Topic 2; what did I learn?

Testing my new ONL wings So we have just wrapped up topic 2 in our ONL162 course after working two weeks on a scenario about OER (Open Educational Resources). The first week working on the scenario meant a lot of thinking and learning about the more practical aspects of OER, ethics, legal issues and licensing. I read very interesting scientific papers investigating the effects of OER on student´s academic achievements when compared to traditional text book teaching. During the first week OER seemed very much like a tool or method, that seemed to be equally effective to traditional teaching methods. A tool that perhaps would not compete with traditional teaching in most educational settings but definitely had it´s merits and specific areas where it would be extremely useful. I had heard of OER before, and had come across it both as a student and when giving lectures, but only on a small scale. I had not understood the vastness of the OER movement until now, and it blew me away. Why was I blown away? Well, suddenly in week 2, this topic was no longer about clever teaching tools and connecting with peers to share knowledge and resources. It was about equality and the right to education for everyone regardless of nationality, religion, gender or financial possibilities. Leaving this topic I am not viewing OER as a possible method to use in education, but as a method that can be the difference between receiving an education and receiving no education at all. And that is almost magic.

 

I can also add three new items to my personal list of new teaching/presentation tools:

Sway
https://ed.ted.com/videos
Slideshare

References

Fischer, L., et al. (2015). “A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students.” Journal of Computing in Higher Education27(3): 159-172.

Hilton, J. (2016). “Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions.” Educational Technology Research and Development64(4): 573-590.

Mills, M. S. (2016). “A Case for Authoring Multi-Touch Interactive Open Educational Resources.” TechTrends60(5): 456-464.

Petrides, L., et al. (2011). “Open textbook adoption and use: implications for teachers and learners.” Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning26(1): 39-49.

Robinson, T. J., et al. (2014). “The Impact of Open Textbooks on Secondary Science Learning Outcomes.” Educational Researcher43(7): 341-351.