How can teachers find, build & share resources and content to support learners in K-12 online & open digital contexts? What did I already know, what do I know now based on the course readings and activities, what do I hope to learn?
Something I learned from this weeks readings was more information about what OERs (Open Educational Resources) are and how they can help to increase accessibility to necessary learning opportunities regardless of remoteness of location. Kimmons’ study on the effectiveness and quality discrepancies between copyright-restricted textbooks, open alternative resources, and open/adapted resources was very interesting. The study found that open/adapted resources offered the highest quality of of learning out of the three, and that open resources were superior to copyright-restricted resources.
“the results that both the open textbooks and the open/adapted textbooks were evaluated by K-12 teachers as being superior to their copyright-restricted alternatives.” (Kimmons, 2015, p.52)
This didn’t surprise me much. This is something I assumed to be true, but I was very excited to see an actual study on the different methods and how they impacted students’ learning. My understanding of what open/adapted are is that they are open, public, accessible resources that teachers are able to “revise and remix” to personalize it to the needs of the learners in their classroom. This process highlights the importance and continued gravitation towards connectivism that Bates talked about in his article. The personalization of learning also increases engagement, as obviously students will put more effort into things they actually have an interest in. In addition, the fact that these kinds of resources provided improved quality that were not related to cost goes to show that “conciseness, readability, and additional resources” (Kimmons, 2015, p.52) played parts in the success.
Roberts and Noble’s article offered more clarification for in on the positive uses of OER for building knowledge for all. They talked about the importance of supporting and developing educator awareness, which really stuck with me. In order for OERs to become more widely used, educators, regardless of remoteness, need to be informed and “in the loop” about what that even means, and how they can use them to their advantage. That means they should be kept updated on things like the difference between “free content” and “open additional resources.” The article also mentioned the practicality the OER’s offer, such as flexibility and changeability. This connects to Kimmons’ mentioning of open/adapted resources. Teachers should be able to use resources to their advantage under a Creative Commons licence, as this offers maximal quality of learning for all. There are things to be considered, such as:
“1. Access to Editing Tools: Is the open content published in a format that can only be revised or remixed using tools that are extremely expensive, using tools that run on an obscure or discontinued platform or using tools that are freely available and run on all major platforms?
2. Level of Expertise Required: Is the open content published in a format that requires a significant amount technical expertise to revise or remix?
3. Meaningfully Editable: Is the open content published in a manner that makes its content essentially impossible to revise or remix?
4. Self-Sourced: Is the format preferred for consuming the open content the same format preferred for revising or remixing the open content?” (Hilton III, Johnson, Stein &Wiley, 2010; Wiley, n.d. ).
I think the increased awareness, use, and development of OERs ensures accessibility as well as adaptability of learning for individual classroom needs. The ability to find, share, and build resources is a group effort, and OERs are helping. As far as sharing resources, I’m starting to get familiar with Twitter for educational purposes, and it seems like a great platform for educators to interact and share a wealth of knowledge.
Connections to Course Content:
Finding, Building & Sharing Credible, Reliable Resources & Content to Support K-12 Learners – Using the resources to inquire deeper into what OERs are, how they are beneficial, and how they impact learners inn more remote locations.
Develop an awareness of the potential of Human-Centered Learning in Online and Open K-12 Learning Contexts – Adding depth to the meaning of “human-centred learning” from an accessibility and customization of learning standpoint. “Accessibility” connecting because of the elaboration on how we need to ensure human social connection empathy even with screens, and “customization” connecting through the use of open/adapted resources as a means of personalized education for individual need.
Examine and reflect upon the potential for equitable access for all learners in online and open learning contexts – OERs offer access to learning opportunities, resources, platforms, and more to those who are in remoter areas where access may be more limited
Below are some notes I took on the first 2 readings that helped me create this blog post:
Blog 4 – find, build, share resources
Bates, T. (2014). Learning Theories and Online Learning. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/07/29/learning-theories -and-online-learning/.
Kimmons, R. (2015). OER quality and adaptation in K-12: Comparing teacher evaluations of copyright-restricted, open, and open/adapted textbooks. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 16(5), 39–57. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v16i5.2341
Roberts, V. & Noble, S. (2020). Developing a Creative Commons Mindset: The Practical Aspects of OER from a K-12 Alberta School District Perspective. [Weblog]. Retrieved from http://verenaroberts.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2020/06/25/deve loping-a-creative-commons-mindset-the-practical-aspe cts-of-oer-from-an-k-12-alberta-school-district-perspect ive/
Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled Pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i4.3601