What are we learning about OER in teacher education?

OER Africa Convening Meeting, Nairobi, 16 May 2011

The “we”

PrimarilyThe TESSA programme

OER Africa/Saide But as we engage with CoL or ACDE and the

teacher education institutions with whom we work, the ‘we’ is expanding.

What are we learning?

1. What are we learning about adaptation/integration of OER?

2. What are we learning about releasing conventionally published materials as OER? (How do you go about the process of releasing your own materials as OER?)

3. What are we learning about networks and networked learning communities?

TESSA Project Activities

Ghana: Adapting TESSA for national Early Childhood Curriculum

Sudan: Writing new Teacher Practice Guides using TESSA OERs for both students and supervisors

Nigeria: Developing model TESSA demonstration school

Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania: create 15 study units in the science curriculum area (3 modules each of 5 study units), drawing on existing high quality OERs

Kenya: Developing dialogue with national and regional policymakers on TESSA and the national curriculum.

South Africa: Organising action research by B.Ed student-teachers using TESSA OERs.

Contributing to African Teacher Education OER Network

www.tessafrica.net

• Developing a Teacher Education Space on OER Africa • Working with

The Catholic University in Mozambique, the University of Pretoria, the University of the Witwatersrand, and Rhodes University

– To use OER in teacher education course design, and/or– To release newly developed or adapted materials as OER.the South African Department of Basic Education to conceptualise– A virtual National Institute for Curriculum and Professional Development

with teacher development courses and materials available as OER for South African teachers.

• As part of the DETA (Distance Education and Teacher Training in Africa) Conference organising committee [http://www.deta.up.ac.za/ ]– Working to form a Special Interest Group on OER for Teacher Education

at a pre-conference workshop in Maputo in August 2011.

Saide/OER Africa project activities

First point: What are we learning about adaptation? We do different projects, but

‘we’ agree ….• OERs should be treated as a

tool, rather than merely content

• Adapting, working with, integrating, embedding … all active tool words

• OERs shouldn’t be seen as objects, but instruments which are used by people in communities to achieve particular educational outcomes

Some words of wisdom from others

• To unlock the potential of OERs, they ‘have to be first located, then adapted, used and the adaptations (perhaps with commentary on the form and impact of their use) made available to a wider community; otherwise they remain just another piece of ‘content’, merely stuff rather than a tool (Cantoni, quoted in Conole & Weller, 2008, p.11).’

TESSA resources conceptualised as a ‘learning and strategy toolkit’

Teacher learning outcomes

Introduction100 words

Narrative 100

Narrative100

Resource 1Resource 2

Case study 1250

Case study 2250

Case study 3250

Resource 3Resource 4

Activity 1200

Activity 2100

Activity 3100

Resource 5Resource 6 One page each

Versioned

TESSA research – typology of adaptation/reversioning

Names Culture and environment

Curriculum

Change of name of person or place to one that is locally relevant

Replacement of traditional stories or historical events with culturally relevant examples

Changes to more fully align the materials with the National Curriculum

Drawing on knowledge of communities

OR replacement of geographical landmarks or organisations with local examples

Eg change in resources, or adaptation for different level of learners

Most frequent form of adaptation

Some examples at two sites

Only one site

• No examples of adaptations in pedagogy• Strict template meant that adaptation wasn’t merely ‘adding content’

Saide ACEMaths project: focus on adaptation through course design rather than versioning

Existing distance material (UNISA module) with some adaptation • Reuse (Site B): Single unit as a whole, un-adapted, used as reference

material. • Reuse (Site A and C): Single unit as a whole, un-adapted, used as course

material. • Reuse (Site D, E and F): Full set of units, un-adapted, used as course

material.• Remix (Site C): Combination of unit(s) (un-adapted) with other material,

used as course material. • Remix (Site A): Combination of unit(s) (adapted) with other material, used as

course material. • Rework (Site D): Full set of units, adapted, used as course material.

Working in a community increases chances of uptake

TESSA materials used by 250 000 teachers in 2010ACEMaths materials – from 266 in 2007 to 2233 in 2009

What benefits did people see in using the material? • See that materials can be used in range of programmes (in-service and

pre-service, distance and contact, short and long, subject focus only or LSEN focus as well)

• Increases quality - LSEN lecturer with language specialism gets benefit from Maths specialist knowledge through materials

• Enables programmes to go to scale (eg from 15 to 591 at one of the 8 sites)

• Engagement in course design with peers rather than alone highly valued

What are we learning about releasing conventionally published material as OER?

The OER Africa Teacher Education Space• Thematically organized free open educational resources (OER) for the

planning and delivery of programmes in identified priority themes – Education Studies, and about to the there … Mathematics, School Leadership and Early Childhood/Foundation Studies.

• A framework for teacher education programmes that makes explicit Saide’s underpinning beliefs and assumptions about what constitutes a worthwhile and effective teacher education programme.

From All rights Reserved

ToOpen Educational Resources

• Five 200 page learning guides• Four sets of readings to support learning

guides• 29 audio clips of interviews and

classroom events• 23 video clips - issues and debates from

the modules and methods in action in classrooms

Lessons of experience re layout and design Word DTP layout program (Quark/InDesign)

Program is easily available and accessible – facilitates adaptation (author control)

BUT

Requires a professional DTP program and operator to edit the file (author loses control)BUT

Limited layout options (although many of these can be overcome by using tables as a layout tool).

Layouts are more flexible.

Icons and other graphic elements need to be inserted as graphics adding to the size of the file. Graphics can only be edited via professional graphics programs.

Diagrams, icons and other graphic elements – done within the program, resulting in smaller size files.

Difficult to maintain style consistency. Templates need continual adjustment.

Greater style consistency – higher quality.

Can’t use for litho printing or large scale printing purposes (especially if layout contains scans).

File can be outputted in multiple formats and sizes. Best solution for large scale printing or publishing purposes.

Digitisation of audio and video resources

• The audio resources are all small enough to be easily downloadable, even in low bandwidth situations.

• The video resources have likewise been chunked into clips of about ten minutes and can be streamed through You Tube. But there is the facility for downloading as well – useful in situations of low bandwidth.

• OER Africa has its own channel on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/oerafrica - where all the OER Africa video resources can be viewed together. This also increases the visibility of the resources.

Template for seeking permissions for copyrighted material to be posted on a website as OER

Copyright holder

Online forms?

Status Conditions Licence

agreement Acknow-

ledge-ment

•Author?•Publisher?

Member-ship of clearance agency?

•Granted•Refused•No response

•Cost•Period

•Attribution•NC•ND

Actual wording

Apart from author, title, and record of correspondence:

Stats from Saide Teacher Education readings permissions process:

Being a teacher

Creating PC schools

Learners & learning

Working in classrooms

Totals

Yes 15 8 9 7 39

No 8 5 8 2 23

It takes people time for people to cotton on ....A University wanting to use Being a Teacher:• Seeing that this publication is listed under OER, what is the

possibility of the University printing and distributing the Learning guide to the students? Is this allowed or should students download the copy themselves? Or do we contact Oxford University Press for copies? We prefer to copy and distribute?

A University wanting to use the ACEMaths materials:• We’ve had a look at these materials and we’d like to use

them. Could you write us a letter giving us permission saying we can?

But when they do ........

ACEMaths:Originally a

UNISA maths module

Originally part of the UCT PREP

Series published by JUTA

Originally a photostatted module in a mixed mode in-

service training programme

OER in the University of Pretoria Distance B Ed Maths modulesModule Maths content Main source/writer Additional

Early Numeracy (6 cr)

FP topics (all maths content areas)

Module coordinator

Teaching Numeracy (12 cr)

FP topics Module coordinator Selections from Junior Primary Mathematics in contact classes

Intermediate Mathematics 1

(12 cr)

Numeration (including early

algebraic reasoning) Operations

Mathematics for Primary School Teachers

Units2&3 Module coordinator

ACEMathsUnit1

Intermediate Mathematics 2

(12 cr)

Space and shapeSize and

measurement

Mathematics for Primary School Teachers

Units 1&6Module coordinator

Intermediate Mathematics 3

(20 cr)

Fractions Mathematics for Primary School Teachers

Unit 4Module coordinator

Additional maths content to take certain topics up to the grade 7

level

Intermediate Mathematics 4

(20 cr)

Statistics Mathematics for Primary School Teachers

Unit 5 Module coordinator

Additional maths content to take certain topics up to the grade 7

level

From individual project to Network....

The full potential of OER depends on collaboration within an emerging community of practice across institutions.

As Ken Harley points out: Social capital links neatly with OER because it• calls attention to the fact that civic virtue is most powerful

when it is embedded in a sense network of reciprocal social relations. A society of many virtuous but isolated individuals is not necessarily rich in social capital (Putnam, 2000, p.19)

Thank you!