Open Educational Resources

Things to Know About Open Educational Resources (OER)

-Open Educational Resources are basically free or reduced items that can be used for academic learning and teaching such as digital textbooks, shared lesson plans, textbooks, games and generally anything technological. 

-OER is typically either a large offering from a single institution or a collection of things gathered from multiple people, places, and areas. 

-The OpenCourseWare project from MIT is where OER initiated from. It began in 2002 and roughly covers 2,000 MIT courses.

-Due to open and shared ideas, lesson plans, and different perspectives, teachers are revolutionizing the teaching movement. There is much more to be learned when a large amount of information is shared through a technological tool. 

Want to know more? Check out the website where this information came from, you should actually read this 'scenario' on the page, it gives great insight on OER in real life terms.

For all of my audio and visual learners, I've found this youtube video that describes in great detail the benefits, origins, meanings, and ideas of Open Educational Learning...

 

 

On the Open Educational Resources website of collections you can find shared ideas on any grade level and in any field of academics. Since my career is driven towards younger children, Pre-K through fourth grade, I've checked out their 'primary' grade level activities. I've stumbled upon a few that are excellent, and have them bookmarked for future reference! After you read through a few of these, you really start to appreciate the collaboration of ideas, notes, lesson plans, and true passion that these other educators are bringing forth with their entries.

First I decided to check out the Math area of interest, and came across quite a few ideas that I plan to use in the future. For example, The 100th Day of School activity is a great idea to activate the student's minds into using higher level thinking and problem solving. The basic idea, is on the 100th day of school, to set up a mathematical activity for the students to figure out 100 different ways to represent the number 100. Now of course students will immediately find ideas such as adding 50 and 50 together, or 99 and 1. After explaining to the class to think outside of the box, and to use geometry, algebra, patterns, data, and probability, students will begin to get creative. I would probably create a bulletin board with the title and number 100 (like the site suggests) and have each student pick their favorite chosen way to represent the number 100 and have them make a presentation of it to go on the bulletin board for everyone to share. Great idea and fun activity to get the brain going!

Next I decided to check out all of the goodies that were in the 'arts' primary grade level section, and came across a great resource from the Open Educational Resources website. This post had a link to a list of activities for students to participate in that helped them create self-identity, self-worth, integrity, and so on. By using photographs, magazine clippings, finger printing equipment and poems/stories, there are enough activities (and ideas for activities) to allow children room to explore and use common things surrounding them in everyday life and get their mind developing appropriately in the social/emotional developmental area. Great ideas, plan to use them in the future as well!

Finally, I checked out what the website offered in the primary division of social sciences and found a great shared plan from a teacher that includes resources and gives instructions for other teachers to teach the importance of being a leader and also goes over a few famous leaders in history. The actual resource gives a week long list of ideas, theories, points, and activities to work upon in the classroom. It is based on a second grade level classroom, but involves enough activity to keep the students' minds awake and learning. This is another great tool that I've bookmarked because it's just something I wouldn't think of on my own.

 

After reading through some of these different resources, I've learned that I am very happy that this idea has been created, because sometimes in teaching you just need advice, opinions, and ideas from others. No one is a perfect person, let alone a perfect teacher, so whenever you need a helping hand, a little creativity, or just some plain and simple quiz questions, this website is perfect! The ability to view feedback on  some of the ideas is great too, so you can understand how it worked in another's classroom. The website is so easy to navigate, so helpful and informative, and I personally believe that everyone in the education field should be opened up to it so they can experience how great it is for themselves!

"OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under and intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge." as stated on the website that I checked out from my google search on OER. Not only does the website go over the idea and usefulness that has come about from OER, but they've given links for more helpful information and the project's strategic plan. These explanations will help educators fully understand the point of OER as well as the benefits.

 

On another website I found 10 Open Educational Resources that you may not have known about. This website is great because, it too, has plenty of ideas and activities all combined from educators from all over. It makes the possibilities endless in terms of academic teaching strategies, questions, activities, assignments, and so on.


 

The last website that I checked out was actually another OER, and in the early childhood education section it covered foundations for success, initiatives, unit resources, and early learning resources! Just amazing how much information is actually out there and how much easier it can be to create a lesson plan using the advice and ideas from others.

In conclusion...

Open Educational Resources are an amazing part of technology and I am so happy that I've been introduced to them at such an early stage of my teaching career. By the time I graduate college I could have lesson plans worked out for all grades Pre-K through fourth just by using OER's! But in all seriousness, OER is a great tool for any early children advocates or educators of any kind to be aware of, understand, and have access to.

www.TeachingChannel.org

Common Core Videos

Post It Notes

This video focuses on the use of post it notes during reading or activities. The students write on post it notes about certain things that they find interesting, have questions about, or just generalizations about the information. Then, once the class meets and discusses the assigned reading, the post it's are used as guides and reminders for the children. They are helpful conversation starters and keep all of the children  focused and aware of what to speak about when it's their turn.

Counting Collection Teaching Strategies

A simple math strategy for first grade and higher. Very inexpensive, just explain to the students that they will be working in pairs, and they will be given a bag full of 'stuff' (use inexpensive things such as hair ties, blocks, poker chips, q-tips, etc) and then they are assigned to discuss different ways to count their collection. As the teacher, give an example by counting out your own collection of 'stuff', and choosing a particular way to count (such as by tens), then put 10 items in a cup and continue on until you are out of items. Make sure that the class understands the concept, and walk around the classroom to observe their thinking and to make sure that they are counting correctly. Once they have sorted everything out, explore different ways to count the cups, possibly introducing low level multiplication or high level addition.

Many Ways to Teach Music and Rhythm

Personally, music and rhythm are a big part of my future classroom, and this video truly spoke to me. I love the teacher's energy and her outlook on music, poetry, rhythm, and creativity. Basically create a poem/short story, use infliction and teach your students the poem/short story using song-like tones. Once they've learned the song, incorporate dance, once they've learned the dance incorporate differentiating the rhythms and different patterns. It's such a fun and exciting way to teach children without them even knowing that they're learning!!

Show and Tell

Great ideas about different forms of 'show and tell' in younger grade levels. Since some children get bored easily, as well as some children not having the same luxuries as others (and vice versa), this video gives ideas on how to keep 'show and tell' focused by using themes. This video is centralized around 'Antique Roadshow' theme, which is anything that was made before the child was born. There are other ideas such as using letters of the alphabet, colors, types of animals, and basically any theme that you choose to do so. This helps keep children focused, especially since children all love to share things about themselves. Include a worksheet for each different themed 'show and tell' for the student to fill in and bring with the item. Sounds fun! Will definitely be using this in my classroom.

When it comes down to it, I am in LOVE with this website. There are so many incredible ideas, and not only that, but they are visually presented in actual classrooms. You get to see the children's reactions to the lessons and activities and you can adjust according to your own classroom's behavior. There is such a variety of different learning methods, tools, and ideas that I will DEFINITELY be using the site for future classes, lesson plans, and for when I actually have my own classroom! :)

Flipped Learning

What is it?

Flipped learning, also referred to as reverse instruction, flip teaching, backwards classroom and reverse teaching, is a bIssasic teaching concept that uses any form of internet technology to modify and adjust the learning level in the classroom. 

Why?

Flipped learning is mainly used so that there is more interaction time between students and teachers, rather than formal lectures. The traditional type of classroom environment includes teaching a lesson through lecture, assigning homework and worksheets, and expecting the students to finish these assignments using the knowledge that was just learned, rather than applying practical work. 

A Brief History

A man named Eric Mazur is the earliest known person to implement this type of learning style in 1990. As a Harvard graduate, he had learned that using technology based lessons helped him to teach the lesson WHILE helping the students...coaching rather than instructing. Soon after, the idea skyrocketed throughout classrooms nationwide. 

After gathering information and formulating an opinion on flipped learning, I had to ask myself...what about the students who don't have access to technology at home? What about all of the lower SES households? They just miss out on the videos (or whatever technology has been assigned to watch) ? After some more careful research I've found that this issue has already been taken care of in a variety of ways. First and foremost, the class is questioned about what they have at home to use technologically. If a student does not have access to a computer at home, the teachers usually burn the video onto a DVD and send that home with the student. Most students had DVD players in their homes, and the very few who didn't got one from the teacher. Another way to help students who may not have access at home was introduced through the schools themselves, where the computer labs have been allowed to stay open past school hours just for this particular reason. 

Another question I had to ask myself was "Is this serious? Flipped learning is all about students watching videos at home and then just doing worksheets in class?" Well, I found that I was wrong. In fact, flipped learning classrooms are more like learning workshops than classrooms. They may even seem chaotic to an onlooker because all of the different conversations being held between peers and coaching done by the teachers. Class time is designated to form around the students' learning needs. 

Of course, since I am not 100% on board with using so much technology in the classroom I still had more questions. I understood the definition of flipped learning, but I wasn't quite sure on what EXACTLY happened in the classroom. I found an example of a lesson plan using flipped learning, and it went as follows:

1) Students prepare for the class by listening/watching a video or other technological resource.

2) After watching, the students are asked to organize their questions and information that they've learned.

3) Students then log on to some type of social network for the classroom and post their questions, concerns, and thoughts about the subject material that will be shared with the whole classroom.

4) The professor sorts through these questions and ideas prior to class, and uses them as discussions, activities, assignments, and worksheets during the class time.

5) The role of the professor is to give questions or concerns about the content, and then to listen and guide the students as they figure it out with the aid of peers, working as a mini-group. 

After reading this, it made a lot more sense. In all honesty, flipped learning doesn't have much to do with JUST technology, it's a completely new approach to teaching.

Personally, being an early childhood education major, I won't be using flipped learning often in my classroom, but I will certainly implement the idea into a few of my lesson plans. I will of course switch a few things up, such as, rather than the students watching the video at home, it will be a very short video watched during class, as a class, and then continue the remaining steps from there. (Using materials and resources that are acceptable for young children.) I've found a few more sources that have more information if interested in further education on the subject matter.

Read More About Flipped Learning

How Flipped Learning is Affecting the Classroom

LEARN MORE!

This video explains a lot of what I've already mentioned...but, I added it for all of you visual/hearing learners!!

Resources

Defining Flipped Learning

ESchool News

Flipped Learning--Find Out!

Tech Smith

A Flipped Classroom