Open Educational Resources

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This past weekend, I was faced with a perplexing dilemma.  One of the blades on my riding mower had to be replaced.  I had never done this particular procedure before, so I did what anyone living in 2013 is likely to do:  I Googled it.  I found diagrams and photographs, and even downloaded the manual for my particular model of lawn tractor.  I also found numerous videos on Youtube that showed in precise detail how blades are changed on that mower.  Years ago, I would have had to rely on the expertise of someone else to accomplish this task.  I would have had to take my tractor to someone who knew how to do it, or I would have to find a friend with the required free time to come and wrench on it in my yard.  In short, I would have been stuck.  I was able to affect the repairs myself, because of all the materials freely available online.  I didn't have to pay for a book or a manual, I didn't have to pay for a mechanic to fix it, and I certainly didn't have to pay for someone to teach me how to do it myself.

The incident with my tractor pretty fairly sums up the topic of this discussion: Open Educational Resources.  The idea is that educational resources don’t have to be expensive.  In fact, some of the best materials can cost nothing at all.  Schools and classrooms across the country are moving towards open source software to support education.  Instead of paying thousands of dollars for licenses for Microsoft Office, they are using Open Office, which does most of the same things, but for the low low cost of nothing.  Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations… it’s all there.  Instead of paying for Photoshop, people are downloading and using GIMP, which has most of the functionality but is, again, without cost.  This paradigm is transferring to educational resources as well, including textbooks and instructional videos and interactive simulations.  When my daughter needs help in a few years with Algebra, I will show her what I can.  Later on, when she needs help with more advanced topics like trigonometry or calculus, she very well might turn to Khan Academy or some similar source of Open Educational Resources. 

There is, and always will be, money to be made in educational materials.  Many people will say “you get what you pay for.”  This is true to an extent, but it is interesting to note that MIT has been posting course materials online, including texts and lecture videos, since 2007.  Anyone can study thermodynamics from MIT now.  However, you have to pay tuition in order to get a diploma from them.  As school divisions and teachers struggle to pull together the ends of the educational funding rope, it is good to know that there are resources available to them that can supplement, if not supplant, the materials they are already using.

When you are ready to explore the options out there, here are a few more places to start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources

http://www.oercommons.org/

http://kihd.gmu.edu/aim/policies/

Penzu--Just a Journal

 

I recently saw where a fellow ITRT in another district highly praised “Penzu.com”, a site I wasn’t familiar with.  He stated that it was one of the more heavily used sites by his teachers.  I decided to check it out and upon reading about it, I was puzzled, it seemed to be just another blogging site.  But, after going to the site and using it, I began to see what makes it distinctive—its simplicity and security.

Penzu is very easy to use, even for those who aren’t too computer savvy.  Click here and you’ll see what I mean.  What comes up is a window which looks like an old fashioned sheet of writing paper.

You can immediately start journaling.  By running your mouse across the icons on the top of the paper you’ll find buttons to create a new entry, save, print,  insert a photo, and change the appearance.   All in all though, it is a lot quicker and easier to use than your typical blog.  There are self-apparent reasons why an English teacher  would want their students to journal,  so let’s look at Penzu from a teacher’s perspective. 

Penzu is not set up for classroom use, it is intended for individual use.  To sign up for an account, one does need to have an Email address—if this seems like an insurmountable barrier to student use, see your friendly, local ITRT and we’ll  help you out here.    The creators set Penzu up to have advantages over a paper/pencil journal.  For example,  it can’t be lost or destroyed—it is stored on line (although you can download entries).  One can access their online journal from multiple platforms—iPads, Android devices,  or any internet computer.  My immediate reaction to this was—yes, but the big disadvantage compared to pencil and paper is its vulnerability in the area of privacy.  A quick investigation revealed how wrong I was.  Not only can it be set up so no one except you can access it, but it can also be encrypted with government/military level  encryption, one reviewer called it the “Rambo” of such sites. 

You might be wondering, if it is so private and super-secret, how does it fit into a classroom?  Well, it can be private, but, it can also be shared.  You can Email the entry (anonymously if desired) or you can share a link to the entry.  Comments can be allowed at the author’s discretion. 

One more observation, part of the charm (for me) of Penzu, is its appearance—it looks like a diary I might have kept “back in the day”.  However, that appearance may not have the same appeal to today’s student.  All  in all, I’m impressed with this and site find it an option worth considering for a teacher that wants to have their students do some journaling.

More technology recommendations from ACPS teachers

I've learned a lot about different types of technologies. I have tried a lot of different activities with my students and a few stand out. My QR Code lesson went really well, and my students loved it. BigHugeLabs has a lot of great activities on it that I want to try with my students. I have learned to try new things. Not everything works for me, but I've given it a try. I want to try to master Prezi. I think it is a great and interesting tool for students and I want to be able to use it. Technology can be a great vehicle to success for many of our students.  Amanda - NHS

Nanoogo is an excellent site because it allows for and basically encourages student creativity to flourish. For instance, you could have students write a poem with illustrations, present a paper with illustrations, create their own cartoons, etc. Students loved using Nanoogo in my class, and as some sites good old after a while this site never did. Also, I wanted to say that after we introduce some websites which students can use, give them the option to pick which ones they feel comfortable using because the results are only going to be better in this case. Edmodo is an excellent site for many purposes, it engages the students, allows shy students to seek help, is good for organization, and best of all is ideal for parent communication. Quizlet is an excellent way to create and review flash cards, because it has exciting games and offers pictures for those visual learners. And finally, flip cameras really have no limits on creativity, all it takes is a creative mind and you instantly have a cool project.  Steve – AMS

The tools that I have used the most in class are Edmodo and Flashcard Machine. I like to be able to post assignments and notes so that students will have access to them outside of the classroom. Flashcard machine is great. I have seen a major change in the vocab grades since using this.  Connie – NHS

I've had a good time bringing what I've learned in class back to my team. I have collaborated with the English teacher on a few projects. We used Edmodo as the vehicle for our students to turn in their WAC papers. The English teacher joined my groups and I made her a co-teacher. This meant that she could also see their writing and help with the grading. I also shared Study Stack with her, and now the students are putting their personal dictionaries on Study Stack. I really like Study Stack because it is easy to use, I don't have to set up student accounts, and the different options it gives for review. The more we all share with each other and make use of the technology, the more competent our students will become, too.  Nancy – NMS

I didn't know you could monitor your student's progress using Khan Academy. Have students create their own free accounts and have them check you as the coach...they can have more than one coach. Coaches have access to all of their students' activities and achievements. It is an easy way to assess and provide feedback to the teachers.    Suzy – NMS

If usage time of tools during this class is any indication, student-generated videos and new presentation tools, such as Kizoa, will have the biggest use in the library. Both were fairly quick and easy to learn, and both are easy to work in to the library setting. I have enjoyed using both in efforts to promote reading. Another valuable benefit is that students are using technology to promote reading by using a Flip camera, computer, and LCD projector. I hope to have students create other and more presentations that promote reading and display them on a computer and LCD projector. My experience has been that students respond very strongly and positively to the videos of themselves and their peers, and, furthermore, many of them check-out the books that are recommended on the presentations. It’s been a beautiful thing.  Mary Margaret – NMS

Many of the 21st century technology tools, studied in this class, are great to help students learn. Many students have been using online flashcards to master essential knowledge. There are quite a few excellent U.S. History flashcards on Study Stack and Quizlet that have been proven to be extremely beneficial to my students while we have been preparing for the SOL test. I will also be using presentation tools to help students’ master essential knowledge. These presentation tools can really jazz up dull, boring Power Points. Therefore, I will be using online flashcards and presentation tools most often with future students.    Mary – AMS

I set up Edmodo for my class and the kids LOVED it. They were talking "math" on the weekend! We did a poll and they communicated with each other about the project they are working on. When they got ready to dig into the meat of their project, we set up groups for them to communicate in. They liked being able to ask me questions from home, and I liked seeing them excited about learning!  Angela – NMS

ACPS Teacher Website Recommendations

ACPS teachers who were enrolled in my Advanced TSIP class were asked which new technologies they planned to use the most in the future.  Here is how some of them responsed.

 10 Marks is a free online tutoring service ... for teachers. Teachers can assign math practice problems that are aligned to SOL's and are all SOL based ... stem questions. The site offers an online tutorial that helps students when they get stuck or stumped by a concept. There are reports that can be printed or emailed to the students' parents that shows their child's progress with the skills. I have used this program in my classroom only a couple of times, but my students seemed to like it. I hope this explains a little about the program..it is really worth looking into and the best is that it is FREE!  
Michelle Conklin -4th grade mes


 I found writecomics.com. I think my students would enjoy this website. They can pick from a variety of backgrounds, characters, and write a dialogue. It seems easy to use and it will help my students with their writing skills. In the past, I have printed out comic strips for the kids to add the dialogue, but this website is so much more. They create and write it.  
Veronica Thompson - CES

After viewing the "Free Technology for Teachers" blog, I found a website I thought could be helpful in small groups and at home for some of the students. ABCya.com. I enjoyed this site because it was easy to manipulate and I thought the children could do well with this. Instead of using sight word cards to help children, they could play a game. I also really liked the keyboard user. I thought this could be very helpful to getting the children familiar with the keyboard. I know for many of us, this may seem second nature but as I have learned with my children many times, they use the mouse for most everything. Trying to get second grade students to type anything takes an extremely long time. For those reasons, I think this website could be extremely useful in the classroom and at home.  
Renee Ritchie - MES

I love ABCya.com. My students use it at the Smart board during center time. They choose a game and play it on their own or with a partner. My top group students are able to pick a different grade level to give themselves more of a challenge.  Dennise Johnson - AES

I, also, use ABCya.com and love it. I use it to differenitate with reading and math. I love the variety of educational games and the kids look forward to getting on that website. - Veronic Thompson - CES

I tried the Character Scrapbook at Scholastic. My students loved it! The are really into books that have crazy characters, so this was fun for them. They came up with great descriptions for the characters. Some of them had to have help typing in their response, but they caught on to the "drawing" quickly. I'm going to use this for an end of the year activity. Each student is going to pick a favorite book and do their own scrapbook of the characters to take home.  
Melody Howard - CES

 I found one [an iPad app] called Little Story Maker which is published by GrasshopperApps.com. On this site students can create their own custom books. The site provides templates for students to use and then they can use their own images and apply their own text. They can also record the text. You are able to save the created books in a library for future use. Students can read the books themselves or have the book read to them. We are always looking for apps for the Ipads and I think this would be a great tool to use with all of my students, but especially my students who find writing a challenge. This is a program I will explore with students as soon as testing is over. If I find it beneficial, then I will use it next year to promote writing since the 5th graders have to take the Standards of Learning assessment every spring.  Debra Lewis - CES

After reviewing several online resources I was extremely impressed with readworks.org I think all teachers who teach reading in the elementary school would benefit from this fantastic resource. It is a site that can be used by every grade level as a reference source. It has the reading skills with reading materials (passages and books. The passages are printable and have multiple choice(SOL formatted)questions. The passages are leveled by grade and Lexile level. There are lesson plans included. Check it out! Its free! - Stephanie Hale - CES 

I agree. I love the site, too. I used several of the reading lessons with my children. Colleen Kean - CES

Oh my gosh! I love that website. I am so glad that you posted about it because I wouldn't have looked at it otherwise. I am definitely going to be using the lesson plans and passages in my classroom now. This is something I really need to use for corrective instruction. Those students that are struggling with certain skills, I can easily go on this site and find some passages to help reinforce the skill that are missing. THANKS!  Danielle King- KES

After previewing many sites,and experimenting with them I have found several that I would to use with my students.I have used ReadWriteThink.org in the past for many useful purposes in writing and reading.One of my groups compared two characters using a Venn diagram online. They worked on it as a group and then printed it out for their notebooks.Dipity is a digital timeline that is really cool but seems more complicated than other ones I saw. Another digital timeline I previewed and really liked was Timetoast.It has a visual and text view with date, event titles and descriptions can be added. Great for sequencing activities.

I really love the idea of using Build Your Wild Self. I want to have the kids go make one and then use their picture to do some writing.  Colleen Kean - CES

The Little Bird Tales site is great because it allows the student to tell the story in their own voice. They can write it, read it, hear it, and illustrate it. The StoryBird is good too. It’s easy to use and has cool illustrations. My kids had a lot of fun creating a digital story. Colleen Kean - CES


I have loved Kidblog.org. My kids love it!! I post a few questions a week on what they are reading, a generic question (ex. favorite restaurant), and a higher order question for the kids to respond to. They seem more aware of their responses, which has improved their writing skills. I showed them how they can pick out their own icon and backgrounds to personalize their pages. They enjoy seeing what the other kids post and my responses. - Veronica Thompson - CES

Out of all of the websites and technology tools that I have learned about and been introduced to in the class, I would have to say that LiveBinders is my favorite. LiveBinders is a place where all of the websites and various items that I use can be placed into a live interactive binder. I am hoping to add my Virginia Studies notes into the binder over the summer so that my students can have access to the binder at the beginning of next year. This is great for students that have internet access at home. They will be able to access their binder online and it will avoid pages falling out and missing. I would recommend this site to anyone! :)  Michelle Conklin - MES

I like using using www.quizlet.com the best. It will help me teach vocabulary in a fun way. I love the idea that the students can play these vocabulary games on the I-Pad at our school.  -Ruth Tankard - MES

I loved quizlet as well. I found a huge assortment of vocabulary words for Virginia Studies that were already made up. I would love to have a classroom set of IPads that my students could use daily. The IPad app was a little different and interesting!   - Michelle Conklin-MES

I scanned through quizlet and immediately took a liking for it. I plan to use this site for science. I like that they have games with the words. You can't ask for more. Children love to play games. -June Gordy - KES 

Prezi is going to be so much fun to play with next year. I think that the kids will love how the presentation works and want to continue to learn with the presentation. Taylor Crawford - KES

Chromebook

I was pleased recently to have the opportunity to examine and review a Google Chromebook by Acer.  The Chromebook is a “non-traditional” laptop running the Chrome operating system, as opposed to a Windows operating system.  Chromebooks are made by a number of different manufacturers in cooperation with Google.  They are non-traditional in that they depend on the Internet rather than a processor and hard-drive for most of what they do.  All of the typical productivity programs—programs for word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, etc. are housed on the web.  The documents produced are also intended to be stored on the web (although they can be stored locally on the Chromebook.) In fact, without an Internet connection a reviewer in the CNET Community states that “these laptops are pretty much like a paper weight.”

Because of their reliance on the Internet, rather than high end processors and enormous hard drives, the price for Chromebooks start at around $200.  At that price ACPS could by five of them for what we have been paying for a single laptop computer—and we would save on the cost of software as well. There can be little doubt, that somewhere in the future, school systems will supply computing devices on a one to one ratio with their students.  This price puts that day within reach.  Thus, our technology department is taking a close look at them. 

I was quickly impressed by a couple of things with the particular Chromebook I looked at. First, by eliminating the frame around the keyboard, the 11” by 8” case is able to house a keyboard as large as the one on my laptop.  Second, after using our current laptops, one also has to be impressed with the start-up time of a Chromebook.  They boot up in seconds and once started, you generally close the lid, they go to sleep, and they wake up instantly when you open the lid.

One of the drawbacks of this particular model is the relatively short battery life of four hours. The machine I reviewed has a 16 GB internal memory, although, at the same price Acer currently offers a model with 100 GB of memory. I should also mention that in the interest of keeping the Chromebook light weight and portable, they do not come equipped with CD drives. 

The low cost of Chromebooks seems to invite comparisons to iPads and other tablets.  One big advantage of the Chromebook over most tablets is that they have more ports—USB ports, a VGA port, a place to plug in speakers.  I gave these a try—I plugged in speakers, an external monitor, and a keyboard.  They all worked immediately without any of this “found new hardware” rigmarole.  As far as storage devices go, I plugged in an external hard drive, a USB drive and a memory card.  I found that the Chromebook had no problem reading jpgs, document files or MP3 files created on my Windows computer.  I didn't try my USB turntable (for vinyl records) because there is no Audacity type software available for the Chromebook at this point. 

Another interesting point of comparison with an iPad is that whereas Flash doesn't work on an iPad,  Java and Silverlight will not work on Chromebooks.  As a consequence of that, sites such as Successmaker and Imagine Learning will not work on a Chromebook without some type of virtualization.

The lack of an Audacity type program brings out one disadvantage of “cloud computing” as opposed to running programs locally.  Audacity is the only program I found, in my one week trial, that didn't have a free substitute available through Google or the Chromestore.   There are free, on line, photo and movie editors which work just fine on Chromebooks.   I understand that if you are into gaming, a Chromebook is probably not what you are looking for.  Because it is being done over the Internet, I experienced a bit more delay in response time as I made changes in word documents, etc.  The speed of one’s Internet connection is a big factor with a Chromebook.

There are, however, a number of advantages to cloud computing.  The files I create are available not only from the Chromebook but from my school issued laptop and iPad and potentially from  a smart phone.  When opening the Chrome browser, from any device,  I can scroll through home pages displaying thumbnails of frequently visited webpages (similar to Internet Explorer) and Icons for various apps from the Chromestore.  To me, these apps seem something like a hybrid between a web page and an iPad app. 

Overall, if one keeps in mind their limitations and realizes that they are not suitable for every application, then they are an excellent machine for the price.