Monday 4 June 2012

Activity 7- OER and Practices


After a month of marking assessments and teaching at the same time, I am getting back on track.  This post is a work in progress as I just needed to do Something, Anything, More !

Open Education Practices are about using a public domain to share knowledge and resources freely so there is an availability and accessibility of materials, content and the affords to ability to participation in learning for anyone interested.  There are a number of practices that enhance the use of open education and the resources- tools and methods for communicating- eg. blogging, wiki, facebook, twitter , wiki, flicker, u tube.  The resources themselves- Open Education Resources (OER) according to http://google-opensource.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/keeping-oer-mind-about-shared-resources.htmlare  are teaching and learning resources that can be shared, reused and remixed.  (Ironically, I was unable to cut and paste a quote from that article…  so I have a bit to learn about the remixing part…)

This brings me on to the strategies I could use:  I am concentrating on a year 2 course- DFO.  I am particularly interested in case studies to enhance students learning.  I have completed a number of video interviews that I could put onto U tube/ link with wiki and also post the process of learning about disease and disorder onto a wiki.  It would be really interesting to see what other OT’s and health professionals around the world come up with in relation to the occupations affected for the person by the disease/ disorder.  Students could learn from other therapists and world view point.  This adds to the knowledge of the profession and best practice methods.  This idea stemmed from students not necessarily having to come to the classroom each week to watch a video as part of their learning (looking at flexibility in terms of physical access), but rather access open education for not only interaction with their class, but other practitioners  and OT students too.  ‘Students who studied in groups, even only once a week, were more engaged in their studies, were better prepared for class, and learnt significantly more than students who worked on their own’ p. 18 - Richard J. Light, Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001) retrieved from http://open.umich.edu/oertoolkit/references/mindsonfire.pdf

My words:  Why I believe OER and philosophies are important to teaching and learning: 
I believe that we can learn from others ideas and build upon these for best practice.  The sharing of information and education expands our horizons and enables people to gain an understanding of others viewpoints, cultures and evidence.  We want to use the best of what people have to offer and there is no point in holding onto information when it can benefit others.  As the cost of education increases and the population increases, the more knowledge that people have access to, the more likely we are to help others and ourselves through education and expanding our knowledge.

2 comments:

  1. Yes open education practices certainly does include openly sharing resources - hence the number of media sharing sites that have sprung up - slideshare and my plick for presentations, youtube and blip.tv for video, Flickr and Picasa for images and video. These sites all encourage social networking so that people become more connected, and engage in sharing not just resources but also their knowledge and ideas. As you have suggested with regard to other professionals.

    The other aspect of open education which is really important is the concept of collaboration when creating resources. Have you thought about how you might get your students creating resources and sharing their knowledge and learning using web 2.0 tools and strategies? You mention wikis - how might that work in the mix? Could the students critique the video interviews and add their views to the wiki. Perhaps they could also contribute cases they have experienced. Or even better, go out and interview practitioners and add the video to the class Youtube channel, and invite discussion about the case. Any good these suggestions?

    Could you please explain to the class what DFO involves and the full name for people not in the know. :)

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  2. For more info on DFO (Disability, function, occupation) here is a link to an earlier piece of work:
    http://www.scribd.com/doc/92451843/Jayne-s-Strategies

    I will look into Web 2.0. Now that I have students doing the videoing and presenting (questions to ask), I think there would be more collaboration. Esp. as therapists may be involved. We may even ask other students from other parts of the world to also contribute (community- model). I will develop this further though. Define to using U tube channel so others can upload there too.

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