[TOS] Call for Resources and Suggestions

[Karsten Wade]

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 08:00:07PM -0400, Indigo196 wrote:
> 
> Thanks for the fantastic ideas -- I think your suggestions make it
> obvious I have to 'focus' on 'who' the audience is. In general most K-12
> teachers will be relatively low tech and interested in how 'open' can
> improve the learning process. They may teach math, social studies,
> foreign language, science or business. Very few will be teacher who are
> teaching computer science or programming, but if there is a core group
> of those -- the topics would expand in scope.

Charles,

OK, thanks for the clarification.  To be clear here, I am definitely
not coming from a computer science or programming focus.  My ideas
were specifically for the kind of teachers you describe -- math,
social studies, languages, science, business, etc. -- but they are
about teaching participation.

A key part of how open can improve the learning process is the open
participation.  It's only marginally better to use CC licensed open
educational resources (OER).  It is, however, MUCH better if you, as a
teacher, find a way to contribute back to those resources; help spread
them through distribution; make new resources that are derived or
influenced by the original OER and release those under a CC license;
etc.  All that can be covered in your session.

I could be dead wrong, but I think it's a missed opportunity if we
stop short of showing teachers the real power of free and open, and I
think you can do that in the time allowed.

So, for example, you could do this:

1. Break the group up in to related disciples.
2. Have the sub-groups find an OER related to their discipline.
3. The sub-groups review the OER for any improvements or additions
   they can make.
4. If there is time, they make the changes and submit the changed
   version back to the OER originator.

This all surrounded with explanatory content about what they are
doing, why they are doing it, etc.  At the end, they have a concrete
example, may have actually made a contribution somewhere, and have
real experience to apply to their real work.

Again, just another random idea :), but I'm trying to get closer to
what you need for going that extra set of steps to participation
beyond observation.

- Karsten
-- 
name:  Karsten 'quaid' Wade, Sr. Community Gardener
team:                Red Hat Community Architecture 
uri:               http://TheOpenSourceWay.org/wiki
gpg:                                       AD0E0C41
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