922-Session 11/12--Creating an OER from Scratch

This week we'll be covering how to create an OER from scratch.  Once again we'll be accessing Curriki's "Open Educational Resources Integration" project.  For this session we'll be accessing the module created by Dr. Michael Searson, the Executive Director for the School for Global Education and Innovation.  You may read more about him here.

Mike created a CC licensed module aimed at both pre-service and in-service teachers.  His module will be particularly useful to you b/c you may easily use it to guide you in training or education others on OER's.  I've just gone through his module again and updated any dead links that I could find, but please let me know if you can't access something.  You may find all of the links in our syllabus under the Session 11/12 details.

Good luck and have fun?
DF

PS--Please also place your brief description of your midterm assignment under this entry.  Details are in the syllabus.  Your completed, full copy will be placed on the wiki.

922-Session 7/8-Finding and Evaluating OER's

Well, the semester is going by quickly! This week's session is another double. Again, remember that there is a lot of information to digest, so don't stress over not being able to retain it all. Keep focusing on the big picture---your Deliverables. You completed Midterm is due by July 19th.  Your Final Exam/Project is due by midnight on July 29th.

There were many changes made to this session over the weekend to ensure having the most current information, but please let me know if any links on the syllabus or readings don't connect.

Most of you should be finishing at least your outline for the Midterm. July is right around the corner. Please do not wait until the last minute.

So let's get to this week's session.

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I thought that it might be helpful to hear (first hand) about CK-12's mission, so I asked the President, Murugan Pal, if he could spare some time for us. We recently connected and I showed him how to set up a presentation similar to mine using Authorstream. He has finished and you'll find his presentation below.

Addtionally, I have CK-12's Founder, Neeru Khosla, flying into RI on Monday, June 27th, to speak to a Joint Legislative Commission to Study eTextbooks in RI schools.  If anyone is in the neighborhood of Providence, RI on this date, you are welcome to attend.  Just drop me a line and I'll give you more details.

Please view the presentation below:



Uploaded on authorSTREAM by ck12

Next, I'd like you to view this introduction video on "Finding and Evaluating OER's".

Then go through this unit.  It was created as part of the Curriki.org Oeri Fellowship.  As you go through the links and resources you’ll see various activities.  Complete all of these (except for the ‘draft and email’ one) in a Word document and post them to the class blog as one posting before the end of the week. This session should really help you get a deeper understanding of OER's.

Then lastly, go through the links on the syllabus , as well as the additional links here.

Good luck and as always, please feel free to contact me with any questions.

DF

922-Sessions 5 and 6--"COPYRIGHT AND OER"

Welcome to our fourth week. Our summer session forces us to condense so I'm posting both Sessions 5 and 6 this week (and a little earlier than usual). The material is merged together and linked at the bottom of this post as opposed to in the left-hand margin.  The reality is that you probably can't internally digest all of this information in 7 days, so give it all the depth that your schedule allows and take what you need from the session that will help you with your Midterm (details below). Also, just make sure you download the sessions throughout the semester as well as save all of the links, so that you can go back to them some time in the future when you have the time or inclination. Again, note that the syllabus links have just been updated.

By now many of you are beginning to realize how much information is out in the world that you still don't know. The evolution and metamorphosis of the Internet is moving at an exponential rate. I can't even keep up with all the changes (and I do this for a living)!

Several of you have seemed skeptical about 'selling' this idea to the classroom teachers due to the apparent workload.  I agree with the statements about how teachers barely have enough time to grade papers and write lessons.  How are they ever going to buy-in to the idea of writing their own textbook.  I'm going to have to ask you to really think outside of the box on this.  No one will disagree that writing a textbook takes a lot of time, but remember, we don't have to write a textbook from scratch if we have a digital copy of it licensed under Creative Commons (Remember our first session?---more on this in a bit).

One of the topics we'll be covering this week will be understanding copyright. Some of it is redundant based upon previous lessons, but bears repeating. I know---I know it sounds boring (and it can be incredibly tedious), but I'll try to keep it relatively brief. (You're not all Librarians after all.)

As I stated above, you may recall that I mentioned that all of my weekly sessions are licensed under Creative Commons. To truly understand what that means you have to first wrap your head around the concept of a 'Shared Culture.' To help you gain more "Depth of Knowledge" begin here with a few videos that may help reinforce the concept of a shared culture:

Once you've watched that you then need to understand how it's done:

Well, I don't want to overwhelm you too much with copyright information. Suffice it to say that this is all good news for education and even better news for creating your own digital texts.  If you can show your Administration and fellow teachers the possibilities of Open Educational Resources, then the numbers ($$$) will speak for themselves.  Once the idea takes root it would be up to the individual teacher, district, or collaborative to decide if they wanted to dedicate any time to personalizing the 'Digital Content' or Ebook for their specific curriculum.

One additional resource you can use with your own textbook development would be the FlatWorld Knowledge site. They are another organization that is creating free, quality textbooks, but they are geared towards higher education:




So let's get to this week's session.

As you move through Session 5/6 (Link for session here not in margin) please keep in mind that this is all meant to support your Midterm assignment. (Details are at the bottom of the syllabus.)  You should start on an outline now and complete your  Mid-term Final Draft before the July 19th.

Also, don't forget about the links from the syllabus under Session 5/6.  They'll keep you pretty busy.

Good luck!

PS--I just checked out our Google 'Shared' Document and it finally looks like some of you have made some changes. (You can definitly tell what Nick's contribution is--once a die-hard fan; always a die-hard fan). Check it out again, but this time, go to the 'File' menu. From there choose, 'Revision History.' There you can revisit a copy of every change that each contributor made as well as revert back to a prior version, or compare different versions. Play around with resource some more.

922-Session 3 and 4-The Open Educational Resources Movement

Welcome to Session 3/4--"CK-12, Curriki, and the Open Educational Resources Movement"

This week we'll stray from the usual format and work completely from this blog entry as well as the readings on the syllabus.

1. There is some cross-over between the assignments on the syllabus and those below, but not all are in both places, so please go through this entry and the syllabus (which has been updated today).  Since the predominance of our course participants are school librarians there is a webinar to watch this week.  If you are in the classroom and aren't interested then please just let it play in the background. Either way you're bound to gain something from it.  There's lots of info. on eBooks and eReaders.
2. We'll start with getting our feet wet by reading an article I was asked to write on wikitextbooks. It was published in the May '08 edition of Multi-Media & the Internet@Schools magazine. You can find it here.
   
3. When you are done I'd like you to begin exploring the link below. It introduces you to "The Open Educational Resources Movement." Dozens, if not hundreds, of colleges and universities are now offering many of their courses for free. Through podcasts, videocasts, and free downloads of supplemental material a motivated person could acquire the equivalent of a degree, completely on their own and for FREE! Spend some time visiting the schools from this link and check out some of the free material available for your discipline. If you visit the MIT link you'll see that they have over 1800 courses freely accessible. It's mind-blowing and exciting, but be careful not to spend too much time there. Every time I visit this site, 2-3 hours disappear in the blink of an eye.
4. Then I would like you to watch this video taken at Google's Headquarters in '08. It focuses on a non-profit company called, CK-12.org I flew out to Silicon Valley in November '08 to meet with the  Founder about their work. I was so enthralled that I decided to add their resources to this course to help share their work, and also to help contribute to the movement myself.

It's rather long, but if you have the patience you'll begin to see the potential.

Imagine if our school districts began to use open education resources (OER) to 'collectively' write our own textbooks and curriculum material, and then began sharing them with each other. Sounds beyond reach doesn't it? But some systems and State Dept.'s of Education are trying just that. Read about Virginia for example. There's more about their plan here as well.

Now CK-12 just really began taking off around August of '08, so they don't have every discipline yet. They've really been focusing more upon the STEM subject areas first (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), for the Middle and High School levels, but they plan to broaden to other areas soon. Here's a brief demonstration to watch. And here is a demostration by the President, Murragan Pal.

Now if this all scares you a little or you feel a little intimidated---that's justified. I'm sure that you have a lot of questions. The biggest concern I hear is about the quality of the information. We'll go into more detail about that in the next few sessions, but for now think about how many teachers stray from the textbooks in their class and instead use quality, credible information that they have screened using their professional judgment.

Now think about how much information teachers have in their heads. If they took the time to write it out, and share it freely with the world, we would have a tremendously powerful tool.

Well, that's probably more than enough information for this week. I'd like you to spend the rest of your time trying to play with CK-12's Flexbooks. See if you can find one to use in your educational setting.

Good luck and as always please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Dave Fontaine

DaveFontaine1@gmail.com