by Bruce Friend
Any parent of a school-age student, regardless of whether the student is in elementary school or college, knows firsthand that educational materials, especially textbooks, are expensive.
As more students are increasingly equipped with devices such as laptops, digital tablets, and smart phones, there publishers may finally be under consumer-driven forces to replace those expensive and heavy texts with digital alternatives. Fortunately for students and teachers, including home school educators, there are a growing number of outstanding curriculum resources that can be used as alternatives to textbooks which do cost a penny.
Open Education Resources (aka “OER”) are digital materials that can be used for teaching, learning, and research made available for free through open licenses which provides the end-user with much greater freedom for use (and freedom from expense) that typical copyrighted materials require. OER include different kinds of digital assets such as complete digital courses, learning objects, videos, lesson plans, collections, and journals. In addition to the availability of OER content, a number of organizations are also producing freely available lesson plans and even complete digital courses.
As with choosing any curriculum resource, it is important to thoroughly review OER and other freely available digital content that you may wish to use. An obvious consideration is the source of the content. Is the author(s) a credible source and is the content free of bias and advertisements? Another question to consider regarding the use of centers on the whether the content is providing information in a way that is truly interactive and engaging to students, or is the material merely a digital facsimile of a hardcopy edition. At their best, digital materials should present information and provide assessments in a manner that goes beyond simply reading text on screen.
To learn more about OER and to see some examples of free digital materials that you may want to use, I recommend the following websites:
OER Commons: www.oercommons.org
National Repository of Online Courses: www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc/
If you have questions about digital content and the use of online learning and what options may be available to you, e-mail me at: bfriendconsulting@gmail.com
Bruce Friend is a pioneer in K-12 online learning. As a founding member, teacher, and chief administrator of two state-wide virtual school programs (Florida and North Carolina), Bruce has considerable experience in the creation and business operations of virtual schools and other online learning programs. Bruce was the first Vice President of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning i(NACOL), the only nonprofit organization solely dedicated to K-12 online learning issues. Bruce serves as a special advisor for online learning and digital content issues to online programs, state and district leaders, education technology companies, and families. He has been recognized with the “Most Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: K-12 Education” award by the United States Distance Learning Association and is a two-time recipient of the Florida Principal Achievement Award.
Any parent of a school-age student, regardless of whether the student is in elementary school or college, knows firsthand that educational materials, especially textbooks, are expensive.
As more students are increasingly equipped with devices such as laptops, digital tablets, and smart phones, there publishers may finally be under consumer-driven forces to replace those expensive and heavy texts with digital alternatives. Fortunately for students and teachers, including home school educators, there are a growing number of outstanding curriculum resources that can be used as alternatives to textbooks which do cost a penny.
Open Education Resources (aka “OER”) are digital materials that can be used for teaching, learning, and research made available for free through open licenses which provides the end-user with much greater freedom for use (and freedom from expense) that typical copyrighted materials require. OER include different kinds of digital assets such as complete digital courses, learning objects, videos, lesson plans, collections, and journals. In addition to the availability of OER content, a number of organizations are also producing freely available lesson plans and even complete digital courses.
As with choosing any curriculum resource, it is important to thoroughly review OER and other freely available digital content that you may wish to use. An obvious consideration is the source of the content. Is the author(s) a credible source and is the content free of bias and advertisements? Another question to consider regarding the use of centers on the whether the content is providing information in a way that is truly interactive and engaging to students, or is the material merely a digital facsimile of a hardcopy edition. At their best, digital materials should present information and provide assessments in a manner that goes beyond simply reading text on screen.
To learn more about OER and to see some examples of free digital materials that you may want to use, I recommend the following websites:
OER Commons: www.oercommons.org
National Repository of Online Courses: www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc/
If you have questions about digital content and the use of online learning and what options may be available to you, e-mail me at: bfriendconsulting@gmail.com
Bruce Friend is a pioneer in K-12 online learning. As a founding member, teacher, and chief administrator of two state-wide virtual school programs (Florida and North Carolina), Bruce has considerable experience in the creation and business operations of virtual schools and other online learning programs. Bruce was the first Vice President of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning i(NACOL), the only nonprofit organization solely dedicated to K-12 online learning issues. Bruce serves as a special advisor for online learning and digital content issues to online programs, state and district leaders, education technology companies, and families. He has been recognized with the “Most Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: K-12 Education” award by the United States Distance Learning Association and is a two-time recipient of the Florida Principal Achievement Award.
