Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Tech Talk- Thinking Outside the Box- Introduction to Open Educational Resources


Thinking Outside the Box- Intro to Open Educational Resources (OER)

A recording of this presentation is available at https://youtu.be/LwhWRD_-qKY


How do you currently find your curricular resources? Are you a searcher or a browser? Do you read the index of a catalog or do you look at the cover and open to page 1 and start leafing through it? Do you get suggestions from a colleague or a professional group?

The intent of this Tech Talk was to introduce the attendees to what OER are available: how to find them; and considerations for using OER.

This Tech Talk was originally presented March 3, 2016. 
It provided a macro view of the topic of OER.

In future Tech Talks we plan to target particular resources and drill deeper into those resources.

Today's Topics:
  • What are OER?
  • Why should we care about OER?
  • A Sample of OER
  • What are the challenges for OER in higher ed
  • How to find what you are lookin g for?
  • How to share OER content?
  • Success Stories
  • Getting Started

What are OER?

"high-quality, openly licensed, online educational materials that offer an extraordinary opportunity for people everywhere to share, use, and reuse knowledge"

Why should we care about OER?


**7 Things to Know About OER

Samples of OER

OER include open textbooks, classroom materials such as handouts, audio/video recordings, images, and other media.

The following are samples of all these types of OER.

**OER- Educause

This page lists 10 sources of OER.
A  good introduction to OER resources.

iTunes U

iTunes U can be accessed from Mac or Windows. Resources on iTunes such as lectures, videos, and books can be downloaded. Over 1000 higher ed institutions share resources via iTunes U.

**How to use iTunesU
https://www.apple.com/support/itunes-u/using/
iTunes U is free service where educational institutions share resources such as lectures, classroom materials

iTunes U on Windows:

Open Textbooks

from Community College Consortium for Open Education:


**Find Open Textbooks:

**Connexions

Open Stax

Online Textbooks
http://spot.colorado.edu/~dubin/bookmarks/b/1240.html
A list of online textbook from University of Colorado.

Images

Makerbook: http://makerbook.net/

Online Video

What are the challenges of OER in higher ed?

  • quality
  • accessibility
  • how current

How to find what you are looking for?

**Find OER

Community College Consortium  for Open Educational Resources

Finding and Remixing Openly Licensed Resources
http://goo.gl/5nAHTP

Resources for Free STEM Education
http://goo.gl/tCrrSd
An extensive list of free resources.

Success Stories

What institutions have used OER and what benefits have been realized by students and teachers?

Community College Shares OER Pathway

U of Georgia- Saves Students nearly $2M Using OER

Blue Mountain CC- OER Saves Student $100k

Getting Started with OER

  • start small
  • determine area of interest
  • find one resource in that area
  • use resource
  • evaluate and adjust

Posted by at No comments:

Tech Talk Zoom- Web Conferencing Solution that Enhances Teaching, Learning, Productivity


What on Earth is Zoom good for…..
  • How about inviting an outside expert to share with your class?
  • Maybe keep a student engaged while she recovers from an illness at home.
  • Participate in a field trip without leaving your classroom?
  • Teach your class while at a remote site?
  • Your students presenting to a conference without having to absorb the costs of travel?
  • Recording the conversation to share with others?

We will cover the basics of:
  • what is Zoom
  • how to get an account
  • what is needed for a meeting
  • getting started with Zoom
  • features of Zoom
  • best practices for participating in a meeting
  • Resources

What is Zoom?
  • webconferencing app
  • works via Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, telephone
  • up to 50 connections in a meeting
  • free or Pro

How do I get an account?
  • contact me for Pro account
    • might have to share with others in dept
  • http://zoom.us
  • free personal account- 40 minutes time limit

What is needed for a meeting?
  • computer, iOS device, Android device, phone
  • high speed internet connection
  • microphone
  • speaker
  • webcam
  • Zoom app installed

Getting Started with Zoom
  • Schedule a meeting
  • Join a meeting
  • Administer a meeting
    • start
    • stop
    • invite more
    • share desktop
    • record session
    • leave or end meeting

Features of Zoom
  • sharing 
  • annotating
  • recording
  • chat
  • remote control

Best Practices
  • KISS
  • practice, practice, and then some more
  • test on exact equipment 
  • it’s under control- Zoom settings
  • It’s all about the sound (and physics)
    • meet in quiet place
    • use mute button when necessary
    • sit close to mic, speaker
    • if more people are in the room, might need more mics, better speakers

Resources
===================
Thanks to all who attended yesterday’s tech talk on Zoom. 

We had a great group with inquiring and receptive minds.

I venture to say the 30-45 minutes you invested yesterday, will have a payback of at least 2-4 times that or more (savings in travel time alone)


===============
Takeaways:
===============
- Zoom is useful in teaching, learning, productivity efficiencies
- help get us started
- we need practice- check out the resources below and contact me when you are ready for practice sessions


===============
Getting Started
===============

This resource covers the process: 

- contact me at bhuddleson@scciowa.edu for a Pro account
Pro accounts allow unlimited length meetings.
Free account offers 40 minute meetings.

*** Note: SCC has Pro licenses that can be shared within departments
A Zoom account is needed to host/schedule meetings.
To join a meeting, no account is needed.

- download and install Zoom software starting at this link: https://zoom.us/support/download


===================
Practice
===================

The more comfortable and confident we feel in using a tool, the more likely we are to use it.
Accordingly, we talked about doing some ad-hoc practice sessions.

After you have your Zoom account and Zoom installed on your computer, contact me, and we will practice (yes- Allen Iverson- PRACTICE).

===================
Next Tech Talk
===================

The Tech Talk series:
- cover topics for enhancing teaching, learning, and productivity
- last about 30 minutes
- are archived at http://instructionaltechscc.blogspot.com

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)