by Paige Jaeger, October 2017

"Arrrrr! Not all treasure's silver and gold, Mate." —Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

OER Caveats and Kudos

We have all grown up on buried treasure tales: Pirates of the Caribbean, Treasure Island, National Treasure, and Raiders of the Lost Ark to name a few. These stories have helped to cultivate a culture that recognizes there are often gems hidden among junk. Amidst all the freely accessible websites on the Internet Superhighway, there is buried treasure. The good ones we can label Open Educational Resources (OER) and it's likely you've been using these "freely accessible websites" for years.

Historically Speaking

Librarians have always used OER. Who hasn't accessed the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, or a great local museum? How about Khan Academy, PBS, NASA, or Project Gutenberg? Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan began advocating for OER to level the educational playing field, so that the quality or quantity of student resources were not defined by zip codes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SdrhGrcvsk)and former Secretary of Education Dr. John King and the Office of Educational Technology launched a #GoOpen Campaign (https://tech.ed.gov/open/) to strengthen the nation's collection of Open Educational Resources. One thing we know is that a robust cache of OERs provides resource equity and enriches learning.

So Why All the Big Buzz around OER?

It saves money: You may not have felt the "pinch" yet, but it's coming. It is likely that OER will make the difference between an anemic or robust research program. Some districts with little funding have long-survived on free resources with teachers and librarians curating the curriculum treasure trove.

Caveat: We have no clue what tomorrow holds, but it's predictable to say districts will have less money, not more.

Suggestion: Start becoming known as the go-to-guru for OER. If you are aggregating these already, ask yourself, "Are they discoverable?" Do you send department-specific emails with suggestions?

There's treasure out there! As funding levels have decreased, philanthropic educational partners have worked hard to create quality resources that are unbelievably valuable. Look for these free websites, often with standard-correlated lesson plans.

Caveat: If you don't find these and share them with peers, someone will pirate this task and become the local superhero.

Suggestion: Get credit for what you already may do. Look at the sidebar list and/or find a few of your own.

Someone is likely doing this already…without your help. Technology specialists are often busy working "in-the-dark" amassing great resources and sharing them with classroom teachers as "tools" for alternative reading sources or resources for special technology "projects." The U.S. Department of Educational Technology (DET) has a Launch Manual (https://tech.ed.gov/open/districts/launch/phase2/) for districts. They suggest the following:

1. Identify key members of the #GoOpen implementation team.
2. Agree on a regular meeting time, schedule, and roles and responsibilities.
3. Determine a work plan and timeline for implementation.

If your district has a #GoOpen plan, you need to be part of that effort.

Caveat: Don't approach technology leaders ready for a confrontation. Administrators don't want to hear complaints, but rather are open to positive improvements.

Suggestion: Send emails suggesting they consider additional resources you provide. Ask to be part of the conversation. Point to resources you have already taught the students to access, evaluate, and use. Thank them for a new site they suggest and let them know you will add it to your existing lists. In other words, become their friend and partner.

It's easy to influence. When a textbook is written, or re-written, it is usually carefully crafted and edited for integrity, bias, and accuracy. Often a team of writers take on a new edition providing "checks and balances" to the content. In our age of pre-packaged website creation, bias and accuracy could creep in the door, unless careful curation and editing occur. The DET suggests that the "Technology Resource Teacher" should curate the resources. There is no mention of a librarian. The manual goes on to point out that "Senior Directors of Learning" should ensure that materials are aligned to the standards. Nowhere does it mention a check for bias, accuracy, or credibility. It's nice to think that team could, and has, created great educational open-source eTextbooks, lesson-plan archives, and other resources. The question is, who's maintaining them? Lists of resources should become a living-breathing document. Each year, OERs should be edited to ensure quality. Some #GoOpen states have embraced this educational paradigm and have chosen to fund and maintain sites for their educators.

Caveat: Who's your gatekeeper for bias?

Suggestion: You wear the hat.

Learning models have changed along with rise of the NextGen student. There's a whole new learning ecosystem that carefully weaves curriculum, technology, reading, information, resources, inquiry-based learning plans, vocabulary of the discipline, and collaborative working models to creatively meet curriculum learning objectives.

Caveat: Carefully assess an OER learning plan by good instructional standards and suggest areas for improvement.

Suggestion: Learn what you can about inquiry-based learning as online technology "projects" are often lacking the backbone of real inquiry. They are often merely "reporting" rather than "researching." The difference lies in getting kids to manipulate, use, and apply what they are finding in order to draw conclusions and create meaning.

Not All that Glitters Is Gold

As part of the "Information Age" curriculum, students also need to be learning to assess the usability of every site they visit (i.e. credibility, accuracy, validity, bias, reliability, etc.). We used to tell kids to engage their "content antennas." A quick assessment might suggest acceptability, but even as they use a site, they need to consider whether the content agrees with or is an anomaly to other resources.

The quality of openly available resources has improved dramatically. But, perhaps our new mantra should be: All that glitters is not gold—but it's likely we'll find more treasure sailing the open seas.

Resources for Enriched Understanding

"Toolkit for Evaluating Alignment of Instructional and Assessment Materials to the Common Core State Standards" Achieve the Core. http://achievethecore.org/page/1097/toolkit-portfolio.

Sharon Leu."#GoOpen: More than a Hashtag." Office of Educational Technology. https://medium.com/@OfficeofEdTech/goopen-more-than-a-hashtag-293357a550f1

Office of Educational Technology. Open Education. https://tech.ed.gov/open/

State Educational Technology Directors Association. "The Guide to Implementing Digital Learning." http://digitallearning.setda.org

Some OER Lesson Plan Sites

Annenberg Learner. Lesson plans and resources. http://learner.org/resources/lessonplanbrowse.html

CK-12.org. Homework helper, lesson ideas, and more. https://www.ck12.org/forums/

EdX.org. Open online courses to possibly share with HS Advanced teachers. https://www.edx.org

Explore Math via Desmos. https://www.desmos.com

Intel Teaching Idea Showcase. Great examples for library lessons. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/k12/teaching-idea-showcase.html

iUniversity. A start-up in Japan has aggregated ~40K online lessons in diverse languages.http://iuniv.tv

LibGuideCommunity. https://community.libguides.com

GeoGebra. Math tools online. https://www.geogebra.org

Multimedia Educational Resources for Online Learning (MERLOT). California's curated collection of online resources. https://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

OER Commons. https://www.oercommons.org

P2PU (Peer 2 Peer University). An open online learning community. https://www.p2pu.org/en/

PhET Interactive Simulations Project. Physics online. https://phet.colorado.edu

ReadWriteThink http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/

Teaching with the Library of Congress blog https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers

ThunderboltKids! Coming from Cape Town, South Africa, this is a great interactive primary science site. http://www.thunderboltkids.co.za