7 Things To Know Before Using Open Educational Resources
By jaybarrett10
Instead of being required to use state money for state-adopted materials like textbooks, Texas school districts can now choose which instructional materials to purchase. Having this option, Amarillo Independent School District chose to shelve textbooks at its Amarillo Area Center for Advanced Learning and invest in a 1:1 iPad initiative, venturing into the ever-growing world of Open Educational Resources (OER).
OER are teaching and learning materials that are freely available online. Our goals with OER are to find the best possible course materials to engage our students, improve academic achievement, and save the district money.
Following are seven things to consider when transitioning to tablets and OER:
Staff Readiness
Teachers’ willingness and readiness to embrace new things is critical to the efficacy of any new technology or resource, so we provided iPads to our teachers during the summer to allow them to become acquainted with the tablets before introducing them to students in November. We also provided training and support by carving information into small, manageable chunks — just as we would do with students.
When we received our iPads, I said to our teachers, some of whom I knew were more proficient than others in using digital content, “We’re like pioneers. This technology may be new and even a little intimidating. But, as we venture out onto the digital frontier, we’re simply meeting our students where they already are.”
Your Resident ‘Early Adopters’
With any new tool, there are usually a few teachers who take to it quickly and run with it. Encourage those early adopters to share their expertise and enthusiasm with their colleagues. To provide a framework, we launched monthly lunch-time “Appy Hours.” At first, our early adopters demonstrated how they used the iPads, OER and different apps in their classes. Now, every teacher is able to share, and our “Appy Hours” have grown into “Appy Days” during professional development since all teachers are now able to share. Our teachers like this approach because they enjoy hearing from their peers about how OER and apps are improving learning for our students. They also know they can get help on demand if they need it, much the same as our students get help when they need it.
In addition, we send staff to conferences for new ideas and training. I recently took our math and science department heads to the EdTechTeacher iPad Summit in Boston. There, they learned several best practices for integrating iPads in the service of learning, which they shared with their colleagues in our most recent “Appy Hour.”
The Quality of the Materials
With OER, it’s easy to think that because it’s free it’s okay to settle for less. Not true. With OER, it is imperative to seek out the same level of quality and rigor that you would for a textbook or any other resource.
While we have found a great deal of high-quality OER in math and science, in some courses we have not been able to find everything we need, so we create our own content, too. Some teachers even prefer to create their own video lessons. They like to explain concepts and skills to students using their own unique approach, rather than automatically pulling a lesson from a provider like Khan Academy. Then, if needed, they can give students another look at the same concept by using videos from other providers.
Content Management
With thousands upon thousands of OER available, it can be difficult to locate and then choose which materials are best for your classroom. To simplify the world of OER, we use a free, content management system called Net Texts. With this system, our teachers can easily access and utilize the vast library of free, high-quality OER available on the Internet, and then publish directly to students’ iPads.
The Net Texts system has two parts: a content management website for teachers, and a free app for iPads and Android tablets for students. Using the website, teachers can select existing courses from the Net Texts library or create new courses by mixing and matching items with their own educational materials. The Net Texts site includes more than 65,000 resources from leading OER providers such as the CK-12 Foundation, Khan Academy, and Project Gutenberg, organized by subject, grade level, objectives and standards.
Students then use the app to download, display and interact with the courses, which are filled with videos, slideshows, e-books, PDFs, text, audio books, and web links. The courses, which teachers can edit and update at any time, are also available via web browser on any platform.
Connectivity
In our district, almost 70 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. A key benefit of Net Texts is that using the free app, students can download their courses onto their iPads and use them without further Wi-Fi access. This enables students to access their courses on the school bus, at home or anywhere else.
The Changing Roles of Educators
Thanks to the use of iPads and OER, we have begun a metamorphosis. We are moving from an instructional model where teachers dispense information, to a model where teachers are facilitators and students take a greater role in their learning.
During the transition phase, I did not require teachers and students to use the iPads every day in class. This flexibility allowed us to naturally progress through the different stages of technology integration — from simply using the iPads and OER as substitutes for traditional materials like textbooks, to actually redefining how we present lessons and engage students, according to the SAMR Model of Dr. Ruben Puentadura. As a result, teachers were freed from the fear of needing to be perfect and students became more active rather than passive learners.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been struggles. As a school leader, it’s important to have empathy when teachers are trying something new, but it’s also critical to push when necessary. A great way to do this is to lead by example. The reality is that the world has changed and educational leaders must change with it. If we don’t, we’re not only not useful to our students, but we are also not affording them every opportunity to practice using digital tools they’ll use in the world beyond high school. It is imperative to exemplify what it means to be lifelong learners to our staff and students.
Best Practices
Our teachers are doing so many great things that I can’t keep up with it all. To help me keep up, I created a Google Doc and asked them to list how they are using OER and apps with their students. My goal is to create a compendium of resources for our school and our district.
Thanks to our use of OER, we are leveraging the latest and best materials, rather than relying on textbooks, which are often outdated by the time they reach our students’ hands. We are providing students with more timely, relevant and meaningful content in our math and science classrooms. More important, we are fulfilling the core mission of our schools: to ensure that all students are prepared for the success beyond high school.
Jay Barrett is the principal of the Amarillo Area Center for Advanced Learning, a math/science specialty high school in the Amarillo Independent School District in Texas.
Post Source: http://www.edudemic.com/open-educational-resources-2/
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