Transcript:

1.Open education is a tool you will want to have as an aspiring teacher. 

2.Teachers tend to have a passion for equity and social justice, they believe in education's power for the benefit of individuals and for humanity. Open education amplifies that power.

3. Before we begin, I want to share a quick story. A wise and seasoned teacher shared his observation that new teachers tend to be overzealous to find the perfect tool, or activity or gadget. He tells them, “Don’t get caught up in finding the perfect thing. The most powerful tool you have as a teacher, and the one your students need the most, is you. Everything else is extra.” 

4. This applies to Open Education too. It has exciting potential and sounds like the golden ticket to social issues. But remember, it is a tool, it can only be as good as the values we bring to it. 

5. Open education is a global movement to remove existing barriers to education. Experts have identified the most potent means of removing barriers as Open Educational Resources or OER. These are materials that are free to access and are openly licensed, meaning they can be retained, re-used, revised, remixed, and redistributed. 

6. This can look like in Minnesota where teachers can contribute courses and lessons they have created that align with state education standards. These sources are OER so they are free to access and can be remixed or revised.  Say a teacher was asked to change grades at the last minute, they can easily access whole courses and can mix and match pieces of lessons to create a personalized approach for their unique teaching style and classroom needs. This frees up substantial time for teachers and improves the quality of the lessons.

7. Now, consider a teacher in perhaps a different state or even continent. They can access these existing and expert materials and are free to adjust pictures, stories, and analogies to align with the experiences of their students, making the learning more accessible and personalized.

8. Another example of open education is using assignments for real world purposes. For example,  a medical school professor assigns his students to research common diseases and update wikipedia articles. As an open educational resource, these articles are a primary source of medical advice for the underprivileged. Students are spending their learning efforts not only preparing for a career, they are benefiting humanity across the world.

9. Open education empowers teachers and students to personalize learning, reach the underprivileged, and contribute to global knowledge. It isn’t a silver bullet, but as you learn more about it, and apply your values and passions to it, you will find it is an avenue to making education closer to what we always hoped it would be.

[*AI was consulted for wordage on a few of the sentences.]