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Monday, July 13, 2009

Finding Open Education Resources

Posted by Katherine Fletcher at 9:29 AM

I just got back from a meeting about how to make open education resources easier to find and use in the classroom -- OER_Discovery_2009. In order for us to do the best job helping faculty, teachers, and students find material, we need to hear what is easy and what is hard right now.

Are you teaching? What sorts of barriers to finding good resources do you have?
  • How do you find new materials for your class?
    • Colleague suggestions?
    • Google searches?
    • YouTube searches?
    • Specialized searches at education sites that you frequent?
  • Are you worried about copyright restrictions and whether or not you can use or modify the resource?
  • What is most frustrating to you about looking for resources?
If you have information to share, please comment on this blog, or email cnx@cnx.org.
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29 comments:

  1. It's not resources that are hard to find. It's managing the output of the students that is hard to find.

    Though on the resource end the problem is too much at least for K to undergrad in college. The problem AFAIAC is the lack of organization. I have yet to find a way to work with others to catalog the web into meaningful lesson plans/work units for students.

    I was hoping that CNX would help in that regard but sadly the tools are not 'fast acting' like wikihow, mixedink, wikipedia, even instructables editing UI _and_ has a pretty decent Q & A UI (CNX doesn't have a Q&A section, a .js for quick citations, nor user forum(that I can find), nor place to meet possible collaborators to work on mutually interesting projects).
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  2. Hi Dennis -

    We're actually working on a number of the things that you mentioned as I type; we're checking into a number of options for developing a user-driven community site for things such as self-help, forums for organizing collaboration, etc. We're doing a lot of the design work for that now, and I am hoping to have something out by early fall - hopefully that will take care of at least some of those concerns (and give you a good place to discuss the rest!).

    As for Q&A, you might want to take a look at the <exercise> element in CNXML to see if that is what you're looking for? If not, please shoot me an email with an example of what you're looking for and I'd be happy to work with you to either 1) show you how to do what you want to do within the system or, if not, 2) get a feature request submitted to the development team for future consideration.
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  3. I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.


    Margaret

    http://grantsforeducation.info
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  4. I teach a third/fourth grade special education class for students who are mildly learning disabled. Even though these kids read at the kindergarten/first grade level, I am still expected to use the general education curriculum to teach them. Bottom line: They can't access the material. This means I have to find materials SOMEWHERE to remediate them so we can move forward.

    I use a lot of books from our local teacher's store. I use some websites that allow me to create and print worksheets for free. I do use Google. I don't use You Tube videos because I don't have a computer projector, and probably never will because of the budget crisis in California (and everywhere else, too).

    I do worry about copyright laws and am very careful to make sure the materials I use are meant for classroom use.

    The most frustrating thing about looking for online resources is the ads. They say, "Look! Wonderful free stuff for teachers!" Then you find out that yes, some little thing is free, but if you want something really useful, you have to give a credit card number. Sometimes I do that, but I hate it. It would be great if we could all share.
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  5. Thank you for this input. We would love to see Connexions used as a way to adapt materials to different reading levels. In a recent interview in Education Week (April 10th, 2010) with Richard Allington, he theorizes that even older students with reading deficits could become fluent readers if they had texts for all their subjects at their current reading level, so they got constant practice reading. With no accessible reading, they just keep falling behind. This seems to reflect your experience and frustration.

    Connexions would be a great place to support materials that cover the same topic but at different reading levels because of the license that allows sharing, and the ability to create adaptations that link back to the originals.
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  6. I am a middle school special education teacher.
    This is an amazing resource and I am anxious to spend time sifting through all of the valuable information.
    I have to agree with the previous posters. There are so many great online resources out there but with budget cuts and special ed classroom that are ill equipped with technology, many of these resources are not accessible to me or my students.
    Saddly, my district is so far behind on updating our classrooms (and even worse are our special ed. classrooms), that I don't foresee any changes any time soon.
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  7. I teach in the field of special education. I have students who are reading well below their grade level. If they had access to grade level material at their reading level that would be very helpful and it would increase the level at which these student could engage with the material.

    I also have students who would benefit from accessing grade level material with larger print, since the print in most text books is so small, the material in a text book page can look overwhelming. If we could access bigger print online it would be so helpful.

    I am so thankful for educational websites, blogs, and images that can be found online. I use websites that have been suggested by other teachers. I access online educational websites daily in my classroom such as storylineonline and starfall. I look for images as well. For example, I just showed a small group a picture of a baseball field to help them visualize a story that we were reading in our corrective reading curriculum. There is a california media website that has a plethora of media suggestions that correspond with state standards in the areas of Social Studies and Science. I don't use it much because it doesn't help me teach reading or math skills.

    Unfortunately, as mentioned by others, access to technology is limited as the budget is limited. My classroom computer tower is literally held together with tape and a rubber band.
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  8. Stefanie FreundSep 19, 2010 10:53 AM
    I teach in a 6th-8th grade special education classroom. They are too low academically to use the gen ed curriculum. We do not have a set curriculum for SDC, so I am always looking for my own resources. I order from many different catalogs, but now with budget cuts I do not have as much money to spend on things for the classroom. I also like to use websites such as edhelper and discovery.com It would be wonderful to share materials, see what others are using, and access it for free!
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  9. I am a Special Education teacher for a moderate/severe, 3rd-5th grade class. As the previous Special Education teacher stated, I also have a hard time modifying the general education curriculum for my students. As well as finding materials that meet their academic levels without looking to childish. For example, I am teaching in a 3rd, 4th, 5th grade class but I am teaching Kindergarten to First Grade reading and math. So math for Kinders is very cute and has bears or rainbows on it, but I cannot in good conscience give that to a 5th grader.

    Since I am not using the district curriculum I will go to the web and find websites that offer free printables for desired subject, as well as lesson plan ideas. I am not looking to reinvent the wheel, I just need help getting started. I need pages that have larger font, problems/words are more spread out on the page, easy curriculum without all the rainbows, easy to access & print, and of course free. :)

    I have been able to find several great free websites for teachers that offer printables, lesson plans and power points by spending alot of hours completing Google searches and from colleagues. But it would be great to have them more centrally located from one main site or something.
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  10. Adrienne ThomasNov 9, 2010 07:24 PM
    Hi All,
    I also don't use the general ed. curriculum in my classroom. I teach in a moderate to severe functional academic classroom in a middle school with students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. My students deal with a variety of disabilities that include: autism, blindness, orthopedic disabilities, tramatic brain injury, Downs syndrome, and other cognitive delays. At first I panicked when I realized I had no curriculum but as I've spent time developing my own curriculum I'm beginning to see that maybe it's a blessing. I teach reading, math, funtional math, spelling, writing, life and social skills. Each student is at a different level from Pre-K to second grade. I use a variety of resourses that I find at teacher stores, some from elementary leftovers, and Internet resources. I've found a lot of freedom to customize the curriculum to match my student's needs, and have room to address additional issues as they come up in the classroom.
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  11. I am a 6th/7th teacher in a special day class for students with Mild/Moderate disabilities. I think I have the same issues as some of the previous responders to this blog. I have spent a fortune on curriculum for my classroom because I had basically nothing and no way for my students to reach the curriculum. I am trying to find new and interesting ways to use what I have already paid for and what I can access for free to make lessons that allow my students to access the curriculum. Another difficulty that I often run into is that my students have such varying levels but I cannot give them all individual work because I feel I cannot possibly help each and every student individually. I have seventeen students and one paraprofession who is in and out of the classroom. I feel like I am always trying to "shoot for the middle" but I would love to find a way that they could all have their needs met in an individualized and interesting way. I have had some other teachers at the school help in ways they can but I am always on the lookout for new things and look forward to looking to this site and blog for more information.I appreciate that you are looking into what teachers need and what would be beneficial to them in terms of planning.
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  12. I feel one of the most frustrating things about looking for curriculum, lesson plans, or worksheets on-line is they are not free. You need to become members of the website, for an annual fee. When teaching students who receive special education services, the district-adopted curriculum has to be modified. The material I present to my students needs to be larger print, less on a page, and age appropriate. I feel my district only wants to comply with the Williams Case by providing me with the textbooks required, but I do not receive teacher’s editions or supplemental materials. I am reinventing the wheel and I feel very frustrated.
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  13. I am also a 3/5 grade moderate/severe special education teacher who spends 90% of my prep time modifying curriculum. My students have access to their grade level curriculum but I am actually using the K-2nd grade curriculum in my classroom. I feel lucky that my district is able to provide those resources to all of their students. I think the curriculum that my district has adopted is great, however I am still modifying it to meet the needs of my students. I feel that there are some good websites out there that can help me with this, but most of them have a yearly fee. I have found some free ones but they often have limited materials. Since I have students for 3 years, I don't want to use the same materials year after year. I think having a resource such as this to share resources and ideas is beneficial to both teachers and students.
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  14. As an educator of students with special needs, I commend Kathryn Fletcher's efforts to determine the challenges teachers face in trying to locate relevant and reliable free resources on the internet. Because I must modify classroom curriculum in order to make it accessible to my students, I frequently use the internet to seek out resources that support core content instruction. Certainly, there are hundreds of websites offering classroom materials such as lesson plans and practice pages. Some are fee-free, some are on a subscription basis, while others, such as TeacherspayTeachers, sell resources on a "piece-work" basis. Therein lies the barriers to locating good resources. I find that the sheer number of educational sites is overwhelming making the search cumbersome and time consuming. Secondly, the cost, though seemingly minimal, is just another expense that we teachers are expected to shoulder.
    I am excited about sites such as Open Educational Resources (OER) that can offer accessible and adaptable high-caliber resources submitted by and for a community of professionals.
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  15. I too am a special education teacher and it find it most frustrating to find the materials that are "appropriate" for the population of students I am working with. I currently am in a moderate to severe special day class with most students more on the severe end (the class would have been previously labeled severely handicapped). I am supposed to use and adapt the general education cuurriculum so that my students have access to the core, however I find myself always at a loss because these students are clearly not on an academic track, rather they should be working more on functional skills. I feel like I am constantly on the internet (Google etc) looking for supplemental resources that are appropriate for my students and their specific needs. Although I have not explored the site fully as of yet, I think having a resource such as this to share resources and ideas is such a great idea and exactly what teachers need!
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  16. Katherine Fletcher,

    For 7 years I taught in a special day class for students with severe disabilities. My district did not provide a curriculum so I had to create my own lessons, buy my own manipulatives, etc. I think I used mostly my own creations because my students’ needs were very basic (toileting, eating, etc.). However, I think my students who were capable of higher-level academics did not receive the best possible curriculum until I could figure out how to better teach them. The barriers I faced were time, money, knowledge, etc. I think I found most of my suggestions using a combination of preschool and kindergarten books, talking to parents, augmentative communication ideas solicited from colleges and the internet, etc. I think most of my resources were pictures since my students could not read, so I was never really worried about copyright issues. I think the most frustrating thing about finding resources was that I had to start from scratch. It would have been nice to have some information given to me by my district.

    -Rosy
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  17. Kimberly FranklinJan 17, 2011 01:47 PM
    I am currently teaching special education. I taught two years of regular education before I switched to special education. I find it very difficult to find resources that are not too fast paced. I can usually find workbooks at local teacher stores or online sites, but they tend to go over one topic VERY fast. My special education students don’t learn as fast as other students, so I always have to find even more resources than regular education teachers do, just so I have enough problems at their level. Another problem that I come across is that my special education students have to have IEP goals that are their grade level, even though they are significantly below grade level. For example, I may have a student in 6th grade who has a to identify and interpret figurative language and words with multiple meanings, but they can only read at a 3rd grade level. Most 3rd grade reading materials don’t have figurative language in them, so it is very difficult to teach it to a student when there isn’t material available to use. I wish there could be material specifically made for special education students that are at lower reading levels, but teach higher-level concepts. I think developers would make some good money, as many special education teachers would easily purchase the resources.
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  18. I am also currently a special education teacher for students with severe developmental disabilities. The intereesting aspect of this field is that there is no set of classroom materials or textbooks for teaching this population. There is a set of standards that must be adhered to however. I spend hours researching lessons, looking for materials, and trying to find new strategies for teaching my students. What I have found wonderful is the number of resources there are that are free that include downloadable materials and that are easily modified or adapted for my classroom.

    In my own personal searches, I regularly use Google and Google Images to search for materials and locate pictures to use for teaching in my classroom. With the help of colleagues, I have discovered Schooltube and Teachertube, which allow me to look for videos to share with my students that are not blocked by our district network.

    I sometimes get frustrated by the number of sites I find that are really only a link to other sites or that constantly want a membership free or for a fee to access their materials. I simply do not have the time or money to waste on those sites. Many of the ones you pay for do not allow you to modify the materials, which means that I don't have as much of a use for those sites. I love the idea of open resources because I am frequently sending materials that I develop to other people so that they can use them or modify them for their own use. Whatver I can do to ease the frustration of some else is wonderful to me.
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  19. I am a special education teacher, teaching 5/6th grades in reading and math. For the most part, I have found some supplemental material for math that the district provided. There are times when I want my students to have more of one concept. I have created my own or had a volunteer create some stuff for me.
    I have gone online and discovered some material that seemed useful until I really got into it and found that the multiple choice answers did not have any that matched the answer. So, I was back to the drawing board and creating my own supplemental material. It would be great if I can share these materials since they are proven to work with mild/moderate students.
    I also modify some of the reading material. I do go online and get some ideas. I find that the ideas I really like I have to pay for to get the full lesson. It's like they tease us with a few ideas for free and then ZAP! The ones you really want you have to pay for.
    It would be great to have a place where I can contribute my ideas and my materials to other teachers for free.
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  20. I am a special education teacher for a mod.sev. Kindergarten - 2nd grade class. I use a variety of materials an a little bit from many, many different types of curriculum as we are not provided with curriculum.
    I use the internet/google for searches on specific content, I use any kind of educational workbooks, I use parts of general education curriculum and then modify it, I use subscription content, and I create my own lesson content/worksheets. The most frustrating part about this search is that the majority of the good stuff requires a paid subscription - really - how many of these can you buy? Also, for special ed, I need a variety of worksheets, lessons, and methods to teach the same content. There is not a curriculum out there that offers enough variety in presentation to teach the same concept for months at a time.
    I wish there was a way to take a worksheet or a lesson, modify it before printing it out, and then using the good stuff in the format given while adding your modifications. For example, my students have great difficulty writing so being able to add a word bank, a template to trace, letters or words to cut out and paste in, etc. are all things I have to do to modify worksheets.
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  21. I teach high school special ed (mild/moderate) for kids with 1st to 4th grade reading abilities. I didn't have my own curriculum when I started in this class three years ago, and had to continuously adapt the general ed curriculum for my students. But as many of the previous posts said, my students couldn't access the material well enough to benefit from it. Anything I could find at the library or from other schools in the district that were ability level were not age appropriate. My teenage students were less than thrilled- to say the least- by being presented with books covered with bunny rabbits and gnomes.
    I used plenty of online resources to find material and exercises at their reading levels. I would then either download them and edit out the cutsey pictures if I could, or copy and paste the text onto word documents. I could then present the new reading and writing exercises to my students in a way that they could understand and use to actually learn.
    Now that I have my own curriculum to use (the very good "EDGE" from National Geographic and Hampton Brown) I still go on line to find supplementary materials to use in the classroom. I especially like finding things that I can use that are more simple in their presentation than what I often find within my curriculum. Too often text and tests- more often in the content areas- are just too busy for students with learning disabilities or attentional disorders to access. They words and meaning just get lost in the presentation.
    I live for all of the online resources that I have found on my own or, more often, that I was directed to by other teachers.
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  22. Finding free resources to use in the classroom is not a problem. There are a plethra of them on the Internet. As a matter of fact, I feel the real problem is there is too much information on the Internet. The real issue for me as a special educator is wading through the resources to find a resource or strategy to meet the specific needs of my student.
    Honestly, by the time I find what I want, and make the changes necessary to meet the goal of my student, I could have made it myself.
    So far, I have not found this site to be any easier to use than any other site. I can spend hours looking through information on a site and still not find what I need. In catalogues specific to my needs I can quickly find what I need and order it. Yes it is unfortunate I have to pay such a steep price, but until I learn how to find the free resources I need quickly on the Internet or any specialty site, I actually save money- if you look at my opportunity costs- by purchasing the resources I need.
    I do however, appreciate your insight into gathering information from several sources current today for a deeper more critical look at content.
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  23. This is an incredible thread of responses and I wanted to pop in and comment on several of the posts.

    1. Several comments come from people eager to contribute. Connexions welcomes your content. Please come by, create an account, and start publishing. The best place to look for help is here -- http://cnx.org/help/ and email cnx@cnx.org with questions as you get started.

    2. Finding good content is always a challenge and the post just above mentions it is hard at Connexions also. We realize that and have created "Lenses" where organizations and interested groups can highlight content in Connexions, tag it, and comment on it. See cnx.org/lenses. We have a wide variety now: Community College Open Textbooks - http://cnx.org/lenses/ccotp/endorsements, Free High School Science Textbooks -- http://cnx.org/lenses/fhsst/affiliation1, DAISY versions of some books -- http://cnx.org/lenses/bookshare/affiliation, Braille versions -- http://cnx.org/lenses/RiceDSS/affiliation etc

    3. Finally, for all of the comments about the need for adapted content to meet student needs and requirements in special education classes, we would love to see teachers find content and use the "Reuse/Edit" button at the top to create a derived copy, specialize it, and then share it back by publishing. And along with one of the creators of "AccessForAll" metadata to help learners find content that meets their needs, we are writing proposals to extend Connexions to be even more learner centric and accessible-friendly.

    Thanks for all the great comments.
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  24. I have been teaching special education for the last 6 years. I have yet to see a textbook or other materials that my students didn't look at and say that it was too difficult. We are currently teaching out of the regular education curriculum and it is just intimidating for our students. A textbook that presents concepts at our students instructional level would work wonders in a special education class. I really think it would be great if someone created an online textbook that you could modify at the touch of a button to match the students instructional reading level. If each student had a reader or whatever and say if Jimmy is reading at a second grade level then we just click on level two and the concept is presented at that level. If Mike is reading at a grade three level, then we can use the same information and concept, and just press level three and the same material is presented at a slightly more difficult level than Jimmy. This way, we are not holding one student back because he/she is reading at a higher level than another student.
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  25. I teach in special education in the 9-12 grades. Many of the students I teach have academic scores in the grade school levels and require a lot of scaffolds. I have a difficult time finding resources that are age appropriate and address the low academic level of my students. I've tried a variety of electronic resources and the lessons that I find are either piecemeal or contain topics/graphic sutable for a grade schooler (which offends my students).
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  26. Response to Video at Rice University by Professor Richard Baraniuk behind the vision on Connexions, his open-source, online education system.

    I loved the concept behind CONNEXIONS technology. It is a great idea to have access to free textbooks in any subject we want to learn. It will provide the opportunity for anyone who is interested in enhancing his/her knowledge in any subject to have the access to the information without worrying about how much is going to cost. Textbooks are very expensive, specially textbooks in special education in my case. If I want to learn more about a specific disability, I love the idea of having free access to the information.

    Week 3 Group assignment 4 part activity

    I watch the video about Daniel Goleman on compassion. It attracted my attention because COMPASSION is a character trait that all teachers must have toward students, specially teaching special education students. One problem I encountered is that the video stopped playing in the middle before the end. I selected another video of the same author and it was about a book titled: Emotional Intelligence. The author states that a high IQ doesn't predict success on an individual. There are many other qualities that the individual must have in order to become successful in life in whatever profession the individual may choose to pursue. If I would be responding to Dr. Goleman, I would tell him that I am very glad that he conducted these studies and is making presentations to companies such as google and MIT to promote the concept that people who don't have an IQ over 130 can also be good candidates to become part of their workforce. I am a special education teacher and have observed that many of my students are smart in their own way. They are capable of learning if they are given the opportunity to use their own learning style to foster their learning. Even though some of my students might be considered with and average intelligence IQ, by teaching them to be persistent, responsibility, and good people skills; they would have the opportunity to become successful in their future lives.
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  27. I wonder some of these same questions. I find things all the time on line to use with my special education students. I don't always think about wither or not I can use it. I feel like since it is there on the internet, then it is there for me to use as a tool with my students. Good thought provoking questions. Sincerely, Trisha Burkhart
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  28. I've been teaching Special Ed for 5 years now, this is my third career. I find most of my information online via blogs, TED, NIMH, NIH and others. My kids are very visual so I use a lot of visuals, digital presentations and and ELMO. In history we view the news online every day. Most frustrating issues for me are finding time to develop interesting and exciting lps and standards. Also searches are often cumbersome returning sometimes hundreds of irrelevant sites or articles that have nothing except one word in them that has anything to do with what I am searching for.
    K/Valencia
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  29. I teach a special education class at the high school level for students between the age of 13-20. The grade level curriculum is not an option for my students so I buy a lot of supplimental materials. I also take suggestions from colleagues, and I google, youtube, and search specialized websites. I take help from where ever I can find it and from whom ever is willing to offer it. Both of my parents are teachers so they are often great sources of materials and ideas.
    I usually do not worry about copyright restrictions because I never hear of any teacher worrying about it.
    I think the most frustrating aspect of looking for sources is affording the materials I know my students need. CBIs can be espcially expensive.
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