Topic #3 Discussion Post

Before reading “A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students”, I had never truly put into consideration the positive impact that open education resources (OER), would have at all education levels. I was shocked when this reading stated that 54% of university students in British Columbia cannot afford at least one of their required course textbooks. With this percentage being so high, I cannot believe that we are now just started to see a rise in OERs at the university level. During this reading, I was wondering why teachers wouldn’t have made this change already. A consideration that I had (it may be completely wrong), was that some teachers may be reluctant to switch over to OERs because they have already taught their course in the past using a specific textbook, and changing to OERs may be a lot of work for them. Furthermore, another thought I had is that OERs may destroy the textbook industry, and I guarantee that universities make a lot of money off students buying these expensive textbooks; so why would they want to get rid of that income? 

Keeping these considerations in mind, do you think that universities would be/are hesitant about OERs, and if so why?

Continuing on the topic of open education resources, I was trying to brainstorm some ways that I could incorporate these in my own teaching at the elementary and middle school level. For primary students, this is a bit more challenging as they are just learning to read. Contrary to this, at the intermediate and middle school level, OERs would be very beneficial to use in the classroom. To this day, when I walk into a classroom to substitute teach, I still see the same textbooks that I used when I was in 6^th grade. This may be because the text book is a great resource, and there is no problem with that, but it would be great to see a blended model. This could look like the students using the textbook once a week but they also have the opportunity to use an OER during the week. This would prepare them for the future when they see more OERs in high school and university. Open education resources are definitely a tool that I will use in my future classrooms.

In the second reading, “Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy” it is discussed how the internet can be filtered, especially if you are a university students using your universities’ Wi-Fi. What you are looking for online, may be there, but you might never find it due to these limitations. I wanted to dive deeper and figure out how internet filtrations work. I found this 5-minute video that explained them well, and demonstrated multiple different types of internet filtering. I think this is an informational and beneficial video to watch.

References:

Gilliard, C., & Culik, H. (2016, May 24). Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy.Common Sense Education.

Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community.

(2012). YouTube. https://youtu.be/LAUH5MbXc94.