Leading Using OER

Have you wondered how to begin the journey to become a leader in your building or district? OER—"materials for teaching or learning that are either in the public domain or have been released under a license that allows them to be freely used, changed, or shared with others" (Sparks 2017)— may be your opportunity. Be the one who finds the best OER sources for your school or district, takes them to your administration, presents a plan to teach the teachers, and collaboratively creates lessons and units of study that successfully integrate these OERs with curriculum. Sound too difficult? Keep in mind, "historically, librarians have been and remain uniquely qualified to lead efforts at curating resources for teaching and learning" (Glick 2018).

Taking the first step is the hardest one. Here is a reason to start now:

Investments in OER enable school districts to reallocate significant funds from proprietary learning materials to resources and activities that accelerate the transition to digital learning, including professional learning programs for teachers, a robust technology infrastructure, and new leadership roles for educators who create or curate OER (Ishmael et. al 2018, p. 4).

This sounds like the perfect undertaking for the school librarian. School librarians already search and curate the most current and useful resources for instruction. They are often the "go to" tech person for faculty taking that first step into online education, supporting the technology used and suggesting critical thinking ideas to bring the teaching methodology into this new era of differentiation and more personalized instruction. This naturally leads into designing professional development to meet your faculty where they are and giving them the encouragement to try new ideas. Individualized instruction is not just for students! Undertaking these steps should make you an invaluable member of curriculum committees and provide the opportunity to contribute to building or district decisions.

When you take up the challenge, you will want a plan and research to back you up. Here are steps you may want to follow:

Prepare. Practice due diligence and find out which curricular areas would most benefit from online resources. You may want to analyze test scores with your teachers and listen to what teachers consider priorities. Research what is available and critically think about what resources will work best for the at-risk areas your teachers pinpointed. Pro Tip: You don't have to start from scratch. Many articles describe well-reviewed OER, and many states maintain lists. See the end of this column for a few recommended sites and articles.

Follow up. When you meet with teachers, immediately set up another meeting day to further discuss the benefits of OER. At that time, you can present your thoughts on which areas should be addressed first and provide the OER you have found to support them. You may even want to have a tentative plan for PD to share. Find some articles or research to support your idea, and make handouts of key points. Show your initiative and leadership skills by suggesting a collaborative lesson.

Share your successes. Once you have introduced OER and have some experiences under your belt, offer to teach a session in the district to other teachers. Submit sessions to your local, state, or national conferences. Other school librarians will look to you as someone they can call upon as they undertake OER in their districts.

Remember, "leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."
--John F. Kennedy

A Few Favorite OERs

CK-12 https://www.ck12.org/teacher/

This site has been around for a while; it shares complete lesson plans among other resources, including simulations and study guides.

Edmodo https://new.edmodo.com/

Also a pioneer among OER sites, Edmodo offers a time-saving "Spotlight" search to help teachers find specific OER elements.

Curiki https://www.curriki.org

An early OER resource, curriki.org provides content and also makes it easy for educators to share their OER-based lessons.

Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org

Once well known as a math site, Khan Academy now has videos and tools to support many curricular topics.

Smithsonian Learning Lab https://learninglab.si.edu/

Interactive resources, lesson ideas, and more.

Standards and Frameworks to Support Your Planning

AASL National School Library Standards, Shared Foundation Collaborate https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AASL-Standards-Framework-for-Learners-pamphlet.pdf

Promoting and modeling the importance of information-use skills by publicizing to learners, staff and the community available services and resources; serving on school and district-wide committees; and engaging in community and professional activities.

AASL National School Library Standards Crosswalks for ISTE and Future Ready Librarians https://standards.aasl.org/project/crosswalks/

Future Ready Librarians Framework https://futureready.org/thenetwork/strands/future-ready-librarians/

Personalized Professional Learning
Facilitates Personalized Professional Learning: Leads professional learning to cultivate broader understanding of the skills that comprise success in a digital age (e.g., critical thinking, information literacy, digital citizenship, technology)

Curriculum, Instruction, And Assessment
Curates Digital Resources: Leads in the selection, integration, organization, and sharing of digital resources and tools to support transformational teaching and learning and develops the digital curation skills of others.

ISTE Standards https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators

7. ISTE for Educators: Analyst 7c. Use assessment data to guide progress and communicate with students, parents and education stakeholders to build student self-direction.

2. ISTE for Educators: Leader 2c. Model for colleagues the identification, exploration, evaluation, curation and adoption of new digital resources and tools for learning

Works Cited

Glick, Fran "Collaborating, Curating, and OER: BCPS School Librarian and Teacher Partnerships." Future Ready Schools blog, June 14, 2018. http://futureready.org/collaborating-curating-and-oer-bcps-school-librarian-and-teacher-partnerships/

Loertscher, David. "OERs, Collaboration, and the Library Learning Commons." Teacher Librarian 43, no. 5 (June 2016): 46-48.

Ishmael, Kristina, Joseph South, and Ji Soo Song "How a Hashtag Catalyzed PK-12 Open Educational Resources: Reflections and Recommendations." New America and ISTE, 2018. https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/policy-papers/how-hashtag-catalyzed-pk-12-open-educational-resources-reflections-and-recommendations/

Sparks, Sarah D. "What Is OER? Answers to 5 Questions about Education Resources." Edweek (March 28, 2017). https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/03/29/what-is-oer-5-questions-about-open-oer.html