Three Keys To Gaining Traction With #GoOpen This Year

This post first appeared on my EdWek Blog 

As we close in on the one-year anniversary of the launch of the #GoOpen Campaign by the team at the United States Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology, it is time to reflect on the progress that has been made over the last year in this area. While the teachers and students in most schools are still unaware of the existence and purpose of this #GoOpen initiative, the number of resources to support this work has expanded dramatically over the last year. More importantly, there is a rapidly expanding group of educators ready to dive in and support one another as schools start to tackle this important work.  After leaving yesterday's #GoOpen Regional Summit in Boston, I have a renewed sense of optimism that schools will make better progress in the adoption of Openly licensed educational resources (OER) in the coming year and expand the work within and beyond the 17 #GoOpen States highlighted below.

Of course, the biggest question we have in the area of OER is the same one that we have with every initiative we undertake in schools - how do we build our capacity in this area? Here are my top three takeaways for districts to move forward with OER in the upcoming year.

1. Get support from the top - Make sure that your school and district leaders are on board with the #GoOpen Movement. Have your Superintendent sign on to become a #GoOpen District. District's just need to commit to replacing one textbook over the next year with openly-licensed educational materials. By signing on, you will be matched up with an ambassador district that will support your efforts and share materials they have already created.  In addition, you will join a cohort of other schools involved in the same work.
2. Connect locally - Superintendents and Principals need to reach out to local colleagues to see if they can pool resources to take on this work.  There is no doubt that every school out there is looking to update course-related materials in various subjects and grade levels. School leaders need to check in with their local/regional administrative groups to see what areas they might have in common with neighboring schools and districts. This work will go much faster if we share the load. Also, make sure that you are taking advantage of state support for this work if you are in one of the 17 #GoOpen states. In Massachusetts, we are fortunate to be supported at the state level by our Department of Education and our Director of Digital Learning Ken Klau. 
3. Use the resources from the Office of Ed Tech - The resources under the Office of Ed Tech's  #GoOpen Campaign provide a great foundation to undertaking this work.  The #GoOpen District Launch Packet provides a comprehensive outline for schools and districts to organize their efforts to infuse their curriculum with openly-licensed educational resources. In addition, there are 12 stories from #GoOpen districts that share best practices and provide some concrete steps that other districts can replicate as they move forward.

Thanks to Daniel Downs, Digital Learning Coordinator at North Reading Public Schools, for organizing yesterday's #GoOpen Summit. I feel fortunate to work in a state with so many forward-thinking educators.  Also thanks to the present and past Chief Open Education Advisors  from the Office of Ed Tech in Washington, D.C. (Kristina Peters and Andrew Marcinek) for their continued leadership in this area.

Open Educational Resources Are About Much More Than Saving Money

This post first appeared on my Edweek Blog

I have been somewhat disingenuous about my rationale for the transition away from traditional textbooks. In my discussions about the importance of the move I always cite financial savings as the top reason to move away from textbooks. However, after spending a lot of time thinking about moving towards Open Educational Resources (OER) to replace textbooks , I have realized that saving money is not at the top of my list of reasons to move away from these items that have burdened the backs of students and the budgets of school districts for decades.

Don't get me wrong, I think that the economics involved here need to be discussed. For instance, a new social studies textbook could cost $100 or more. Multiply this times 250 students and you are quickly looking at a price tag of $25,000 for one set of textbooks. What if we spent half, three-quarters, or all of that amount to train and compensate our teachers to create resources to take the place of textbooks? In my opinion, this would give us higher quality resources that we could revise regularly and make them a sustainable resource.

But beyond the clear economic advantages, switching away from third-party content allows us to fulfill a much greater purpose.  This transition will help us make the cultural shift that is necessary in our schools to truly prepare our students for the rapidly changing landscape beyond K-12 education. Supporting our teachers in these efforts is a critical step for success here. A recent post about the #GoOpen initiative from Joseph South, Director of the  Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education, articulated this well:

"We now expect successful students to exhibit skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and digital literacy. We know without these skills they won't be fully prepared for the rigors of college or the day-to-day challenges of a fulfilling career...We have no doubt that the use of openly-licensed educational resources in schools, districts, and states will continue to grow. The question is: how quickly, how thoughtfully, how sustainably, and with how much rigor and support?"

The ball is clearly in the court of states and local districts to answer Director South's questions on how quickly this initiative will flourish. It is clearly easier to throw money at third-party content developers as we have always done and go about business as usual. However, the continued focus on these types of traditional resources as the major component for instruction across  curricular areas is likely to leave our students underwhelmed and underprepared. The road to the adoption of Open Educational Resources is bound to be bumpy, but it is a clear route to the creation of true communities of learners who understand the growth mindset necessary for success in the future.

Some Entry Points for Education Leaders To #GoOpen

This post originally appeared on my Edweek Blog

Riding the momentum of last week's announcement from the United States Department of Education regarding the appointment of my former colleague Andrew Marcinek as its first-ever open education adviser, I thought it would be a good idea to dedicate this week's Three-for-Thursday blog post to some Open Educational Resources (OER).  After looking at the impressive work done by Williamsfield Community Unified School District (highlighted in the video below), all school leaders should be putting the investigation of OER at the top of their to-do lists and begin preparing to #GoOpen.

    

For starters, I wanted to share the Illinois OER site which was utilized by the Williamsfield School District. This site is full of great resources for schools looking to begin their OER journey.   

The second site I am going to share is Creative Commons which really should be the starting point for schools beginning to utilize OER. The site has a special section dedicated to OER including a blog which school leaders should be paying close attention to for all of the latest OER updates.

My third OER share is OER Commons. OER Commons has a great library of resources with materials for educators from preschool to college. The search page allows users to search by grade level, subject, as well as for materials aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.

All of my OER resources are in My Diigo bookmarks tagged as "OER."  If you would like to share some of your favorite web-based resources for a future Three-for-Thursday post, you can do that here.