"After that, I just do the usual google & if I think the resource is useful, I will do the extra work to determine its potential for use/re-use etc." I think this is a really useful comment too. It's important to frame the discussion about OER as NOT just about educators finding and reusing other educators' materials, because if that was ALL it was good for, clearly there are other and better ways to go about that. And, I think the other thing this comment shows to me, is that it's not always a case of literal 'reuse' - often times, simply looking at a resource is helpful, even if one was not able to reuse it, because they give you ideas on how you could do it yourself.
Scott Leslie
Posts made by Scott Leslie
Gina, that's cool to hear you find MIT's OCW site helpful, it certainly deserves a lot of credit for raising the profile and awareness of OER.
Have you every tried the broader OCW Consortium search at http://www.ocwconsortium.org/use/use-dynamic.html? It includes MITs site but searches across ALL of the OCW sites; while they are all independant and not always the same, either in shape, size or consistency, they do typically all come from recognized higher education bodies and their content is all openly licensed and often suitable for reuse in post-secondary settings.
Have you every tried the broader OCW Consortium search at http://www.ocwconsortium.org/use/use-dynamic.html? It includes MITs site but searches across ALL of the OCW sites; while they are all independant and not always the same, either in shape, size or consistency, they do typically all come from recognized higher education bodies and their content is all openly licensed and often suitable for reuse in post-secondary settings.
Am I really going to have to answer my own question? Or am I just being impatient (I definitely realize how busy people are and appreciate any effort you put into this discussion). Well, I 'll give it a try:
While the obvious answer of where do I look for OER, how do I find them, would be "Google" it's not actually the only (or indeed my preferred) way. Google is a great search engine, don't get me wrong - I make between 30 and 100 searches there a day. But I am trying to cultivate a way of finding resources that has some 'trust' factor built in.
To do this I rely I lot on various social networks I've created. One, possibly the main one, is through my blog - yes, I find a ton of good resources through my own blog, not just stuff I have stored there, but through questions I ask and the answers I get from the community of readers/bloggers. Second would be the network of blogs that I read, where others are daily sharing things they find. Similarly twitter is a key way in which I find resources, both those that people post and those they respond to my queries with. And finally delicious, the social bookmarking service, is another key way people send me stuff and I find it on my own. In all of these cases, the existing relationships I had with a network of people helped me find, and more easily trust, open ed resources. It's not that I didn't need to still use my powers of information fluency to assess the resources, but they already had a lot of context attached to them.
What do I do with all of these things that are sent my way, that I find based on my requests...ahh, I'll leave that for another post. For now, I still would love to hear how other people go about this. Do you use OER-sepcifc collection sites like Merlot or OER Commons? Custom search engines? Your library's site? Don't know where to look? Let us know!
While the obvious answer of where do I look for OER, how do I find them, would be "Google" it's not actually the only (or indeed my preferred) way. Google is a great search engine, don't get me wrong - I make between 30 and 100 searches there a day. But I am trying to cultivate a way of finding resources that has some 'trust' factor built in.
To do this I rely I lot on various social networks I've created. One, possibly the main one, is through my blog - yes, I find a ton of good resources through my own blog, not just stuff I have stored there, but through questions I ask and the answers I get from the community of readers/bloggers. Second would be the network of blogs that I read, where others are daily sharing things they find. Similarly twitter is a key way in which I find resources, both those that people post and those they respond to my queries with. And finally delicious, the social bookmarking service, is another key way people send me stuff and I find it on my own. In all of these cases, the existing relationships I had with a network of people helped me find, and more easily trust, open ed resources. It's not that I didn't need to still use my powers of information fluency to assess the resources, but they already had a lot of context attached to them.
What do I do with all of these things that are sent my way, that I find based on my requests...ahh, I'll leave that for another post. For now, I still would love to hear how other people go about this. Do you use OER-sepcifc collection sites like Merlot or OER Commons? Custom search engines? Your library's site? Don't know where to look? Let us know!
Laura, lots of good examples that you point to (especially the Californian law, which was an impressive feat). I would add (though don't have the URLs handy) the work done in Utah to create the Open High School and mandate state-level funding for OER, as well as Cable Green and his crew in Washington state for advance politically the agenda of Open Textbooks.
And part of me wants to agree that things are exactly as they should be, that sharing and openness need to grow one project, one person, at a time. But Anca's original post was talking about the Federal level in Canada, and at that level am not sure there's many of us who know how to get action, action which would be useful not just from an OER standpoint, and not just from the standpoint of signaling a larger cultural shift in that direction, but action that would also speak to more transparent government. I am all ears if anyone has ideas how that change can happen here.
And part of me wants to agree that things are exactly as they should be, that sharing and openness need to grow one project, one person, at a time. But Anca's original post was talking about the Federal level in Canada, and at that level am not sure there's many of us who know how to get action, action which would be useful not just from an OER standpoint, and not just from the standpoint of signaling a larger cultural shift in that direction, but action that would also speak to more transparent government. I am all ears if anyone has ideas how that change can happen here.
Anca, thanks for this. I wish I had better news. My sense is that there is movement within different provinces to open up some of their educational resources, but that at the federal level there doesn't appear to be much of a dialogue (nor much of a body able to speak or lobby for this). Love to hear that I am wrong, as it's something I'd love to help with, but given the current governments penchant for DCMA-style copyright reform (meaning - much more draconian and closed laws) it's hard for me to see this happening in Canada anytime soon.
What about others - is anyone else having luck in their country getting publications funded by taxpayer dollars either put into the public domain or published under 'open' licenses?
What about others - is anyone else having luck in their country getting publications funded by taxpayer dollars either put into the public domain or published under 'open' licenses?