This whole idea of Open Resources never occurred to me until talking about it in class. It makes total sense, of course, but it had never crossed my mind. Teaching is one of the most collaborative careers and it’s great to see resources being shared. In an age where you can download just about anything you want, it’s important to give credit to the people who have created what you are downloading. There are very few original ideas left in education. Most have been adapted for specific uses and improved for different teaching environments. Websites like https://www.oercommons.org provide resources for educators to use completely free. Courses, textbooks, lesson plans. Open Education Resources websites allow you to find specific things you need to create a more valuable and meaningful experience for learners. Below is a brief video created by the the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Alberta describing what Open Ed Resources are, and why we should use them.
Like most people, whenever I needed an image for something I would head to google images. I didn’t understand that it wasn’t necessarily legal. Websites like Creative Commons have openly licensed photos that can be downloaded and used. Creative Commons has over 1.2 Billion licensed works that can be accessed by anyone online.
All of these online open resources make it easier to be a teacher. Work can be shared between colleagues and adapted to work in your own classroom.