Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources are becoming the new rave among many teachers and educators. What is open educational resources you may ask. According to an article published by Educase.edu" Open educational resources (OER) are any resources available at little or no cost that can be used for teaching, learning, or research. The term can include textbooks, course readings, and other learning content; simulations, games, and other learning applications; syllabi, quizzes, and assessment tools; and virtually any other material that can be used for educational purposes. OER typically refers to electronic resources, including those in multimedia formats, and such materials are generally released under a Creative Commons or similar license that supports open or nearly open use of the content. OER can originate from colleges and universities, libraries, archival organizations, government agencies, commercial organizations such as publishers, or faculty or other individuals who develop educational resources they are willing to share." Basically it is resources that help students with disabilities to succeed in the classroom.

How it works is simple teachers and students will use different resources such as voice technology or computers that give helpful hints in lessons or talk for the student that is unable. In this century alone technology has exceeded all imagination and continues to move forward. In the Journal a website has attributed its time to inform teachers and parents of the new technologies available to students so that they can be better informed. It is sites like these that help to attribute to more people becoming aware of open educational resources in the classroom.

However with every new idea or technology there are always pros and cons to each. Some of the cons that have been presented in the article 7 Things to Know about Open Educational Resources is the common quality or OER whether it is uneven. Also the value of educational resources often decreases without periodic updating, and many open resources are not kept current. The flipside of the flexibility of open resources is that many need to be adapted for use in a departmental or institutional context to meet local requirements or needs. This is because some open resources do not comply with accessibility requirements for users with disabilities.

In the article on Open Educational Resources by the Hewlett Foundation it also discusses some pros and cons of Open educational resources and how they define what it is. Another good educational article on Open Educational resources is provided by the College and Research Libraries News and even gives classes for teachers to enroll in. Also in additional resources provided by the link given to us you may want to visit these resources for great additional information on things like how do teachers apply this technology as well as specific resources. The main resource is the best way to find a plethra of material and can be found in this link. Also follow these resources for additional information OER TRAINING, LESSON PLANS. INFO ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY . As a closer here is a video that describes OER.

Flipped Learning and Teaching

What is flipped learning? If not studying the subject I would not be able to tell you. However, flipped learning is a new strategy used by teachers to switching things up in the classroom. Before I tell you what flipped learning is it may be a good idea to understand what a normal classroom looks like.

In a normal classroom a teacher may teach a subject and then have the kids do an activity on their own at home or with extra time in the class. What many teachers do is give the students the information and then have the students reiterate the lesson in order to  check for understanding.

Flipped learning on the other hand is different in that the teachers have the students do research on their own at home. Check out this video to see how flipping a classroom works. The teacher has various options in which they can assign the students to develop questions from their research and then post them or send them to a designated area. On the other hand teachers can use the class period the next day to do an activity or to create and in class discussion on what the students learned in their research. For more information on the basics of flipped learning visit Flipped Teaching.

With every teaching strategy there are going to be pros and cons. One of the pros to flipping the classroom is that it incorporates blended learning. Blended Learning is a formal education program where a students learns partly in an online manner to promote individual research. Keep in mind that instruction that makes use of technology, is not necessarily blended learning if it doesn't give the student control of time, place, path and/or pace. Flipped teaching also promotes a responsibility and an obligation to students. As well as maybe help to get parents involved in a students homework as well.

On the other hand, some setbacks that may be included with flipped learning is one a students access to the Internet, or even in poorer communities a computer. If a student doesn't have access to a computer how are they expected to do their own research? If a student can't do research on their own then they won't be able to learn properly in a classroom. Also with the students doing their own research then the teacher may not be able to fully know that the student has a complete understanding of the problem.
 
What does flipped learning mean for those teachers entering the job force? First of all visit and outside source called the flipped teaching website to find a plethora of videos that explain flipped teaching. It means that you are going to have to keep up with the latest technology. I believe that it is important to know and find different teaching styles. Why? Because if students don't learn about new technology in the classroom where are they going to properly learn these things? Also every students learning style is different. On student may learn really well in a certain environment and another in a different. To create different lesson plan with various ways of learning may prove to be more work for the teacher but I believe that the result of the more rounded students that they are producing will be worth the effort. For a great example of a flipped classroom and one that is technology prevalent visit Mrs Pac's Class. But before you go and jump into flipped teaching make sure that you watch this video on what 5 things this teacher would have wanted to know before he switched to flipped teaching.