This presentation will (1) introduce the open education movement and, specifically, open educational resources; (2) explain work done to identify and match OER to Open High School of Utah curriculum needs; (3) describe implications and recommend directions for instructional designers and teachers interested in working with and creating OER.

Purpose of the Presentation

A significant movement in education concerns the use of open educational resources. By “open” it is generally meant that the resource is available at no cost to others for adaptation and reuse in different contexts. These resources could include books, lesson plans, syllabi, slide shows, etc. There are several examples of individuals and institutions providing open educational resources. The open education movement is introduced, and we discuss how to find and organize open educational resources, specifically within the context of the  Open High School of Utah.

In addition, some frameworks for those interested in creating OER will be provided. The “open” in “open educational resources” is not a simple dichotomy; rather, there is a continuum of openness. We discuss four separate aspects of reuse and demonstrate how these describe different levels of openness. Licensing and technical aspects of open educational resources are also discussed

Presenter

John Hilton III is a doctoroal student in Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University.

Do the implications of digital media turn our educational institutions inside out? Can educators learn to stop worrying and love the remix?  Is originality overrated?  What’s the difference between reuse and plagiarism? Is openness our only hope? Where’s the RSS feed? What does “data literacy” look like? Are Web 2.0 companies a teacher’s best friend, or a bunch of creeps converting our work, our relationships and our private data into marketshare? Has the Web 2.0 bubble popped, and if so now what? How do we teach our students, our colleagues and ourselves to be technology strategists? How many copyright violations can be jammed into one presentation?

Brian Lamb’s presentation and discussion will review the opportunities and initiatives resulting from the convergence of open source, free culture, open access and open educational resources.

Abstract

In order to educate the diverse population of our youth in the education system we must broaden our own views of what educational tools should consist of, what concepts need to be taught, how concepts are learned and interpreted for students of varying backgrounds.

The demographics of our students is not the same as it was 50 years ago or even the same as it was 10 years ago, as the student population diversifies, so must our educational tools. These tools must be able to educate a diverse group of students, appeal to their backgrounds and understandings.

These tools must move out of the class rooms and into the homes, these tools must take advantage of our growing technological advancements. And finally these tools must move beyond being tools for students but rather games. Games are what students occupy their times with, and in order to reach the student when not educating them in the classroom, one must use current technology and entertainment to incorporate education into the daily lives of the youth.

In order to create games that appeal to the diversifying student body, one must have a diverse team of specialists that understand the different backgrounds and interests of students.

In this presentation, I will discuss the diversification of the education system, the advancements of technology, how to use technology for education and how collaboration is the best way to reach a broad student audience.

Presenter

Palkin Zed

The author is a developer of the educational game PRIME, a game designed for ages 12 and higher, which educates the user on prime numbers, mathematics and strategy. This game was developed by four students at the University of Nevada, Reno. The students have ethnic backgrounds and education including computer science, art, music, business and philosophy.

Sandy Mills-Alford is the CEO of AliveTek, Inc., an organization known for designing highly interactive e-learning environments for a multitude of organizations at all educational levels.

Ms. Mills-Alford belongs to the first generation of web-based course designers in higher education. Her career as an educator has included many roles including K-12 educator, college instructional technologist, educational program manager (WebCT), technology coach for faculty, and college instructor in the fields of educational technology and web design.

In addition to being involved in research initiatives for web-based learning, Sandy delivers motivational seminars on effective uses of technology for learning.

Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley

Today’s generation of students know how to use the web for a lot more than just checking their email. They’re perfectly comfortable with dynamic web pages and highly interactive content. They spend hours a day on social networking sites communicating and collaborating with friends. So why is it that the only interaction they have with Learning Management Software is when they check to see if their grades have been updated?

LMS systems offer a hub of interaction for today’s online students — at least, they should. Instead of collaborating within an LMS, students are organizing themselves into independent Facebook and Google groups, and teachers are making outside blogs for their students to follow. Some teachers avoid LMS software altogether because it’s too clunky and confusing. There’s a growing disconnect between what LMS solutions provide and what students and teachers actually use or want.

At Instructure we’re working to create a new type of course software that embraces the open technologies of the web. Our real goal, though, is to create a system that will actually get used. We have our own ideas about how to make a modern LMS really shine, and we’ll start the presentation off by going over some of these thoughts. Then we’ll open it up for discussion to hear what you want/need in an LMS. We’re building this product for you, and we want to make sure it’s something that will actually fit into your educational plans.

This presentation will be the chance to start participating in the creation of a meaningful, useful educational product. It’ll be an open-discussion opportunity for us to get to know you better, and for you to get excited about a fresh new take on educational software.

Significant changes have been witnessed with the arrival of the knowledge age. During the industrial age, learning was assumed to be largely an individual activity and a consequence of formal instruction. However, today’s reality supports that learning is a collaborative problem solving activity that involves far more than instruction alone. It occurs through progressive construction of individual knowledge, not simply through information transfer.

Changing societal and workplace demands of our current century call for learning processes that support inquiry, self-reflection, problem solving, communication, and collaboration. This kind of learning process, at variance to those of industrial age, requires continual updating, so a top quality on-going education system is essential for living and working in the knowledge age.
Future implies increased collaboration with community, institutions, and students. Then the focus in education will be on the learning and collaborative knowledge construction. Thus, the purpose of education will move from being curriculum driven to being learning centered. It is stated by many researchers that key aspects of the emerging pedagogy for the information society are emphasized as active, integrative, creative, collaborative, and evaluative.
Today’s knowledge society emphasizes innovation and intellectual capital and makes knowledge management a strategic issue that holds one of the highest potentials for gaining efficiencies, and creating value in organizations. Consequently, the asset base is shifting from traditional tangible assets to an intangible asset base such as innovation, effective utilization of knowledge and human capital resources.

To increase the capacity of identifying, distilling, harnessing and using information to construct knowledge for the organizational learning process became an indispensable objective for any organization. As being very powerful tool to reach this objective; knowledge management represents the core work of organizations in education and research. It deals with the creation, interpretation, critique, and distribution of knowledge within communities of scholars, researchers, experts, learners and teachers. However, only some education organizations are pioneering knowledge management by creating necessary infrastructure, and support systems. It is necessary to understand how to strengthen the management of knowledge for supporting activities, and planning quality standards. Furthermore, knowledge management initiatives are required to adapt to meet new challenges and retain the leading organizations in education and research.

This presentation will discuss knowledge management concept in the context of education. Presentation will thus recall fundamental concepts of knowledge management and relate with the field of education through different perspectives to explore the ways to solve educational problems. The presentation will also include knowledge management experiences obtained in different lectures.

Biography
Tarkan Gürbüz is an Instructor at Middle East Technical University, Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology in Ankara, Turkey. He holds a PhD and MS in Computer Education and Instructional Technology, MBA in International Business, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. His areas of interest include distance education, e-learning, human computer interaction, knowledge management, and teacher education.

Biography
A nurse for 7 years in the areas of pediatrics, NICU and nursery. Currently teaches at Kaplan University in Lincoln, NE in the Maternal/Child rotation and continues to practice at Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center in Lincoln, NE. Also, currently a doctoral student at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha, NE in the doctorate of education program for healthcare professionals.