Open Education Resources
A copyright protects creative, original work that has been 'fixed in a tangible medium of exression.' While the physical work can be protected the ideas cannot. Copyright protection lasts for the life of the creator plus 70 years. Our right to use copyright protected content is severely limited to what could be determined as Fair Use. Under Fair Use, I may comment on, critique, or quote copyrighted work in an article or perhaps a news report.
In an attempt to increase accessibility and equity open education resources (OER) provide an alternative to dealiing with copyright protections. OER include high quality educational materials protected by creative commons (CC) licenses that allow users to Reuse, Remix, Revise, Retain, or Redistributte content free of charge. This allows students to access subject content for courses for free, allows instructional designers to use OER materials to build courses or lessons, and supports teachers who wish to supplement their courses with content not provided in their standard text books.
This week's assignment is to:
Part I: Develop a Digital Media Checklist of criteria to help evaluate OER content. I have placed my checklist here in PDF format.
Part II: Apply the Checklist to locate an OER for use in a learning experience.
Part III: Write a comment (<300 word) explaining my checklist and lessons learned in the design process.
Digital Media Checklist
Digital Media Checklist Applied
I found this task challenging. To help me wrap my head around the idea of OER I took the time to watch a workshop called Finding and Evaluating O.E.R. from RCLibraries. It was an hour long, but I selected this item because it was 1 month old. Being so recent, I knew the discussion would provide current information.
As I read through the resources listed in the course, I kept a running list of keywords or items that resonated with me as good criteria. Then I removed duplicate items and ordered my criteria under the main categories of: Relevance, Accuracy, User Experience, Ancillary Materials, and Licensing. I decided to measure my criteria broadly as Yes, meaning it meets my criteria expectation; No, it absolutely does not meet that criteria expectation; and Needs Work, meaning a minimum, tolerant, or maximum level of work on my part will be necessary to bring that content up to my expectations.
I searched for a lesson or group of lessons to teach writing techniques. I used OER Commons. My subject was ‘creative writing lesson’ for high school level and fulfilling common core standards English language arts. I looked at several items here but found the “5 Mini-Lessons You MUST Teach for Creative Narrative” the best fit for what I had in mind. I liked that the lessons were short 10-15 minutes which I felt would provide time for application of skills acquired.
As for licensing I had to search for it on the page but at the bottom it said this content was licensed under "Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" and I realized that in my checklist I had CC By NC but did not have the option that included SA. I may consider adding more check boxes to include possible combinations, but to reduce clutter may just add SA where necessary.
I had to register to have access to the free resource lesson plans. I like to do things my way and so I foresee quite a bit of adaptation. The content gives me lots of ideas for how to adjust this content for various grades. It provides an excellent foundation from which to tweak and build.
URL to online content is here. Select View Resource tab to visit detail.
I used Microsoft word to build my checklist. I saved it as a PDF file. Then opened it in Adobe Acrobat Pro to apply my check marks and notes.