This section of my blog is meant for interaction and feedback! How would you describe your experience with open content? Have you run into any problems? What advice would you give to educators interested in open content?
Your blog is very helpful and informative! After reading what you've posted about open content, I feel like I understand the concept better and I've realized that I use open content sources in my classroom all of the time! There are tons of sites out there for teachers with videos, lesson plans, study guides, pre-made worksheets, etc. - and a lot of them are free. If not entirely free, most sites at least have some materials which are free and some that only members can access.
I really enjoyed reading about how you will one day use open content sources to pursue other musical interests that you have. This was really inspiring to me because I have always thought about possibly getting a higher-level degree in mathematics one day. While I work my way up to that, I can always take math courses through open content sites or through universities that offer open content courses. I wonder how much the fee would be to earn course credits? I wonder if it would be comparable to actually paying to take a real course?
Caitlin, thanks for your feedback. I think open content is such a great way to learn new information on your own. Higher-level mathematics courses are a dime a dozen on open content sites! I don't do well NOT being in school, so I definitely plan on taking a few free courses once I'm finished with my master's degree!
Hey Amy, As you may know, I am probably a lot better than you with not being in school! However, I am excited to use open content courses in the future to keep up with new technologies and teaching methods as they present themselves. My district offers these courses from time to time and I look forward to participating in them once I’m done with my masters degree.
The more I've been thinking about it, the more I really want to try them out! I was talking to the science teacher on my team today and we were both thinking we could use a refresher on Calculus and Physics. He mentioned that taking one of the MIT courses might be a good idea to brush up on higher-level content that a teacher might need to pass a PRAXIS II. I know that the Praxis tests have study guides that you can buy, but it would be great to take a free course before you plan on teaching something that you haven't seen in a while.
Caitlin, that's a great idea! The nice thing about taking a MOOC is that you do not necessarily have to finish the entire course. You can just look at the parts of the course that you think you need to review (if you've already learned the content in the past). I'm glad that my blog has inspired you!
Hey Amy, Thank you for your detailed sections about open content! When reading about this earlier in the semester I was interested to learn more and your blog helped me understand much better. I think a lot of teachers use open content without even realizing it because of how useful it is for instruction and activities. Open content sites are great because of the wide array of resources that are available. Coming from a HPE background, I too have no curriculum and I have found so many materials and lessons online which have been very beneficial for my students. As teachers we are facilitators of learning that are there for guidance and assistance. We should not always be worried about creating new materials and lessons or what I call ‘reinventing’ the wheel. It’s important to be able to find already made materials, tweak them as necessary, and present them to students appropriately. I really liked how you mentioned using open content as a means of professional development. Do you feel like this may be a route that school districts go for additional PD in the future? I don’t think it would be a bad idea. Thanks again for the info
I agree that teachers use open content resources all the time without realizing it. I think it is important for teachers to know how many high quality resources are available for free! I'm glad you learned a bit more about open content through my blog!
My district uses online courses on Blackboard for some professional development. I think it would be very smart for schools to make these courses open content for any educator to have access if they want to learn! That sure would make it easy to make up snow hours at home!
That's a great idea!!! I wish my district had Blackboard PD hours available so that we wouldn't have to make up any time from the crazy winter. I'm sure that will be an option in the near future.
Amy, you blog site is great and very informative! I didn't really know what open content was when I saw it in the list. I even almost chose to do the topic for my blog, but I wanted to learn more about flipped classroom. Open content is great especially for some of my "older" student at Delaware Tech. These students are coming back to school to either change their career, they lost their job, or they can't find one. So, with open content sites available, these students can brush up on knowledge that they haven't used in a while or learn new ones. Under your "purpose" section I visited those sites open content sites and reviewed some of the lessons, they are great! I have even bookmarked them so I can have them available to students that can use them. Thanks!
I'm so glad you will be able to use some of those sites in the future! Open content is great for reviewing because you can focus on the topics you forget and skip the topics that you remember. These are definitely ideal for your students. You could even use some of these resources to create your own open content that your students can access at home!
Hi Amy, I recently discovered Khan Academy and it is now one of my favorite open content resources! It has become extremely useful recently. I am somewhat behind in my classes since the college has closed several times due to the snow. I have asked my students to watch several YouTube videos created by Khan Academy to help them catch up with some of the material we would have covered in class when the school was closed. When I met with my class again face to face, they had already learned a lot of that unit's information from the videos, so I spent class time highlighting the most important concept, answering questions, and asking questions to ensure that they understood the material. This saved me a lot of time!
I love how your first video shows a student saying that the growing amount of students do not buy their text books anymore. After the first two years of college I refused to buy books. It is absolutely ridiculous to spend hundreds of dollars for books that become outdated the next year, especially when there are infinitely many resources on the web. The open courses that I have used are MIT's opencourseware. I tried learning how to make an iOS app through one of the courses and also use their online calculus courses. Showing the kids that they are learning from an MIT website is really empowering to the students.
The best thing about all of this is that you truly only need an internet capable device. Your software/hardware column also hits on the BEST program to run videos as well, VLC media player. I've been using this for years as it will basically run anything you can throw at it. I'm impressed that you threw that on there.
Lastly, I think the definition of open content you put down is an incredible sentence. Open content "describes any kind of creative work or content...that allows copying and modifying its information by anyone". This is the freedom that allows information to be spread. Not online textbooks at $75 for a "license" that you cannot share.
James, thanks for the feedback! I, like you, struggled with deciding which courses' required textbooks were actually worth buying. I do not think it is the intention of any professor to maliciously force his/her students to spend their last few dollars on huge textbooks that will sit on their shelves unopened. The professor simply wants the students to be reading the same material. I think open content is the perfect solution to this problem. Professors can find quality resources that are available to any student for free. Obviously not every course will be able to find every resource available for free, but I think teachers of all levels should consider open content when choosing class resources.
I LOVE using VLC. I was introduced to the program a few years ago, and I will never go back. It plays any video file type I throw at it. I also love all of the viewing options that the user can choose from. For example, the user can watch a video at a faster speed without losing audio quality. This is an amazing time-saving tool to use if you are watching a lecture and you want to brush up on something quickly, but you do not have very much time. I would recommend VLC to anyone watching video files on his/her computer
I really enjoyed how you pointed out the usefulness of Open Content for a music teacher. I know that I am always surprised by how tricky it is for our Music Department to navigate the rights to the pieces that they choose to play in their concerts, and to be able to access pieces that are in the Creative Commons or are simply copyright free has to be an incredibly freeing experience.
From the Visual Art standpoint, I constantly encourage my students to join online drawing and critique groups, or, at the least, just peruse YouTube for the vast amount of free instruction that is available. It is truly amazing how much more information is available today than when I was in school. I often tell my students how lucky they are to be able to read through a blog or pull up a video, when 13 years ago, I would have had to actually physically find an artist and sit with them in the studio if I had wanted to learn their technique.
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Amy,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is very helpful and informative! After reading what you've posted about open content, I feel like I understand the concept better and I've realized that I use open content sources in my classroom all of the time! There are tons of sites out there for teachers with videos, lesson plans, study guides, pre-made worksheets, etc. - and a lot of them are free. If not entirely free, most sites at least have some materials which are free and some that only members can access.
I really enjoyed reading about how you will one day use open content sources to pursue other musical interests that you have. This was really inspiring to me because I have always thought about possibly getting a higher-level degree in mathematics one day. While I work my way up to that, I can always take math courses through open content sites or through universities that offer open content courses. I wonder how much the fee would be to earn course credits? I wonder if it would be comparable to actually paying to take a real course?
Thanks again for all of the insight!
Caitlin, thanks for your feedback. I think open content is such a great way to learn new information on your own. Higher-level mathematics courses are a dime a dozen on open content sites! I don't do well NOT being in school, so I definitely plan on taking a few free courses once I'm finished with my master's degree!
DeleteHey Amy,
DeleteAs you may know, I am probably a lot better than you with not being in school! However, I am excited to use open content courses in the future to keep up with new technologies and teaching methods as they present themselves. My district offers these courses from time to time and I look forward to participating in them once I’m done with my masters degree.
Amy,
DeleteThe more I've been thinking about it, the more I really want to try them out! I was talking to the science teacher on my team today and we were both thinking we could use a refresher on Calculus and Physics. He mentioned that taking one of the MIT courses might be a good idea to brush up on higher-level content that a teacher might need to pass a PRAXIS II. I know that the Praxis tests have study guides that you can buy, but it would be great to take a free course before you plan on teaching something that you haven't seen in a while.
Caitlin, that's a great idea! The nice thing about taking a MOOC is that you do not necessarily have to finish the entire course. You can just look at the parts of the course that you think you need to review (if you've already learned the content in the past). I'm glad that my blog has inspired you!
DeleteHey Amy,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your detailed sections about open content! When reading about this earlier in the semester I was interested to learn more and your blog helped me understand much better. I think a lot of teachers use open content without even realizing it because of how useful it is for instruction and activities. Open content sites are great because of the wide array of resources that are available.
Coming from a HPE background, I too have no curriculum and I have found so many materials and lessons online which have been very beneficial for my students. As teachers we are facilitators of learning that are there for guidance and assistance. We should not always be worried about creating new materials and lessons or what I call ‘reinventing’ the wheel. It’s important to be able to find already made materials, tweak them as necessary, and present them to students appropriately. I really liked how you mentioned using open content as a means of professional development. Do you feel like this may be a route that school districts go for additional PD in the future? I don’t think it would be a bad idea. Thanks again for the info
I agree that teachers use open content resources all the time without realizing it. I think it is important for teachers to know how many high quality resources are available for free! I'm glad you learned a bit more about open content through my blog!
DeleteMy district uses online courses on Blackboard for some professional development. I think it would be very smart for schools to make these courses open content for any educator to have access if they want to learn! That sure would make it easy to make up snow hours at home!
That's a great idea!!! I wish my district had Blackboard PD hours available so that we wouldn't have to make up any time from the crazy winter. I'm sure that will be an option in the near future.
DeleteAmy, you blog site is great and very informative! I didn't really know what open content was when I saw it in the list. I even almost chose to do the topic for my blog, but I wanted to learn more about flipped classroom. Open content is great especially for some of my "older" student at Delaware Tech. These students are coming back to school to either change their career, they lost their job, or they can't find one. So, with open content sites available, these students can brush up on knowledge that they haven't used in a while or learn new ones. Under your "purpose" section I visited those sites open content sites and reviewed some of the lessons, they are great! I have even bookmarked them so I can have them available to students that can use them. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you will be able to use some of those sites in the future! Open content is great for reviewing because you can focus on the topics you forget and skip the topics that you remember. These are definitely ideal for your students. You could even use some of these resources to create your own open content that your students can access at home!
DeleteHi Amy,
ReplyDeleteI recently discovered Khan Academy and it is now one of my favorite open content resources! It has become extremely useful recently. I am somewhat behind in my classes since the college has closed several times due to the snow. I have asked my students to watch several YouTube videos created by Khan Academy to help them catch up with some of the material we would have covered in class when the school was closed. When I met with my class again face to face, they had already learned a lot of that unit's information from the videos, so I spent class time highlighting the most important concept, answering questions, and asking questions to ensure that they understood the material. This saved me a lot of time!
I love how your first video shows a student saying that the growing amount of students do not buy their text books anymore. After the first two years of college I refused to buy books. It is absolutely ridiculous to spend hundreds of dollars for books that become outdated the next year, especially when there are infinitely many resources on the web.
ReplyDeleteThe open courses that I have used are MIT's opencourseware. I tried learning how to make an iOS app through one of the courses and also use their online calculus courses. Showing the kids that they are learning from an MIT website is really empowering to the students.
The best thing about all of this is that you truly only need an internet capable device. Your software/hardware column also hits on the BEST program to run videos as well, VLC media player. I've been using this for years as it will basically run anything you can throw at it. I'm impressed that you threw that on there.
Lastly, I think the definition of open content you put down is an incredible sentence. Open content "describes any kind of creative work or content...that allows copying and modifying its information by anyone". This is the freedom that allows information to be spread. Not online textbooks at $75 for a "license" that you cannot share.
Great blog!
James, thanks for the feedback! I, like you, struggled with deciding which courses' required textbooks were actually worth buying. I do not think it is the intention of any professor to maliciously force his/her students to spend their last few dollars on huge textbooks that will sit on their shelves unopened. The professor simply wants the students to be reading the same material. I think open content is the perfect solution to this problem. Professors can find quality resources that are available to any student for free. Obviously not every course will be able to find every resource available for free, but I think teachers of all levels should consider open content when choosing class resources.
DeleteI LOVE using VLC. I was introduced to the program a few years ago, and I will never go back. It plays any video file type I throw at it. I also love all of the viewing options that the user can choose from. For example, the user can watch a video at a faster speed without losing audio quality. This is an amazing time-saving tool to use if you are watching a lecture and you want to brush up on something quickly, but you do not have very much time. I would recommend VLC to anyone watching video files on his/her computer
Amy,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you pointed out the usefulness of Open Content for a music teacher. I know that I am always surprised by how tricky it is for our Music Department to navigate the rights to the pieces that they choose to play in their concerts, and to be able to access pieces that are in the Creative Commons or are simply copyright free has to be an incredibly freeing experience.
From the Visual Art standpoint, I constantly encourage my students to join online drawing and critique groups, or, at the least, just peruse YouTube for the vast amount of free instruction that is available. It is truly amazing how much more information is available today than when I was in school. I often tell my students how lucky they are to be able to read through a blog or pull up a video, when 13 years ago, I would have had to actually physically find an artist and sit with them in the studio if I had wanted to learn their technique.