Open Educational Resources By: Sarah, Whitney, Brittney

1. Open Educational Resources By: Sarah, Whitney, Brittney Conclusion After conducting our research for this project, all members of our group felt like we gained an incredible amount of knowledge on Open Educational Resources. As aspiring educators, we feel that utilizing the resources that are available to the entire world is something that should be taken advantage of, which is why we want to promote Open Educational Resources. Our survey results showed that not many people had much knowledge about Open Educational Resources, so it is our hope that we have spread the word to our classmates and fellow educators about this great resource. By getting this knowledge out to more people, we hope that others will add their input as well as utilize these options that are available to them. Open Educational Resources allow people from all over the world to come together and collaborate in a variety of ways, ranging from lesson ideas and test questions to different ways to teach a lesson more effectively. All three of us plan to use Open Educational Resources in our teaching because it is just one more way to better the way we teach. References Atkins, D., Brown, J., Hammond, A., Johnstone, S., Salvage, C., Schmidt, P., et al. (2008, July 8). Wikieducator [Defining OER]. Message posted to http://www.wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator/Introduction/Defining_OER Johnstone, Sally M. “Open Educational Resources Serve the World.” EducauseQuarterly 28 (2005). Retrieved on Sept. 16, 2008. http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/OpenEducationalResourcesS/39931?time=1221583428 MIT OpenCourseWare [About OCW]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2008, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Web site: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/about/about/index.htm Open Educational Resources, (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2008, from Centre for Educational Research and Innovation Web site http://www.oecd.org/document/20/0,3343,en_2649_3584558135023444_1_1_1_1,00.html  “Open Educational Resources.” Wikipedia (2008). Retrieved on Sept. 16, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources Open educational resources. (2007). OER commons. Retrieved September 16, 2008. http://www.oercommons.org/ The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. “Open Educational Resources (OER) Making High Quality Educational Content and Tools Freely Available on the Web.” Open Educational Resources (2008). Retrieved on Sept. 16, 2008. http://www.hewlett.org/Programs/Education/OER/openEdResources.htm 80 Open Education Resource tools for Publishing and Development Initiatives. (2006). Online Education Database. Retrieved September 14, 2008, from http://oedb.org/library/features/80-oer-tools Graphs Graph 1: This graph shows that the majority of people taking our survey knew a brief amount of background information about Open Educational Resources. Specifically, most of the people that took our survey knew OER originated at MIT. Graph 2: Our second graph demonstrates the opinions of those taking our survey of whether or not they think Open Educational resources would be useful to them in their teaching career. Graph 3: The third graph shows the goals of the Open Educational Resources which most of our survey takers proved to already know. Introduction Technology in our world is constantly moving and changing. Not only does this affect how we use the Internet and other resources that are at our disposal, but it also makes a difference in what we can access and how we utilize this information. From blogs and videos to networking sites from around the world, the range of technology has expanded tenfold in the last few years and seems to evolving daily. One of the elements of technology that is accessible and useful for all educators and future educators is Open Educational Resources, or OER. Open Educational Resources (OER) are collections of information or tools that can be used to further the knowledge and strategies of educational professionals. Using the Internet, educators and students are able to access a plethora of information that assists in the process of learning and teaching. From lesson plans to project ideas, OER is changing the way people are able to utilize what others have created. Not only are educators able to view Open Educational Resources, but they are also available for anybody to access. Open Educational Resources originated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a way for professors to post their information on the web for their students to use. Now, not only can students access their courses online, but the MIT website also offers discussions, lecture notes, and assistance for high school students preparing for college. With the rapid expansion of the Internet, other Open Educational Resources such as MIT’s site are growing and evolving as well. There are multiple benefits of using Open Educational Resources, and many of them have the ability to impact people and their educational career. One important factor is that OER can contribute to the knowledge of both students and instructors. If instructors post their teaching documents online for others to see, other instructors and colleagues can see where they overlap in teaching lessons, where they may lack in a particular subject area, and how they can improve their teaching, thus giving students a more enriching and thorough education. Through this approach, instructors will be able to teach to their strengths and students’ abilities by modifying good lessons other teachers may have used. This does not mean that actual lessons would be handed out, but rather, certain strategies for teaching particular subject areas would be passed along to teachers or educators that may need additional assistance. In fact, teachers can be more effective by using OER as a template than by sticking to a personal lesson just because they do not want to “copy” someone else. Another useful tool of Open Educational Resources is that it connects people and cultures from around the world. No longer are people limited to information found only in their specific school or state, but now educational techniques and ideas can be passed to anyone, anywhere, through the Web. This allows educators from developing countries to access free information that perhaps they have never heard about, thus enabling these instructors to teach new and helpful lessons to students. This can dramatically decrease the gap in educational achievement between developed and underdeveloped countries. Open Educational Resources can also do just the opposite: countries with less information about other countries will be able to use open resources to bridge the distance gap. Not only will Open Educational Resources be a tool for people around the globe to utilize, but it also has the ability to change the way we approach education and teaching. With a huge variety of sources and ideas at everyone’s disposal, people will no longer be limited to using old text books and outdated curriculum. These tools are at the fingertips of the educational world, and are available for all who seek them. Survey By researching Open Educational Resources on the Web, we came across a lot of information that helped us understand what Open Educational Resources are and what it could mean for the future of education. We developed our questions by asking each other about information each of us came across individually. The goal of our survey was to see how many education students knew about Open Educational Resources and how they felt about possibly using it in their future classrooms. We created our survey using surveymonkey.com and e-mailed it to four education classes through Desire to Learn. We received thirty seven responses but only had twenty two complete the entire survey. These were the questions surveyed: 1. Do you think that Open Educational Resources are a part of Web 2.0? Yes No 2. Do you think you will use Open Educational Resources at some point in your teaching career? Yes No 3. How do you think Open Educational Resources would affect the Fair Use Laws? Open Ended 4. How do you think Open Educational Resources will affect the future of education? Open Ended 5. Which of these colleges was one of the first major contributors to Open Educational Resources? Massachusetts Institute of Technology Winona State University Yale Iowa State University 6. Open Educational Resources can be used to… Provide information for future educators Connect educators from around the world Find lesson plans All of the above 7. Open Educational Resources include all of the following except… Lesson Plans Jokes Game ideas Test and quiz samples 8. Open Educational Resources goals for the future include all of the following except…. Reaching out to educators in less-developed countries Providing royalty-free software programs Limiting information to educators only in the United States Helping students with SAT/ACT preparation 9, You can receive credit through Open Educational Resources classes True False 10. Reliable Open Educational Resources websites are monitored True False  We analyzed the survey responses in Microsoft Excel and created graphs to represent our findings. We chose to show the response questions 5, 2, and 8 because we felt they best represented our research.