The OER Knowledge Cloud makes use of cookies. By continuing, you consent to this use. More information.
Addressing the K-12 Open Educational Resources Awareness Niche: A Virtual Conference Response
Blomgren, Constance and Henderson, Serena

Published3 March 2021
JournalAlberta Journal of Educational Research
Volume 67, Issue 1
CountryCanada, North America

ABSTRACT
Since the 2002 UNESCO forum, raising awareness of the benefits and challenges to Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education have been integral to the broader Open Education (OE) movement. In the K-12 sector, however, an understanding of OER has been less advanced, although there are pockets of K-12 OER innovators throughout Canada and the United States. The 2015 U.S. Department of Education #GoOpen initiative, had over 20 American states move toward the use of K-12 OER, and within Canada, various provinces have begun investigating OER for both financial and pedagogical reasons. Because the use of K-12 OER inheres curricular decisions from the classroom teacher to all levels of governance, the move toward OER additionally involves a variety of sophisticated and complex digital and system-wide supports. This shift from the legacy educational system to the emerging practices where educators employ participatory technologies to curate, share out, and use student-generated curricular content requires awareness-building of these pedagogical and technological changes. Despite these impending shifts, the awareness, use, and the advocacy for K-12 OER as a nascent topic for professional learning, at present there are no dedicated specialist councils or professional organizations to support Canadian K-12 OER educators. To address this professional learning need, a virtual satellite conference was offered for in-service teachers as part of a network supported through the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the Right to Research coalition, and the OpenCon platform. The OpenCon 2018 K-12 Athabasca virtual conference offered free professional learning regarding these changes in resource sourcing, creating, licensing, and sharing. Through meeting software, K-12 educators from Canada and beyond were able to learn about OER, Open Pedagogy, and the implications these changes bring to the teaching and learning processes. The virtual conference concluded with the Remix Panel that catalyzed topics from an OpenCon17 Berlin higher education discussion, remixing them for the K-12 context. Because this virtual conference has no precedent within Canada, the organizers of this inaugural event summarize its planning and execution, and explicate the significance of offering and archiving the presentations as part of the initiative to build a stronger awareness and understanding of K-12 OER current practices.

Keywords open educational resources · open pedagogy · online teacher professional development · virtual conference · reflection-on-action

Published atAlberta
LanguageEnglish
ISSN1923-1857
RefereedYes
URLhttps://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ajer/article/view/56965
Export optionsBibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar


Viewed by 1252 distinct readers




CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS

The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.

Click a star to be the first to rate this document


POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS

OER awareness and use: The affinity between higher education and K-12
Blomgren, Constance
Educators within Higher Education (HE) and K-12 share in the need for high quality educational resources to assist in the pursuit of teaching and learning. Although there are numerous differences between the two levels ...
Match: blomgren, constance; open pedagogy; canada; north america

Interpreting fair dealing: An exploration of distance instructors' perceptions of Canadian Copyright Law
Henderson, Serena
Copyright law in Canada has been confusing for content users for many years. Educators and course developers need to understand these laws to ensure they take full advantage of their user rights, while not infringing on ...
Match: henderson, serena; canada; north america

Barriers, incentives, and benefits of the open educational resources (OER) movement: An exploration into instructor perspectives
Henderson, Serena; Ostashewski, Nathaniel
Open educational resource (OER) barriers, incentives, and benefits are at the forefront of educator and institution interests as global use of OER evolves. Research into OER use, perceptions, costs, and outcomes is ...
Match: henderson, serena; canada; north america

Creating OER materials - Perspectives of global instructors
Ostashewski, Nathaniel; Henderson, Serena; Dron, Jon; Mishra, Sanjaya; et al.
This paper reports on the preliminary analysis of a replication and extension study describing the perspectives of instructors around the globe in relation to OER creation The goal of this research is to explore the ...
Match: henderson, serena; canada

Openness in Education as a Praxis: From Individual Testimonials to Collective Voices
Bozkurt, Aras; Gjelsvik, Torunn; Adam, Taskeen; Asino, Tutaleni I.; et al.
Why is Openness in Education important, and why is it critically needed at this moment? As manifested in our guiding question, the significance of Openness in Education and its immediate necessity form the heart of this ...
Match: blomgren, constance

Canada's 'Orphan Works' regime: Unlocatable owners and the Copyright Board
DeBeer, Jeremy F.; Bouchard, Mario
This article analyses Canada’s approach to the problem of unlocateable copyright owners, more commonly called the problem of orphan works. Section 77 of the Copyright Act empowers the Copyright Board of Canada to ...
Match: canada; north america

The implementation of open educational resources at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
McGreal, Rory
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) is a public undergraduate teaching university with four campuses located in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. Individual instructors at KPU began identifying, ...
Match: open pedagogy; canada; north america

Beyond free: A social justice vision for open education
Jhangiani, Rajiv
The open education movement wants to be a force for equity. The argument is straightforward and powerful: Widen access to educational resources and marginalized students who disproportionately suffer at the hands of the ...
Match: open pedagogy; canada; north america

Access Copyright: 2012 annual report
Access Copyright
Annual report contains the Co-chair and Executive Director's report, the "2012 year in review", and the financial report.
Match: canada; north america

Eight patterns of open textbook adoption in British Columbia
Barker, Jennifer; Jeffery, Ken; Jhangiani, Rajiv; Veletsianos, George
Since the launch of the BC Open Textbook Project in 2012, the adoption of open textbooks has steadily grown within public post-secondary institutions in British Columbia, Canada. An analysis of adoption records over a ...
Match: canada; north america