The Connection

When I was a teenager, I was curious about so many things: how the world worked, where I fit in it, and what would come next after I was finished with school. I would read whatever I could get my hands on, enjoy exploring music, dance, and art. And all of that engagement and curiosity had absolutely nothing to do with school. School was a box I needed to check off to make sure that I could do what I wanted to do. I viewed it as nothing more and did the minimum required to ensure that I would get decent grades.

Unfortunately, many students feel as I did, and as a result we lose them, either not getting their full attention and investment, or seeing them drop out of school entirely. Worse yet, we are missing a tremendous opportunity. Since many of the jobs students will have do not yet exist, we need to teach students to learn how to learn - how to be curious. Rather than crushing curiosity, we should be nurturing it.

Using Digital Open Education Resources to Co-Create Learning

Open Education Resources Explained

What If…

Teachers and students were able to co-own and co-create curricular content in a manner that is aligned with state standards, rigorous, and engaging?

Then…

  1. Culturally Responsive Teaching: We would ensure culturally responsive teaching practices, because the way teaching is done would involve engaging students and communities.

  2. Work-based Learning: We would enable work-based learning opportunities, creating a mechanism for building curricular content aligned with apprenticeships.

  3. Teacher Pay: We could shift existing monies in K-12 education towards teachers. Specifically, monies currently being spent on content licensing fees and textbooks could instead be invested in teacher training and compensation around the creation of curricular materials.

  4. Building Blocks for Student-Centered Learning: We could create the content in an engaging digital format, making student-centered learning models economically viable.

  5. High-Quality, Standards-Aligned Curriculum: we would know that every district, regardless of size, has a high quality curriculum option across all subject areas.

Not a Pipedream

Colorado has made significant steps in this direction, and is part of a broader national movement.

  • Colorado Blended Roadmap:  Released in 2016, explicitly lists open education resources as a strategic priority for the state.

  • Colorado Empowered Learning:  funded under HB 16-1222, supports professional development to teachers on how to use and create open education resources as well as how to invite students to participate in the creation of their learning experiences.

  • Jefferson County School District:  has created 60+ full length digital courses, aligned to Colorado State standards and partnered with Colorado Empowered Learning to make them available to all educators across the state via iLearn Collaborative’s Digital Content Warehouse.

  • #GoOpen – is a national initiative that has 20 state participants as well as over a hundred K-12 districts.  Licensing details as well as a wealth of existing materials are available for communities to build upon.

  • Financial Sustainability – substantial thought and experimentation has been done to figure out models for ensuring the financial sustainability and adoption of OER in K-12.  Our vision falls into the “values-driven” framework.

Interested in bringing a solution like this to your community?