K12 Open Ed

A new way to look at quality

One of the perennial debates about OER revolves around quality and whether or not open resources are of comparably high quality to other materials.

In reality, quality is completely independent of the openness as far as I can tell. There are open resources that are of the highest quality, just as there are proprietary resources that are of poor quality.

To me, the debate should be reframed around how we define and then look at quality. In K-12 instructional materials decisions, quality is often defined in terms of whether the materials meet content standards.

Most of the standards correlations are supplied by the publishers themselves, possibly not the most objective source of information. How many districts dig deeper, do their own correlations, or delve into what it actually means to say a unit “correlates” to a standard? Is the correlation just a key word match or do the materials truly meet the requirement of teaching the standard in a variety of ways such that all students are likely to achieve mastery?

And aren’t there other measures of quality we should look at? How about the degree to which the materials address multiple learning styles, are interactive, include various practice opportunities, are accessible, etc.?

Achieve has recently published a series of rubrics to evaluate the quality of OERs.

(Disclosure note: I served on a committee that reviewed these rubrics.)

These rubrics include the following:

Rubric II. Quality of Explanation of Content

Rubric III. Utility of Materials as Tools to Teach Others

Rubric IV. Quality of Assessment

Rubric V. Degree of Interactivity

Rubric VI. Quality of Practice Exercises

Rubric VII. Opportunities for Deeper Learning

Rubric VIII. Assurance of Accessibility

I think these are things we should be looking at closely for all instructional materials, not just OERs.

Stay tuned for interactive versions of these rubrics which are coming soon.

(And thank you to Achieve for open licensing these rubrics under CC BY so that they can be used in a variety of ways.)

PD on P2PU course list

The course list for the fall pilot of PD on P2PU is finalized:

Differentiating Instruction
Student Engagement and Checking for Understanding
OER in the K-12 Classroom
Using Web 2.0 and Social Media to Encourage Deeper Learning
Teaching in Online and Blended Classrooms
Multimedia and Graphics to Facilitate Deeper Learning
Writing & Common Core: Deeper Learning for All

We have some great partners developing and facilitating these classes, and we can’t wait to get started!

Stay tuned for info on registering for these free, open, online PD courses.

PD on P2PU – Free, open, peer learning for K-12 teachers

I have written previously about how much I like P2PU and its model for peer learning.

Working with the community on this site and constantly thinking about how we in the K-12 community could better model peer- and inquiry-driven learning has led me to brainstorm how P2PU could be used for K-12 professional development.

I am now happy to announce a pilot project to develop a few courses on P2PU for K-12 educators.

This will include several courses to be run in the fall. Each will be approximately 6 weeks long and will emphasize community, peer learning, openness, and specific hands-on projects to be designed by each participant. The focus will be on authentic tasks and peer collaboration, rather than on extensive content. Topics will include differentiating instruction, using open educational resources, teaching in an online or blended classroom, and others.

Collaborating on these courses will be K12 Handhelds (my company and the organization behind K12 Open Ed), the Education Development Center (EDC), and Peer to Peer University (P2PU). This pilot is being funded with the help of the Hewlett Foundation.

All courses will be free, open-licensed (CC BY), and online.

If you are interested in participating in one of these courses, stay tuned for more information. You can also email me if you like.

I’m excited about looking at this new model for PD, and, of course, I’ll be writing and reflecting all about it here.

Mobile flashcards from the Open Dictionary

The Kids Open Dictionary now has an option to create mobile flashcards using gWhiz. This free app supports the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, BlackBerry, Android, and more.

To make your flashcards:

(Before doing this, you need a Google Docs account and you need gWhiz on your mobile device.)

Use the glossary builder in the Open Dictionary to create your set of words and definitions.
Select the option to save your glossary as CSV. Right-click the “Click here to download your glossary” link and save the file. (If you missed it, we recently added an option for logged in users to save your glossary so that you can return to edit it later.)
Go to the gWhiz Flashcard Template form. NOTE: You need a Google Docs account to proceed.
Fill out the form, and then proceed to Google Docs as instructed.
Save the document as a copy with the name you’d like to appear on your mobile device. Open the CSV file you created above. Copy the cells from the CSV file and paste them into the Google Doc template. Save and close the Google Doc.
Go to gWhiz on your mobile device.
From the menu, select Get My Google Data… Select the file for your flashcards and download.

Here are more instructions on this and some advanced features like adding pictures.

We hope you enjoy this new feature.

Special thanks to Matt Renfroe for requesting this feature. If there’s something else you’d like to see in the Open Dictionary, let us know, and we’ll see what we can do!

Tweet stream from ISTE on OER

I had a great time at ISTE in Philly this year, spreading the word about OER and K-12. The enthusiasm was overwhelming. Below is a part of the tweet stream. Thanks to everyone for coming and for helping get the message out about the benefits of OER. Please share what you learned with others back home. All the materials I shared (Livebinder, PPT, wiki page) are open-licensed — please use however you like!