A Principal's Reflections

MAY 20, 2018

Emerging technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, open education resources (OER), coding, and adaptive learning tools are moving more into the mainstream in some schools. Image credit Expectations are also changing in a knowledge and information-based society where information can easily be accessed from virtually anywhere.

OER 298

OER Personal Learning Network Outcomes Blended Learning 298

Doug Levin

MAY 16, 2016

What I do want to comment on (in greater than 140 characters) is the practice of ‘openwashing:’ what it is, why I believe not being able to go beyond a pro-OER elephant test for organizations and service providers is untenable in practice, and some thoughts on what we can do about it. The Pro-OER Elephant Test.

OER 170

OER Software Company Twitter 170

Iterating Toward Openness

SEPTEMBER 4, 2024

Next week I hope to post the first section of the presentation, which outlines the reasons why people who care deeply about affordability, access, and improving outcomes should consider shifting their focus away from OER (as we have understood it for the last 25+ years) and toward generative AI.

OER 137

OER Resources Education Examples 137

Iterating Toward Openness

JULY 23, 2018

By definition, open educational resources (OER) are licensed in a manner that gives you permission to change, update, and improve them. Learning analytics, on the other hand, can provide great insight into where course materials – including OER – are not effectively supporting student learning.

OER 94

OER Learning Analytics Analysis Course 94

Iterating Toward Openness

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

the internet, knowledge, OER) is a commons. They looked at ease of access to digital forms of knowledge and easy new ways to store, access and share knowledge as a common. OER are not a common pool resource and the community of creators and users that have formed around them are not a commons.

OER 130

OER Resources Accessibility Education 130

Edsurge

MARCH 1, 2018

His work has shown him that “it will definitely be a more sustainable initiative if it is collaborative—-whether it's OER, open access journals, etc.if OERs are often undervalued compared to their paid counterparts, posited Blake Gore of Vanderbilt University and Tanya Spilovy thinks librarians can help.

Libraries 166

Libraries Digital Learning OER Learning 166

Iterating Toward Openness

NOVEMBER 13, 2017

My recent post about the cost trap and inclusive access prompted responses by Jim Groom and Stephen Downes. Back in 2012 – 2013] I was impressed (like many others I’m sure) with how Wiley was able to frame the cost-savings argument around open textbooks to build broader interest for OERs. I fear it is OER wanting it both ways.

Accessibility 90

Accessibility OER Pearson MOOC 90

Edsurge

JANUARY 9, 2018

Besides just new and used print options from the campus bookstore, students might have their pick between print and digital, buying or renting, and in some cases, buying a subscription from a publisher that gives them access to multiple titles by that provider. a semester. I thought it was just as helpful as any other textbook.”

Company 166

Company OER Course Libraries 166

Edsurge

OCTOBER 30, 2017

Using OER is hard. Over sandwiches and iced tea, we talked about the challenges of OER. Leveled readings —Each of the articles in the course is provided at multiple reading levels to ensure that all students can access and understand the material, enabling them to participate in the class. This is where TextGenome.org comes in.

OER 154

OER Common Core Video Assessment 154

Iterating Toward Openness

DECEMBER 13, 2024

I’m interested in solving problems of access and effectiveness in education. Below is my current best thinking about how open education and generative AI can come together to help us make progress on problems of access and effectiveness. It will definitely evolve in the future.

Meeting 148

Meeting OER Education Pearson 148

Edsurge

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

which acts like a search engine that finds definitions related to that concept or idea. will then use that information to refine the definition of that original term. BBookX uses artificial intelligence to create OER texts for professors to use in their courses instead of traditional textbooks.

Robotics 164

Robotics OER Industry Education 164

Iterating Toward Openness

APRIL 25, 2019

I spend most of my time doing fairly tactical thinking and working focused on moving OER adoption forward in the US higher education space. In this vision of the world, OER replace traditionally copyrighted, expensive textbooks for all primary, secondary, and post-secondary courses. My end goal isn’t to increase OER adoption.

OER 84

OER Course Company Smartphone 84

Edsurge

JUNE 27, 2016

Back in February, an EdWeek Market brief reported that Amazon Education was starting to beta-test a new platform with educators, helping teachers navigate the jungles of open educational resources (or OERs, for short). Tory Patterson, co-founder of Owl Ventures As far as calling itself an OER platform, that is somewhat correct.

OER 114

OER Resources Education Software 114

Iterating Toward Openness

APRIL 29, 2016

Earlier this week I read an op-ed – sponsored by Pearson – titled “If OER is the answer, what is the question?” OER often shine in their variety and ability to deepen resources for niche topics. ” The article poses three questions and answers them. Below I share some thoughts prompted by the article.

OER 60

OER Instructional Materials Pearson Resources 60

Iterating Toward Openness

OCTOBER 14, 2015

For some reason, Pearson have found it necessary to create new definitions of the terms efficacy and effectiveness. This is extraordinarily unfortunate because there are already perfectly good definitions established in the broader research community. That’s a fight I know OER can win. Efficacy vs Effectiveness.

Pearson 60

Pearson OER Comparison Case Study 60

Edsurge

JUNE 13, 2019

The teachers who have access to Vivi-enabled classrooms have been using more interactive tools to engage their students, so it's made them feel more confident in being able to quickly connect, share, show something, get feedback from students. Has there been an impact on student engagement? Is the technology easy to use?

Tools 160

Tools How To Classroom OER 160

Iterating Toward Openness

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

For many years now what people call OER advocacy has actually been “zero textbook cost” advocacy. So for the last decade or so there has been a lot of energy devoted to either “OER programs with a laser focus on cost savings” or “zero textbook cost” programs.

Policies 87

Policies OER Advocacy Education 87

Edsurge

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Those in the puppy camp argued, with good reason, that free curricula and OER content were hardly free once the related costs and risks were factored in. So the discovery, vetting, and alignment costs inflicted upon the teachers and districts that would try to embrace free and OER content would remain high.

OER 60

OER EdTech Company Common Core 60

Iterating Toward Openness

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Where Michael sees three groups with different goals, I see four groups who are trying to use OER to solve closely related – but ultimately very different – problems: The negative impact on access to education caused by the high price of traditional learning materials. I’d like to add a bit of my own perspective.

Strategy 105

Strategy OER Analysis Groups 105

ProfHacker

AUGUST 26, 2016

…the true benefit of the academy is the interaction, the access to the debate, to the negotiation of knowledge — not to the stale cataloging of content. When we look at common definitions of Open Educational Resources or OERs (e.g., When we look at common definitions of Open Educational Resources or OERs (e.g.,

OER 40

OER MOOC Conference Advocacy 40

Iterating Toward Openness

MARCH 10, 2020

I posted the first installment yesterday, explaining how a fundamental failure to understand copyright makes the definition of OER in the new UNESCO recommendation nonsensical. In this second installment, I want to describe how it appears that many in the OER community have taken their eye off the ball.

OER 78

OER Advocacy Course Report 78

The CoolCatTeacher

JULY 26, 2017

This means that you can write your own textbooks, share them, or use them as you would any other OER or open education resource. What is the Mathematical Association of America and what K12 resources can I access? These are accessible, findable online. What makes Expii unique? Follow the hashtag to learn more.

Classroom 297

Classroom OER Software System 297

NeverEndingSearch

AUGUST 21, 2016

” But what is the definition of “fair”? Registered users can access related media, the article’s teacher’s guide and parent guide (designed to expand the reading and discussion experience at home), as well as the printable teacher and student PDF for off-line use. What is fair? Registration is free.

OER 40

OER Common Core Facebook Strategy 40

K12 Open Ed

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

To be clear, I am not talking about open educational resources (OER), but rather open learning practices. (Is By definition, this means that not every student is doing the same thing at the same time. Transparency and open access. Is there a common term people are using for this? Open learning? Open pedagogy? Open practice?).

OER 100

OER EdTech Twitter Groups 100

ProfHacker

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

I have to say that the conference organizers’ really welcoming attitude towards the involvement of Virtually Connecting showed true commitment to expanding access and openness (thank you Clint Lalonde and David Wiley). Access is an issue. I wrote last week about a global South view of copyright and open access.

OER 40

OER Wiki Conference Advocacy 40

Edsurge

AUGUST 21, 2018

Alta at a Glance With Alta, Knewton aims to combine third-party open educational resources (OER) with assessments and the adaptive-learning technology created by the company to inform how students progress through the content. A two-year subscription to an Alta costs $44 per course for two years of access, or users can also opt to pay $9.95

Knewton 83

Knewton OER Pearson Adaptive Learning 83

Iterating Toward Openness

NOVEMBER 16, 2017

In my recent post I asked us each to consider what “what is the real goal of our OER advocacy?” ” Stephen answers that his goal is access for all, and takes me to task for wanting more. Stephen’s goal is access for all. To me, access for all is a waypoint and not the end point.

OER 60

OER LMS Course Secondary 60

Iterating Toward Openness

APRIL 21, 2017

I defined open pedagogy as ”the set of teaching and learning practices only possible or practical in the context of the 5R permissions” – a definition I have been using in my writing and public speaking since I first blogged about open pedagogy back in 2013 (except there were only 4Rs back then).

OER 74

OER Handbook Examples Accessibility 74

21st Century Educational Technology and Learning

JANUARY 21, 2019

These are definite lessons worth sharing! Illuminations – Illuminations works to serve you by increasing access to quality standards-based resources for teaching and learning mathematics, including interactive tools for students and instructional support for teachers. You can even make your own. Another plus… it is free.

STEM 148

STEM Resources Learning OER 148

Tom Murray

FEBRUARY 10, 2017

I’ve been able to see firsthand how school leaders are implementing exciting innovations that are accelerating high quality teaching and learning—things such as Open Education Resources (OER) , repurposing their spaces , completely overhauling how they assess a child’s growth by shifting to a competency-based learning model , among other things.

Data 100

Data LMS Competency Based Learning OER 100

ProfHacker

APRIL 23, 2018

We’ve written a lot at ProfHacker about OER and Open Access resources. Recently, Rajiv Jhangiani and Robin DeRosa launched a new website, Open Pedagogy Notebook. It is a space where educators interested in Open Pedagogy and come and learn more about it, see examples, and share their own work. What is Open Pedagogy?

OER 68

OER Examples System Resources 68

Iterating Toward Openness

OCTOBER 27, 2016

This two or three week delay in gaining access to their learning materials puts them at a significant disadvantage academically. For years open advocates have touted “day one access” as one of the primary benefits of choosing OER instead of traditional materials. Listen carefully to how publishers talk about open.

OER 60

OER Accessibility Assessment Strategy 60

Iterating Toward Openness

APRIL 23, 2020

Another 75 million learners freely accessed the open educational resources on our website in 2019. The Definition of “Open Textbook”. Assessments from a wide range of commercial publishers and OER providers inevitably end up on cheating websites where students share questions and answers with one another.

Assessment 114

Assessment LMS Exercises Outcomes 114

Iterating Toward Openness

JANUARY 29, 2016

The idea of “open” intersects with education and educational technology in many places – open content, open educational resources, open access, open data, open knowledge, open source, and open standards. Open Access. There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage. Open Content. Open Source.

OER 60

OER Software Data Accessibility 60

Iterating Toward Openness

JANUARY 13, 2017

Now that the book is appearing in print, I’m publishing the full-text chapter here so that there will be an easier-to-access open access version of the chapter available online. Educational materials published under an open license are called open educational resources (OER). Pearson agreed. Education is Sharing.

OER 60

OER Resources Education Pearson 60

Iterating Toward Openness

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

The reason you’ve never heard anyone claim that tax status disqualifies companies from participating in or benefiting from open source is that Article 6 of the Open Source Definition – No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor – explicitly prohibits us from doing so. Seriously – stop and think about it for a moment.

OER 60

OER Pearson Microsoft Education 60

Iterating Toward Openness

MARCH 16, 2016

In many contexts – like open content, open educational resources, open source software, open access, and open data – “open” means “free plus permissions.” Then we end up in endless debates regarding effectively arbitrary definitions. Just for fun, look at Google’s definition of open.

Resources 60

Resources Education OER Software 60