Photo by Alex Holyoake on Unsplash
What:
In this week’s readings and classroom discussions, we discussed the use of Open Education Resources (OER). In my opinion, the largest and most impactful OER to date is and will be for a long while, YouTube. According to the United Nations, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), “Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions” (Downes, 2019). OER’s are a fantastic emerging phenomenon in the educational field. In teacher’s college, they emphasize the importance of sharing resources, and to make sure we try not to, “reinvent the wheel”. That is a very important tip as the sheer workload commitments on new teachers, and teachers in general, are immense. Therefore, it is great to see sites like Teachers Pay Teachers, and the BC OpenEd, where teachers can help one another move forward in their field. OERs are also growing in the Post-Secondary field with places like MIT OpenCourseWare as an example. These sites allow me to get ideas that are from people in my field. As the only computer teacher in my school, I find collaboration with others hard as they, most of the time, have little idea of what I am talking about. That is in no way a slight on them, they just don’t teach computers. I have reached out and discussed many ways of teaching software, or units, with the Tech Teachers in my district and that has been helpful, however, we all have such different teaching styles that sometimes it is more work to change their ideas to fit my classroom than to just do it myself. OERs are opening up many doors for both my students and myself as a life long learner.
So What:
Being able to find resources that are specific enough for the students in my class is a challenge. Having split away from the traditional stand-and-deliver pedagogy for the grade 9-12 students in my class and switching more to a passion-driven independent style of learning has been amazing for engagement, but hard for resources. I, at any time, have 10+ different software programs going in my room and that requires some quick resources I can find that the student can use to move forward. I have one student using AutoDesk Fusion, an immensely complicated piece of software that he wants to learn to help him understand and work towards his goal of being an engineer. I was able to get educational copies of this software and he is creating amazing things. That is more on him, as this is his passion, I just had to get him started and get out of his way. But where does he get the information to learn this software? OER. This student went on the software website, spent an hour finding the tutorial he wanted and started making the product. His work on Fusion has inspired another student, who wants to learn AutoCAD like his father. The benefits are great and the learning intense. This process has been many hours scouring YouTube and other online forums to get the information to the students. However, due to these class readings, I was introduced to  MIT OpenCourseWare which is a blessing to those who teach programming.
What Now:
MIT OpenCourseWare is a tool I would have never thought about, or heard of, if not for this course. It has changed my expectations, and understanding, as to what OERs could be. This is mostly due to my ignorance of the platforms and their uses. I have a student that is learning Python (programming language) and has had some good resources to aid him in that. However, there is a Python training course, with full lectures and class script and learning modules on the MIT site. Also, the Directory of Open Academic Journals (DOAJ) has been very helpful to my Senior Humanities students when they are looking for research on their various courses, be it Philosophy, Psychology, Comparative Religions, ETC. These sites are a game-changer for me and my students. Furthermore, I have a student designing assets (3D models) for her house in Google Sketch-up. She has decided she wanted others to use her work so she uploaded her asset to the 3D Warehouse for others to use, free of charge, which is adding to the repository of assets available to those who use the program.Â
I know the examples above are small samples of what can be done, however the willingness to share with others is the greatest part for me to witness. This group of learners, and this generation, is less interested in ownership than they are of getting their stuff out there and, possibly, helping others. It is this idea of sharing that may change the monetization of resources in future generations.
Reference
Downes, S. (2019). A Look at the Future of Open Educational Resources. International Journal of Open Educational Resources, 1(2). Retrieved from https://www.ijoer.org/a-look-at-the-future-of-open-educational-resources/