OE...WHAT?!?! OER EXPLORATION

Alien Earth Game

Our assignment for SEDU 183 today is to explain and “sell” Open Educational Resources or OER for short.  OER is an awesome concept of having resources, ranging from games, textbooks, quizzes, and nearly any other material used for educational purposes.  “7 Things You Should Know About…OpenEducational Resources” is a great article that explains what OER is, how it works, who is doing it, why it is significant, the disadvantages, the future of and implications for teaching and learning.  Open educational resources “generally refers to only digital resources and such, tends to focus on usage in online or hybrid learning environment…” (7 Things)  OER resources are not intended to replace actual classroom instruction but enhance it.  We were given this website to explore and find three sources from it that relates to us as learners today, or future educators.  I am studying to be a high school science teacher focusing on Earth and Space Science, so I chose sources that relate to geology.  The first source I found was “Essential Science for Teachers Earth and Space Science " and had an eight session lesson on the dynamics of our planet.  Each session has a video (video is at the bottom of the webpage), course materials, and extras that would enhance the lesson.  There are also games on OERCommons.org, I searched for games relating to Earth and Space Science.  My search brought me to a game called Alien Earth, where students search for habitable planets and try to create the perfect solar system.  This would be fun to enhance a lesson on the formation of our universe and solar system.  As a future science teacher, I know that my class might be the first interaction some students have with the study of geology.  There is a source that is an awesome introduction to geology,”An Activity to Introduce the GeosciencesPerspective.”  

We were then asked to explore further beyond and finds three more sources.  I found the following:

“OpenEducation Week”

                Open Education Week was held in March 2012 to raise awareness to OER movement and the impact on teaching and learning.

“OER Consortium”

                The OER Consortium has over 100 colleges as members whose mission is to “expand access to education by promoting awareness and adoption of Open Educational Resource (OER).”

 “College Open Textbooks”

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation fund this project.  “Its a collection of colleges, governmental agencies, education non-profits, and other education-related organizations that are focused on the mission of driving awareness, adoptions, and affordability of open textbooks.”

 

Overall, I believe that the Open Educational Movement is a great idea.  Materials cost so much for students and schools, if we could use the advanced technology that we have to share materials, we would save a lot of money!  Because we all know that money does not grow on trees!

 

 

 

The Teaching Channel

Today in class we are exploring the Teaching Channel website.  This website is full of videos, I mean A LOT of videos!! Three of the videos that we had to watch today had to be from the Common Core section of the website.
 *The first video was about using comic book strip structures as a template to understand the underlining structure in a nonfiction introduction of a book.  Here is the link to this video: "Teaching Nonfiction Entry Points"

*The second video I watched was about when cyberbullying crosses the line and what students can do about it.  Here is the link to the video:  "Cyberbullying or Teasing?".  I chose this video because we as future teachers need to understand how to approach bullying, especially cyber bullying.

*The third video I chose to watch was: "Continental Drift Lesson Plan". I chose this video because it is about continental drift puzzles in a 6th grade class.  I am a Secondary Ed major in Earth and Space Science.

We then were asked to view two other videos from any subsection we wanted.
* I chose the video below.  This video caught my eye because it is about technology in the classroom.  THAT'S WHAT THIS COURSE IS ABOUT!!! BAZINGA!!



* The second video I chose is Teaching Geological Time.  I chose this because it is directly connected to my major!  And teaching geologic time is very hard to teach students because it has a lot of vocabulary terms.  Long, weird sounding, impossible to spell words.  This teacher makes Geologic Time easier and more hands on for students to understand. 

Upside Down Educating (Flipped Learning)

How would you feel, as a parent, if your child came home from school and told you that the teacher didn't teach them.  You would probably be a little confused, and maybe even a little angry.  But don't fret, maybe your child's teacher is using something called "flipped learning."  What is flipped learning you ask?  Flipped learningis when the teacher hands over responsibility of learning to the students.  They have control over how they learn the subject, how fast they learn, and how they assessed.  (The Flipped Class Manifest)

Flipped learning has many benefits but also has drawbacks.  Benefits of this style of teaching can range from teaching time management, team work, independance and responsibilty.  One reason, maybe the sole reason, to flip a class is the time management aspect.  There is more class time for learning.  (The Flipped Class: What Does a Good One Look Like) Students learn independance and responsibily from the way homework is addressed.  In a normal classroom, the teacher lectures during class time.  Where as in a flipped classroom, the lecture is part of the homework. Students are given teacher created videos to learn subject matter. In a normal classroom, homework consists of assigned problems and in a flipped classroom, those problems are completed in class. (The Flipped Classroom Myths Vs Reality) In the video that follows, the principal is addressing how fliping the classroom helped students' grade improve, which is an awesome thing! School Principal Flips Video  (Flipteaching.com)  Drawbacks of a flipped classroom can include lack of student involment, parental misunderstanding, some students being left out due to lack of technolical supplies at home.  If there is a student that does not do the assigned lecture homework, or screws around in class, then it can bring down the efficiness of the teaching technique.  Some parents consrue flipped learning as an online course where students are staring at a screen all day, where videos replace the teacher, and that students are working without structure.  That is not the case however.  Parents need to be shown how the flipped classroom works and what it is not.  A huge drawback can be lack of technology at home for some students.  If a student does not have access to these lectures, then how can they achieve they best?  (The Flipped Classroom Myths Vs Reality)  I believe that flipped classrooms can not work in lower income schools. (Are You Ready To Flip?)
Flipped Classrooms have an amazing future ahead of them.  If they are structured and ran properly, then the way students feel about learning can change for the good.  How many students hate school becuase it's boring?  A lot of students think school is boring becuase all the teacher does is stand in the front of the room and talk.  But if the students are in charge of their learning, they may be more willing to expand the notion of school being fun and exciting.  I could, as a future teacher, use the flipped classroom in an Earth and Space Science class.  Students could do experiements or activites during class and then watch lecture videos at home to learn about the next class' subject matter.  However, there are some subject matters that can not be efficulely taught using videos. Such as grammar.  ( Are You Ready To Flip?)  So, in conclusion, I believe that flipped classrooms are on the front edge of the learning frontier.

Here is a wonderful source that offers other teachers' videos and conferences of flipped teachers:  The Flipped Learning Network