The topic for the interstitial week 6/7: Find and OER repository and comment on it's sustainability.
What does it do...............?
In the interest of expediency I chose to just WRITE about my findings rather than do any kind of multimedia formatted information. I have done podcasts, video podcasts (misnomer -as they are just called videos to the non-digital natives or questioning immigrant) Slideshare, Voicethread and numerous other multimedia presentations for other Emerging technologies courses and for my teaching assignments. I know the time commitments involved and qualities of the end products and I must say I have to defer to the age old medium of print ( as anachronistic and Luddite that may be.......... can you say Kindle boys and girls) as being the more expeditious means given my less than enthusiastic engagement in the course thus far. We will examine why if there is an exit survey at the end of the course.
I chose a Secondary School repository for OERs using Universal Design for Learning, in the progressive province of British Columbia (The Special Education Technology British Columbia (SET BC). ).This is Governmental/Provincial site, so may not fit the parameters of what we were asked to investigate in our online assignment on the viability and longevity of OERs. The SET has been around since 1989so I guess would classify as a mature OER. It was created "To enhance student opportunities for success by providing access to curriculum through the use of appropriate educational and communication technologies." They provide assistive technologies to teachers and students and support for same, to all teachers and their charges in British Columbia.This is a very specialized repository which I assume would attract all the technologically adventurous and those with the trouble-shooting skills and tenacity to stick with the project even when most would give it up as lost cause. I think that a lot of these OER sites have individuals with such rare and diverse skill sets that are willing to contribute and work pro bono , but even they cannot withstand the bureaucratic onslaught of apathy coupled with poorly thought out ICT goals.
Where is it now.................??
Since 'high' or 'special needs' students are a growth growing segment of our population, it is little wonder that this OER site is still functioning at it's full capacity ( or so I assume without any statistics to back up my claim). Of course with an unlimited revenue stream provided by tax dollars it is easy to stay viable.
There are two areas you have to log in
and there are two areas for student work. The Learning Objects Repository has quite a few resources for K-8 but is sorely lacking in High School materials. I counted only 22 lessons for all secondary levels dating back to 2007. CurriculumSET was equally as sparse for secondary school with nothing for ICT in middle scholl or High school and only one resource for elementary. I guess sharing is not all it could be even in British Columbia. The pictureSET was the same .
However, the Learning Centre area had quite a few resources for teachers from 1997 onwards. This bodes well for the people who are contributing. Like most OER repositories however, statistics on use/resuse are lacking and simple hit counter tracking says noting about how or who the resource is being used by. Manitoba Ed has invested a lot of money in WebCt infrastructure , course development, promotion but they will be the last ones to give you any negative statistics on it's under utilization. I suspect the same is true of OER repositoriesWhat is its prognosis for the future...............??
I believe that there is a very good chance of it program surviving in some form or other (even if it is much diminished due to less government funding) since it is well distributed program over a lot of highly qualified ( and well paid ) individuals.From my readings and discussions it seems clear to me that even with well established goals and progress assessment toward those goals, adequate funding ,and ongoing creative input that sustainability will remain elusive. Power structures aside, I think it is like Scott says, that the burden on the creative, technophilic educators will reach a point of futility and they will choose to disengage or contribute sporadically. People will cease to do work they perceive as unproductive. Once and OER smells stale , death is not far off
1 comment:
Robert,
Your example is wonderful. Could it be the chemistry of giver / receiver relationships that's missing from the OER movement? That relevance to the producer is their connection to a known receiver and that drives the making of these things?
Generic OERs are too hard to make perhaps because we need an audience to light our creative fires, someone to give to or the effort just seems like a chore? Not anyone's fault, just human nature.
How about hiring kids with spy cameras to film their teachers at their best, convert them to cartoons (for privacy) and have 1000's of genuine OERs by the end of the school year. Learning is happening all around us and maybe forcing it into the OER box isn't the solution?
Scott
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