As a part of a recent project, I’ve started putting together “media sets” — bundled collections of photos, maps, diagrams, videos, etc. on very specific topics for teachers and students to use.

Here’s an example of one on Ancient China. It includes a timeline, photos of art from various dynasties, maps, etc. Each piece is open-licensed. You can right-click the file to get source and license information.

We also have media sets for ancient Egypt, contemporary Asia, contemporary Africa, American westward expansion, human interaction with our environment, etc. with more to come.

Questions for you:

• Is this something that is useful to you?
• What would make it more useful?
• What other topics would you like to see?
• Would you be interested in attending a 3-hour workshop at a conference at which participants would all build media sets on topics of their choice?

I also stumbled upon a really brilliant survey about sharing from a group called Latitude. If you haven’t already, you really should take this survey. It takes a few minutes, but in going through it, I learned so much. It really made me think not only about different approaches to sharing, but also about different things in my life and how they are connected.

After taking the survey, I went to the partner site Shareable. Again brilliant. I immediately subscribed to their blog and then didn’t know whether to file it in my folder for open content or the one for sustainable food production, since it covers both of those topics and more. Wow! (I ultimately settled for the open content folder, but only because that’s the one I read more actively.)

If you care about sharing, sustainability, or the future, make sure to check out these great resources.

Authored by the SCORE Working Group on Digital Content Rights, this bold and well-written report begins with the assertion that “most electronic educational resources created in the last decade by teachers and technology specialists…cannot be used in the classrooms of teachers outside the narrow groups for which they were originally developed” because no sharing licenses were used. The report then goes on to make some very specific and clear policy recommendations:

1. All digital resources developed with public funding should be licensed to share.
2. The least restrictive license possible should be used, specifically CC BY.
3. These resources should be housed in accessible digital content repositories with the relevant supporting infrastructure.

These recommendations are excellent and should be immediately adopted by federal agencies, state departments, and local districts for all publicly funded projects.

With dollars flowing into various new development projects related to RttT, Common Core, national assessments, etc., the time is now to make sure all schools can share in these resources.

At some point in these conversations, the question of the role of traditional publishers arises. For the most part, publishers have not been a part of these discussions, whether by choice or a natural repulsion I’m not sure. Certainly, a concern with the tenets of open-licensed materials has been collectively expressed by their lobbyists, and one can easily understand their apprehension. At the same time though, I hear that a few publishers are also sniffing around the edges with possible interest.

Regardless, their voices are important ones to include in the discussions of the next evolution of instructional materials.

Publishers are important stakeholders and have a wealth of valuable expertises and experiences that can and should be brought to bear on the challenges we all face addressing the achievement and engagement gaps in schools.

Further, OER is not all about “free” in the no cost sense. To be successful and sustainable, OER must include models that bring together free and fee-based, profit and non-profit, public and private, business and academia.

To stretch the thinking about how traditional publishers might engage in new models of OER in K-12, I’ve been thinking about a range of possible collaboration scenarios that go beyond just asking publishers to open-license their work.

(For the purpose of clarity, I’ve used the term “OER provider” to refer to a group primarily involved in producing and distributing open resources and a “publisher” to refer to a traditional commercial publisher. In reality, the roles could overlap or even be reversed.)

• An OER provider might act as a reseller of  selected products or services of a traditional publisher. These products or services would complement the free OER offerings, thereby offering the customer added value and the publisher extra revenue.
• An OER provider who wants to distribute a print version of their content (at some cost) might collaborate with a publisher to do so.
• In a similar vein, an OER provider might partner with a publisher for distribution and sales services. This role could expand considerably for OERs submitted for state adoption, a process with which publishers have unique expertise.
• An OER provider and a publisher might co-develop new product, which could then be open-licensed or sold.
• An OER provider and a publisher could partner on new funding options, from sources such as public or private grants, venture philanthropy, state co-development funds, etc., to do any of the above.
• An OER provider might acquire content or product from a publisher. This could be especially attractive to publishers who have duplicate lines they are not marketing, as is the case for many after the massive consolidation of the industry.

Moodle quick start guide (pdf)

Below is a preliminary list of ideas. What are your ideas for this? Share your thoughts and add comment.

Resources

• Include a wide variety of resources that address different learning styles, reading levels, media types, etc.
• Make sure resources include multimedia.
• Use web resources (web pages, video, simulations, graphic organizers, etc.) – you don’t have to create everything yourself!
• When using web resources, embed instead of linking when possible in order to preserve the course context and avoid potential distractions.
• Ask students to suggest additional resources to include. (This could be an assignment or a forum activity.)

Activities

Assignment

• Using online assignments is a good tool for providing students immediate feedback and also a way to help you manage a large volume of work.
• Give students options! Include not only writing, but PowerPoint slides, audio, video, etc.
• Give students regular feedback on assignments when they are in process (formative assessment), not just at the end.
• Assign students to create regular learning logs to reflect on their own learning.
• Offer assignments that include graphic organizers.
• Use offline assignments to include in-class performance type activities.

Chat

• Use for online study groups.
• Have posted times for drop-in review sessions. Publish the chat logs so others can benefit.
• Have a chat during a real-time event, such as an election debate or a presidential address.
• Use for book talks.
• Use as a back channel area for face-to-face classes. Assign different students roles as needed. Later publish these notes and have students annotate or add to them.

Choice

• Use a quick poll after each lesson to have each learner assess their understanding (great, good, not sure, not good, totally lost).
• Periodically ask students about the pace of the course and the level of difficulty.

Database

• Have students create databases of various information, such as book reviews, story starters (text or picture), study questions, collaborative research, etc.

Forum

• Set up a tutoring forum.
• Create single-student forums to give students a private place to ask you questions or talk about the course. (Messaging can also be used for this if enabled.)
• Have students respond to each other’s forum posts.

Glossary

• Provide glossary support for key vocabulary via glossaries, linked words, and random glossary word boxes.
• Allow students to add to definitions, give examples, translate into another language, or rate helpfulness.
• Include pictures or video and audio pronunciation for words. (These can be supplied by students as well.)
• Glossaries can be used creatively for things other than vocabulary, such as quiz questions, sample math problems, quick tips, memory aids, quotes of the day, etc.

Lesson

• Structure content with branches to provide scaffolding and remediation where needed or to provide enrichment or acceleration when appropriate.
• Allow different paths through content depending on learning interests. (Think about the “Choose Your Own Adventure” idea.)
• Use lessons with branching practice opportunities as a way to divide information into reasonable sized chunks.
• Use lessons to create flash card decks.

Quiz

• Use a variety of types and styles of questions and questions at various levels of depth.
• Ask multiple questions for each important objective or idea.
• Include quizzes that are not graded.
• Use quizzes not only for formal assessment, but for self-assessment and formative assessment. Frequent practice opportunities improve learning.
• Use the feedback option in quizzes to remediate, for example, by showing how a math problem can be solved.

Survey

• Use surveys to ask students how their learning is going.
• Ask students what topics they would like additional help or coverage on.

Wikis

• Have students work collaboratively to record class notes. You can make this a guided notetaking activity by supplying a topic outline in advance.
• Have students create end of unit study guides.
• Broaden your use of wikis by having students contribute to a public wiki such as Wikipedia.

General

• Use various grouping tools in Moodle with flexible groupings of students.
• Use logs and reports to monitor student activity. Watch for students who are inactive and offer help. Monitor areas of very high or low activity and consider this in terms of additional support or course redesign.

Here’s a new tool to make your use of Moodle glossaries even easier. The Kids Open Dictionary glossary builder now has an auto-export to Moodle! (And this resource is completely public domain.)

Here are the quick instructions.

1. In the dictionary, click Glossary builder.
2. Enter your list of glossary words separated by commas. Click build.
3. Check the resulting definitions. If there is more than one definition for a word, put a check mark next to the definition you want to include. If a word has no definition, you will need to add it. When you are done, click the Moodle button.
   
4. Right-click the “Click here to download your glossary button” link, and save the file somewhere (e.g. your desktop).
5. Go to your Moodle course. If you haven’t already, turn editing on and create a glossary by selecting Glossary from the “Add an activity” drop-down menu. (More on Moodle glossaries here.)
6. Select the glossary and select “Import entries.”
   
7. Browse to select the file saved in step #4.

That’s it! If you have suggestions on how to make this tool more useful or if you have a list of words that you’d like to have prioritized for definitions, shoot us an email.

As a result of that forum, NASBE published the policy update “Rethinking the State Role in Instructional Materials Adoption: Opportunities for Innovation and Cost Savings.”

This report provides a good overview of the opportunities for OER in K-12, as well as summaries of what states like Indiana, California, and Texas are doing in this area. It is a valuable piece to share with policymakers, public officials, school administrators, educators, and others who could benefit from knowledge about OER in K-12 education.

The conclusions and recommendations in this report are insightful. Leadership attention to them bodes well for the potential of OER to bring real innovation to our schools.

This is another episode in the infamous “math wars,” which have pitted the traditional approach, which views math as a body of facts and emphasizes specific skills, rules, memorization and practice against a reform approach, which takes a more inquiry-based approach, viewing math as a series of connected ideas that should be understood conceptually first, with fluency following. Those who have been through phonics vs. whole language or a host of other similar debates in education will be familiar with the vehemence with which sides are chosen in these battles. While a balanced approach is in vogue in many districts, apparently many are still picking and defending sides.

I’ll leave aside for now my pent-up tirade about whether it is really the role of the courts to choose textbooks and focus instead on another issue. Textbooks are not the curriculum (or if they are, as one astute reader points out, you have a poor curriculum).

The view that any single textbook is the “curriculum” sadly ignores the role of teachers (as well as students) in the learning process.

There are many dynamics that affect learning in a classroom. Textbooks are not the most important of these. Teachers and the learning process they create and nurture have everything to do with how students learn.

Every student learns differently, has different skills, varies in language proficiency, has different interests, etc. That’s why differentiation of instruction is so important. No textbook, whether it be the “Discovering series,” Holt, or any one of many others is the answer for all students. Any teacher worth putting in a classroom knows this and uses a variety of resources, processes, products, activities, and projects to stimulate learning in a variety way.

Let’s give our schools and our teachers more credit than this court ruling does.

Recently, I have become a huge advocate for OER. Have I lost my business sense or decided that my interests lie outside of the commercial arena? No, I believe that OER can be good business. Here’s why.

1. There are viable business models built on open licensing.
   Many of these revolve around services and customization (both things the K-12 ed market is badly in need of). Look at Red Hat, the new IBM, and Flat World Knowledge. Read Wikinomics.
2. It serves customers well.
   Open is about letting the customer decide what best suits their needs and helping them customize products and services to meet those needs. The K-12 textbook market (and arguably the whole educational system) has been about prescribing what schools need, often in a one-size-fits-all way. Most of these models don’t allow for much differentiation of learning, which is sorely needed to address the achievement and engagement gaps in schools. OER, on the other hand, is all about differentiation and customization.
3. It serves non-customers well, which may turn them into customers or prompt them to become advocates.
   Even those who don’t buy your product or service will be able to experience it and tell others about their good experience.
4. Giving customers what they want is good business.
   I often hear schools say that they want a new way to do things. They want differentiation. They want modular content. They want to be able to remix their curriculum.
5. Not giving customers what they want is bad business.
   Ask a teacher or school administrator what they think about their textbooks or the commercial textbook publishing business.
6. It better allows customers to spend money for things of value to them.
   The K-12 ed market has many mechanisms to restrict free choice in curriculum purchases. Just a few are pricing that ties textbook and ancillary package purchases together, rules that every student must have a paper textbook (regardless of if they’re used), inclusion of (often sub-standard) professional development in book pricing, and packaging of content in enormous 800+ page bundles. OER pulls that all apart so that money can flow to targeted needs.
7. The first to market with smart open models will have a big competitive advantage.
   
8. State and federal policymakers are lining up behind OER.
   Funding and new business models will follow.
9. It’s a better use of public funds.
   Millions of public dollars go toward curriculum development and licensing. Most directly, this happens through competitive grants (something that is being emphasized increasingly by the feds). Public funds should go to serve the public good.
   
10. Publishers, schools, and learners need new models.
    It’s a fast changing world with many challenges for all of us. Open is a real way to address many of these challenges.
11. (bonus) It’s good karma.
    Sharing is good. You may argue that this isn’t “good business,” but in my experience, it is.

Please comment and share your additional thoughts.