Open Educational Resources

You can walk into most schools and talk to a group of teachers during their planning period, and one obstacle they face is the resources available.  Not only will they want to know what resources are available, but they will question the cost.  How will teachers offer a 21st education when funds are limited, and resources are few? According to The Horizon Report, an emerging technology trend practice we can use is OER known as Open Educational Resources. They define this trend as a variety of materials designed for teaching and learning that are both openly available for use by teachers and students and that are devoid of purchasing, licensing, and/ or royalty fees. This is music to a teacher’s ears.

Educators around the world are similar to students where we are provided with limited resources or an abundance. What works for some though may not work for others? Similar to a library, an educator should have a wide variety to choose from. Explaining this to school districts I imagine would be difficult. When implementing a new trend there should be a structure, training, and education to the resources available. Institutions could collaborate with others around the world to create a virtual library. Their job would be to compile and categorize the resources making them accessible for the educators and students. Another money saver would be to adopt what Germany has done and hold #OERcamp, which serves as an incubator through informal meetups across the country.  This form of encouragement from teachers could offer the support needed when introducing new initiatives. From the shoes of a new teacher, I follow many other teachers on social media. I have taken ideas, suggestions, and comments from teachers all around the world. The collaboration is necessary and beneficial to educator growth.

The trend of OER is necessary to understand and address, especially with educators. (Kamenetz, 2020) articulates what we are to face once the new school year begins and how educators may need to continue remote learning. OER can aid the transition and be a tool necessary for the future of education. One barrier that could be predicted is the availability of all the resources and yet still have teachers that are complacent and fear change or new technology. Ensuring that educators are utilizing the tools offered would be a must. Therefore, going forward with this trend would mean offering time for faculty to review and align with their curriculum and level of education. One thing for sure is adopting this trend would be a time and money saver for both the teacher and the district as a whole.

Works Cited

“2020 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report^™: Teaching and Learning Edition.” 2020 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report™ | Teaching and Learning Edition, 2 Mar. 2020, library.educause.edu/resources/2020/3/2020-educause-horizon-report-teaching-and-learning-edition.

Kamenetz, Anya. “9 Ways Schools Will Look Different When (And If) They Reopen.” NPR, NPR, 24 Apr. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/04/24/842528906/what-it-might-look-like-to safely-reopen-schools.

So close, yet so far. . .

Summer rolls around many teachers enroll in different professional development classes. Some teachers overload themselves with work all summer. The school year begins, and they present teachers with new, fun, and exciting programs your school will integrate. They squeeze weeks and years of research into half-day professional development sessions. They offer websites with built-in chat, email, and 24/7 contact. Boom! You’re now using the latest and greatest! Hold on, but have you tried this in a live environment? Have you tried it with the different learners you will have this year compared to last? Have you investigated the reports and effectiveness this software program will have in your classroom? The answer is probably not.

As presented in the Case study, Hughes et al. (2018) represent Figure 1 and teachers express the lack of time as the highest barriers that they felt impeded their ability to incorporate technology into their instruction.  We do not spend the time necessary to thoroughly work with these new software programs. We as teachers complete ‘requirements.’ And it gets better! Once April of the next school hits you will finally get it, and then the school year will end. In summer they will introduce you to the new, latest and greatest. It is a revolving door for educators regardless of the level of education.

Anyone involved in the education system can appreciate new technology, especially when it serves as an aid to help our students on a one-to-one basis. However, we need to know our stance. We need to speak up and state what is working for us and what isn’t. Depending on experience and comfort, we may or may not overcome and adapt. Some teachers are tech-savvy and jump on the bandwagon, they are excited and go figure out the new program. Others may not be so much, so they shy away and use it when they must. How we use new software can really show the effectiveness. Based on the results, Obara et al. (2018) represent that neither of the teachers served as facilitators. As we navigate students through advancing technology, teachers need to be facilitators.

Teachers can express all the concerns and likes or dislikes, but the fix is education. Teachers once properly educated and given time to explore these software programs will gain comfort and confidence. Using a software program will be easy in the classroom. We need many environments where it is exposed. And the comfort of knowing we have options is always a plus. We can’t place blame and pass the buck, what we can do is come together, collaborate, communicate, offer help and learn as a team. According to the International Society for Technology in Education (ITSE) teachers play the role of learner, leader, citizen, collaborator, designer, facilitator, and analysts’; these are the perspectives in which we must analyze the software programs for effectiveness. The ultimate reason we are doing this is to educate the leaders of technology in the days to come.

Works Cited

Hughes, E.S., Bradford, J., & Likens, C (2018). Facilitating collaboration, communication, and    critical thinking skills in physical therapy education through technology-enhanced        instruction: A case study. TechTrends, 62(3), 296-302.

ITSE Standards for Educators. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2020, from https://itse.org/standards/for-educators

Obara, S., Nie, B., & Simmons, J. (2018). Teachers’ Conceptions of Technology, School Policy and Teachers’ Roles When Using Technology in Instruction.

Effective, Efficient, Engaging

When preparing for an interview one seeks correct responses. The test question arises, and this is where you can answer one or two ways. Your answer can either be scripted as rehearsed or it can come from the heart. How do you prepare for tests? The answer is simple, the environment. Not because a politician or education official recommended it, but because that is the variable we as educators can change to make testing easier for students. But why wait until you test. Instead, let us look at environments students are in every day life.

Technology alone forms its own environment. Digging deeper, looking at a software that is used in several schools, iStation. iStation is a software program that offers Reading, Math, and Writing computer-based assessment and instruction for Pre-K through12 students. Students complete game-based lessons and activities led by animated characters while the program generates reports on their progress for teachers, parents, and administrators.

Every month students take a test. The test covers vocabulary, comprehension, spelling, and text fluency. Mathes et al. (2016) state each subtest has both an accuracy component and a fluency component. Fluency in cognitive processes is seen as a proxy for learning, such that as students learn a skill, the proficiency with which they perform the skill shows how well they know or have learned the skill. To be fluent at higher-level processes of reading connected text, a student will also need to be fluent with foundational skills.

IStation facilitates the teacher’s presence through webinars, a useful toolbox (as a resource center), and continual support through customer service. When students complete their monthly tests, teachers are immediately provided results. This data is represented in several ways and is used to track growth from month to month. The best part is that it is reader friendly, and the teacher is able to conference with students to explain their growth.

IStation nor any other software can facilitate social presence. However, a teacher can use iStation as a tool to increase a social environment in the classroom. iStation measures reading levels with students and based on teacher evaluations students are based in groups of about four or fewer students. They are grouped based on strengths and challenges. Therefore, when small group conferencing takes place there is a high level of communication among students and ideas, strategies, or suggestions bloom. Students then learn from one another and can help each other through these lessons.

As an educator, I like that students immediately can see their growth or their decline. One thing I do as an educator is prepare my students a day before and offer a quiet testing environment in which they will be in for the STAAR test. Each month data is posted and based on the student results we require them to complete 30, 60, or 90 minutes per week of iStation. I advise my students to not pay attention to that number. To complete as much iStation and practice. Games and assignments can be created, and we as a class incorporate incentives for growth and play competitively.

A couple improvements iStation could make would be the stories that are read for children. We forget that most students don’t know what a CD is or a VCR. Some vocabulary is dated and students would respond better to 21st century vocabulary. Students track their results and can understand if they drop points in spelling, they need to practice spelling but if they drop points in text fluency; they are unsure what text fluency is. My job is to explain that to students however, if they had examples before testing or labeled sections maybe they would well.

Works Cited

Akcaoglu, M., & Lee, E. (2016). Increasing Social Presencec in Online Learning through Small Group Discussions. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(3). Doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v17i3.2293

Istation. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.istation.com/

Mathes, P., Torgesen, J., & Herron, J (2016). Computer Adaptive Testing System for Continuous Progress Monitoring of Growth for Students Pre-K through Grade 3. Retrieved April 9, 20202, from https://www.istation.com/Content/downloads/studies/er_technical_report.pdf