Teaching with Open Content
After working on the topic of ‘Open Content’, I feel that the educator in me is now on a journey of new kind! The words of David Wiley make me think over and over again about the concept of being open in education, “Openness is the sole means by which education is affected. If a teacher is not sharing what he or she knows, there is no education happening. In fact, those educators who share the most thoroughly of themselves with the greatest proportion of their students are the ones we deem successful.”
No doubt that sharing knowledge not only helps in building it but also broadens one's horizon of knowledge. Following this philosophy, I have come up with my own initial agenda on how I can contribute to the community of dedicated teachers, students and thousands of volunteers, involved in this cause.
Below is the list of few websites for finding open content materials specifically for high school science and mathematics where students can find unlimited information on many topics of interest in the forms of articles, videos, lesson plans, study notes and assignments.
1. National Repository of Online Courses
NROC course content is an Open Educational Resource (OER) and is available at no cost for their individual use. The National Repository of On-line Courses (NROC) is a growing library of high-quality on-line course content for students, teachers or other faculty in middle, school, high school, higher education, high school and Advanced Placement.
Courses in the NROC library are contributed by developers from leading academic institutions across the United States. All courses are assessed to ensure they meet high standards of scholarship, instructional value, and presentational impact.
One can find video presentation, worked examples, interactive simulations and material to help for the test preparations as well.
2. Khan Academy
Till now Sal Academy has over 3200 videos on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and is ever expanding. It allows students to practice over hundreds of skills in various disciplines. The mission of Sal Academy is to help others learn what they want, when they want, at their own pace!
3. Open Educational Resources (OER)
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that can be freely used and reused, without charge. Open Educational Resources are different from other resources teachers can use; in that OER have been given limited or unrestricted licensing rights. That means they have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. For some of these resources, that means teachers can download the resource and share it with colleagues and students. For others, they can download a resource, edit it in some way, and then re-post it as a remixed work. OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license that state specifically how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.
4. Schoolscience.co.uk
The Association for Science Education, the UK’s largest subject teaching association, offers a free website to enrich one’s teaching and learning in science. Schoolscience.co.uk is sponsored by industrial and research partners who provide free on-line science resources for teachers and students. This site is free for all the users and aims to provide a comprehensive directory of resources, information and contacts for teachers and learners of science in schools everywhere.
A central point of reference for all primary and secondary school science teachers and technicians, it offers a unique opportunity for practitioners to enhance their knowledge and experience of science and science education and for specialist organisations to raise their profile.
5. Learning Space
‘Learning Space’ is a UK based site offered under the "The Open University". Everything on the site has been created by The Open University with input from various experts. Many of the learning materials relate to the TV and radio programmes made with the BBC. In addition, one can find interactive games, videos, blogs, podcasts and also opportunities to order free printed materials.
Students interested in a new topic and or those who want to dig deeper can choose a five minute exploration or a 50 hour expedition to broaden the scope of their learning depending upon their needs.
6. COURSEsites by Blackboard
CourseSites is actually a free, hosted online course creation and facilitation service that helps individual K–12 teachers, college and university instructors and community educators to add a web–based component to their courses, or even host an entire course on the Internet. They can even choose their own URL, so students can find their page easily. However, with CourseSites, one can also have the ability to publish and share their courses as OER under Creative Commons Attribution license. Once published, other educators can easily preview and downlaod the course content in their Blackboard site.
Reference:
Wiley, D. (2010). Openness as catalyst for an educational reformation. EDUCAUSE Review, 45(4), 14-20.
No doubt that sharing knowledge not only helps in building it but also broadens one's horizon of knowledge. Following this philosophy, I have come up with my own initial agenda on how I can contribute to the community of dedicated teachers, students and thousands of volunteers, involved in this cause.
Below is the list of few websites for finding open content materials specifically for high school science and mathematics where students can find unlimited information on many topics of interest in the forms of articles, videos, lesson plans, study notes and assignments.
1. National Repository of Online Courses
NROC course content is an Open Educational Resource (OER) and is available at no cost for their individual use. The National Repository of On-line Courses (NROC) is a growing library of high-quality on-line course content for students, teachers or other faculty in middle, school, high school, higher education, high school and Advanced Placement.
Courses in the NROC library are contributed by developers from leading academic institutions across the United States. All courses are assessed to ensure they meet high standards of scholarship, instructional value, and presentational impact.
One can find video presentation, worked examples, interactive simulations and material to help for the test preparations as well.
2. Khan Academy
Till now Sal Academy has over 3200 videos on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and is ever expanding. It allows students to practice over hundreds of skills in various disciplines. The mission of Sal Academy is to help others learn what they want, when they want, at their own pace!
3. Open Educational Resources (OER)
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that can be freely used and reused, without charge. Open Educational Resources are different from other resources teachers can use; in that OER have been given limited or unrestricted licensing rights. That means they have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. For some of these resources, that means teachers can download the resource and share it with colleagues and students. For others, they can download a resource, edit it in some way, and then re-post it as a remixed work. OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license that state specifically how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.
4. Schoolscience.co.uk
The Association for Science Education, the UK’s largest subject teaching association, offers a free website to enrich one’s teaching and learning in science. Schoolscience.co.uk is sponsored by industrial and research partners who provide free on-line science resources for teachers and students. This site is free for all the users and aims to provide a comprehensive directory of resources, information and contacts for teachers and learners of science in schools everywhere.
A central point of reference for all primary and secondary school science teachers and technicians, it offers a unique opportunity for practitioners to enhance their knowledge and experience of science and science education and for specialist organisations to raise their profile.
5. Learning Space
‘Learning Space’ is a UK based site offered under the "The Open University". Everything on the site has been created by The Open University with input from various experts. Many of the learning materials relate to the TV and radio programmes made with the BBC. In addition, one can find interactive games, videos, blogs, podcasts and also opportunities to order free printed materials.
Students interested in a new topic and or those who want to dig deeper can choose a five minute exploration or a 50 hour expedition to broaden the scope of their learning depending upon their needs.
6. COURSEsites by Blackboard
CourseSites is actually a free, hosted online course creation and facilitation service that helps individual K–12 teachers, college and university instructors and community educators to add a web–based component to their courses, or even host an entire course on the Internet. They can even choose their own URL, so students can find their page easily. However, with CourseSites, one can also have the ability to publish and share their courses as OER under Creative Commons Attribution license. Once published, other educators can easily preview and downlaod the course content in their Blackboard site.
Reference:
Wiley, D. (2010). Openness as catalyst for an educational reformation. EDUCAUSE Review, 45(4), 14-20.
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