Before diving into the details of Open Space, let's first consider why open education and supplemental materials are important in education. View this video called Why Open Education Matters:
Wikieducator.org states that, "the aim of [open education] is to improve access to learning opportunities by sharing knowledge and learning resources. By joining this international community of educators you can save time, cut costs and contribute to improving the quality of learning in your own classroom and around the world. The [open education] movement seeks to stimulate, facilitate and catalyze growth of the pool of learning resources on the Internet which circumvent barriers to access and lift restrictions on usage, thus improving education as a social good."
In the video below, educators describe how open educational resources benefit their classrooms.
At times the rigidity of a given curriculum can feel restrictive. The absence of an established curriculum for a course can be overwhelming. Imagine being able to access a wide array of teacher-created resources, crafted to complement and expand your existing curriculum. Openly licensed, freely available content provides this possibility. Educators can enhance their classes with supplemental videos, graphics, lessons, activities, modules, textbooks, or even whole courses.
They can invest the time they would spend creating their own lessons and plans working with individual students or making needed refinements to classroom activities.
In the book A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER), the authors offer three possibilities:
The following video describes additional benefits of open content for educators. These include taking ownership of teaching materials to make stronger connections with students, customizing resources for individual learner needs, and transforming teaching.
One can view the importance of open education through three lenses: global or system level, district or local level, and individual level. See Table 2 for a list of benefits offered by open, freely acessible content at each level.
Global (system) |
Local (districts) |
Individual (educators and students) |
---|---|---|
|
|
|
Interested in hearing other educators’ perspective on open educational resources (OER) in the classroom? Listen to these podcast episodes:
274 E 1st Ave #100
Columbus OH 43201
614-647-3486
central@infohio.org
Fetch is avaiable to INFOhio automated schools. If you are an INFOhio school, please log in with your school username/password using the button at the top-left corner of this page.
For more information about Fetch, please visit the Fetch information page or contact INFOhio support at https://support.infohio.org.