OER in the K-12 Classroom

This course will become read-only in the near future. Tell us at community.p2pu.org if that is a problem.

Full Description [Aug. 26, 2011, 11:17 a.m.]

*** SIGN-UP OPENS MON., AUG. 29 AND CLOSES MON., SEPT. 19 at 5:00 PM PDT***

Sign-up here 

 

This course will explore how a variety of open educational resources (OERs) can be used in K-12 classrooms.

OERs are materials, tools, and media used for teaching and learning that are free from copyright restrictions or are publicly licensed for anyone to use, adapt, and redistribute. In this course, we'll be looking specifically at open content resources, such as text passages, images, videos, sound recordings, interactives, simulations, textbooks, online courses, and more that can be used to engage students and improve learning.

This course will be focused on hands-on learning driven by your own particular needs and classroom situations. We'll be collaborating and creating, not just reading or studying.

Target audience: U.S. K-12 educators

Prerequisite knowledge/skills:

  • Be a U.S. K-12 teacher or administrator
  • Have solid knowledge of your grade level and subject curriculum and standards
  • Have a basic knowledge of integrating technology into the classroom (some use of Web 2.0 tools, multimedia, etc.)
  • Possess a willingness to share work you have created with others
     

Course dates: Oct. 3 - Nov. 13, 2011 (6 weeks)

Course commitments:

Participants should be willing to:

  • Share, learn, and teach as a part of this peer learning course
  • Commit to spend 4-6 hours a week on this course (Most of the time will be asynchronous, but there will be 2-3 optional webinars. They will also be archived for later viewing.)
  • Share at least one resource you have created under an open license

 

Course goals:

After this course, participants will:

  • Understand open licenses and be able to identify OERs
  • Be familiar with a variety of OER sites suitable to their own grade level and subject area
  • Know how to remix OERs into formats most suitable to their student learning needs
  • Be able to publish and share their own work under open licenses

 

Full course syllabus here.

Course developer/facilitator:

Karen Fasimpaur is an enthusiastic user of OER in K-12 classrooms. She works with teachers to help integrate, remix, and share open-licensed curriculum to engage students and differentiate instruction. Prior to this work, Karen was an educational multimedia producer, a textbook developer, and a teacher.

In other pursuits, Karen is a writer, cook, and carpenter. She lives in a remote part of the desert southwest in an off-the-grid (solar) house.