

Tuesday, 6/28/2011, 5:00pm–6:15pm //Karen Fasimpaur, K12 Open Ed with Janet Pinto, Curriki//

Come and participate in a discussion about open education and OER and discover how these free, open-licensed resources can be used to differentiate instruction and provide new learning opportunities.

**Ideas raised in this session are noted below. Please feel free to edit this page and add your own ideas. Let's continue the conversation!**
__**Premise**__: Open educational resources are a great way to differentiate instruction through digital content at a very low cost. And yet, few know about these resources and even fewer use them. There is an opportunity here.

__**Process**__: Choose a question(s) and brainstorm in small groups. Come up with some concrete conclusions and recommendations. Share out through the wiki and in wrap-up time.

Q1 - **How do you use open educational resources (OERs)?**
Some people say that OERs aren't high quality. Question posed - what does everyone think? Karen: the tools and the content are not the most impt thing. Great teachers can make the worst materials work and work well. OER has experienced a lot of gains in the last year: - written into grant programs by DoEs - wise use of $ - OER is gaining momentum, the "publishers" are bringing up the issue. However, it is impt to examine the quality.

Folks assume OERs are developed as a wikipedia. Not so. Example: [|Free Reading]- by Wireless Generation Comparable quality to any publisher material. We tend to be reactive/defensive in edu. The quality question may be part of that. Look at [|Khan]Math - if you look at math as "procedural" you can assume that it might replace the teacher. We need to adjust - think on how we can leverage that to instruct and differentiate. Khan and others have their place within the whole host of tools. Others are available as well. Lots of choices. There are kids for whom Khan academy might make them get math - different kids latch onto different things. OERs It's the right thing to do. Facilitating that sharing so that it is really sharing. [|www.Curriki.org] - upload your resources to Curriki. Teachers are the best judge of the quality of what you use in your classroom. Opportunity - share your ideas about using the materials Opportunity - learn from others Any of us can add resources as open resources - it's part of an open process rather than resources that stand static. Curriki - powerful way to understand it. Being an author is a powerful way to learn how to use OERs. What is the range of places you can contriute. - your own website - [|Creative Commons]- get the code for your website for CC-BY - [|Google advanced search]- Search by usage rights for Open Licensed content - [|K12 Open Ed] - [|Curriki] - [|Connexions] - [|OER Commons] - [|Teacher's Domain] - [|Merlot] Curriki - K-12 focused Community there is K-12 teachers primarily. Many of the other sites are general or higher ed. Unique content you will not find other places. Join Curriki and rate/review the resources. Create a group for your district, colleagues, team, etc. Most of OER are foundation funded. Trying to move funding models to more sustainable. Karen: shift of dollars will occur. There is a lot of grant $ going to proprietary materials dev. Shift that to OERs. In the end, it's not $. It's getting people to share. Challenge: Meshing of pedagogy and a collection of resources that fit under certain topics. Curriki is working on this project. [|Hippocampus], [|CK12]are two examples that are "comprehensive" programs around a topic. It is packaged. K12 Open Ed: pulled resources together around a collection. Curriki - groups bring their pedagogy, create units according to their pedagogy. You can package the stuff and Curriki hosts it. Curriki does embed videos too. Computers for Youth: started website myhomelearning.com - free resources organized by subject area. Now adding tagging by Common Core.

Q2 - **What are the biggest benefits of OERs?**
Key power of Open - continual improvement.

Q4 - **What barriers currently exist in terms of the use of open educational resources? How can these be overcom e **?
Examples of student work - legality issues. CC licenses can be applied to student work - get parent permission. Talk to students about CC.

Vetting process. - Achieve - OER Rubrics have just been finalized. Link on K-12 Open Ed and this wiki.

Member, User Rating We need to get educational materials to the level of consumer product ratings. District involvement might be a solution - formalize district processes. Social media-based system - email - ping to rate.

Culture of Sharing.

Like facebook - you have to get the network effect. Everyone contributes, everyone benefits.

PD can enable that culture. Admin can show value of your participation in the sharing culture by paying teachers to do that additional work.

Build a spirit of continual learning and people wanting to do it.

Like kids - teachers will be reinforced for their value as they are asked for their opinion.
This is a great way to say/show that we are fabulous and our materials are great. Even when it's not perfect and you get feedback on it, you can do that with OERs. Take an "inquiry" approach to the work/a "work in progress" approach. Karen is developing free and open license PD.

Open content can be used in published materials. Karen's photos have shown up in printed books. Publishers can play in the OER space.

Movement toward teacher accountability without any authority. They're holding you accountable with prescribed materials/schedules. Give teachers the authority to modify for their students, empower them to teach their students as they know best.