Topic #4: How can teachers find, build & share resources and content to support learners in K-12 online & open digital contexts? What did I already know, what do I know now based on the course readings and activities, what do I hope to learn?
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Learning Outcomes:
• Critically reflect on and articulate concepts around modality, pedagogy, and access, including distributed and open learning theory, online and open learning history, privacy laws, online learning communities, open research, and open data.
• Develop an awareness of the potential of human-centered learning in online and open learning contexts.
I believe that accumulating a plethora of resources comes from collaboration with others, and knowing what is reliable and authentic material. Educators band together to support one another and collaborate over their mutual passion of providing a successful and positive learning experience for their students. One of the best ways to communicate with fellow educators is through Personal Learning Networks (PLN); these may be provided through platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, WordPress, Youtube, etc.
During this course I was introduced to an application called Slack. This is a communication platform that can be used in lieu of emails. It creates a channel for multiple people to collaborate through messages and share resources. This application is not only great for educators to communicate through, but create another option for teachers to use in their class. Especially with online learning, teacher can use this platform to keep in contact with students and create an opportunity for collaboration on assignment.
Additionally, I participated in the EDCI 339 Twitter chat on July 23rd, 2020; which can be found on Twitter under the hashtag #EDCI339. This was an amazing opportunity to not only collaborate with peers, but with any twitter member who has a passion for education. I was introduced to new colleagues, impressive perspectives and questions, and new resources I will use in the future. This was an example of how easy it can be to connect with other and find valuable information for supporting K-12 learners.
Finally, topic four's reading focus on finding resources that are credible and understanding what you can use and how to properly credit the sources you retrieve information from. This coincides with the importance of understanding how to have safe and respectful online interactions and follow the various privacy laws; this will ensure no content infringement of stolen work. Kimmons describes Open Educational Resources (OER) as “any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license” (Kimmons, 2015, p. 40). After he conducted research which compared open/adapted textbooks to copy-right textbooks, a conclusion was drawn that the open/adapted resources would have a higher success of meeting the needs of K-12 learners. The main difference is that OER allow for “anyone [to] legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them” (Kimmons, 2015, p. 40). These resources will allow students the freedom to conduct more thorough research online and cite credible documentation. Roberts and Noble, adequately articulate that "[students] should have access to the same learning opportunities regardless of geography, culture or technology in order to build knowledge" (Roberts and Noble, 2020, p. 3). Open Educational Resources offer this freedom of equality. This type of equity is more imperative than ever with most schooling being conducted online with the current global pandemic.
Collaboration and communication with fellow educators will encourage the use of new paths to find content. It will provide different ways of sourcing information, expertise on content databases, and suggestions of platforms and people to follow. An understanding of OER and copy-right resources, as well as privacy regulations will allow for a proper vetting process and accumulation of credible and authentic resources to support K-12 learners.
Resources
Kimmons, R. (2015). OER Quality and Adaptation in K-12: Comparing Teacher Evaluations of Copyright-Restricted, Open, and Open/Adapted Textbooks. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v16i5.2341
Roberts, V. & Noble, S. (2020). Developing a Creative Commons Mindset: The Practical Aspects of OER from a K-12 Alberta School District Perspective. [Weblog]. Retrieved from http://verenaroberts.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2020/06/25/developing-a-creative-commons-mindset-the-practical-aspects-of-oer-from-an-k-12-alberta-school-district-perspective/