OER

Well, well, I am quite the fan of free content.  As a teacher I have constantly used the internet as a great Open Educational Resource  and honestly I have had to hunt and peck through different sites that have what I want and need to get the job done.  These are great, though I think I was using some without realizing it, I know find myself with a world more of educational help at my hands.   In 7 Things You Should Know About Open Educational Resource, it is stated,

"The term can include textbooks, course readings, and other learning content; simulations, games, and other learning applications; syllabi, quizzes, and assessment tools; and virtually any other material that can be used for educational purposes. OER typically refers to electronic resources, including those in multimedia formats, and such materials are generally released under a Creative Commons or similar license that supports open or nearly open use of the content."

So with the aforementioned definition I will support that some of the sites like History.com are OER even though they do not taught themselves as such.  I have used this cite to exhaustion and will continue use it, as i will also start to tackle some of the new places I have found.  The one that gets mentioned in the article " is the OpenCourseWare project from MIT, which began in 2002 and today features all of the course materials from roughly 2,000 MIT courses."  I like it, its nice, but the one I am falling in love with is the OER Commons, it has several materials I will be using in the near future I feel.

First is the History in the Raw which tackles primary sources for the students and helps the teacher in finding more to use in the class room.

Second is the Bridging World History  which literally gives me social studies teacher butterflies.  It has audio files for listening, which will be fantastic for adaptations, as well as having reading and deeper information for the teacher and student.

Third is the US History Source Book. This is basically a text book.  I find this to be a great idea and better then some of the other sources I have seen online.

With finding out about these OER's I went and found a few more.  The first one I found both surprised me and did not surprise me at the same time.  It can be found on Facebook as a Facebook OER page.  Though several of the places we have discussed and will go over, I feel, are quite vetted this one I suggest being careful with.  As with all of these you must watch how you are using them and make sure they are valid with your classroom, this one will need to be double checked, but with the people all actively attached to it you should find anything that you do need or get immediate support in times of need.  As I mentioned before, History.com is a great source with tons of videos and readings to use in the class room.  With most of these having been professionally produced, and having experts in them I feel this is a great resource you just have to dig in it a bit. As it is everywhere, I was not surprised that Google had also jumped into the OER area with its Google in Education.  This is a good site with lots of support for both teachers and students.  Though this seems to be mainly directed at their own products, it is Google and will mainly be what you are using for finding other sources or resources.  

I like these and this idea in general.  If you get stuck with one of these or need help finding more look at this SITE, it has 80 different OER sites to help you.  If you cannot find it here, then you are prolly not hooked up to the net.