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I utilize OER on a probably weekly basis.  Agriculture education can be difficult, because there is not a set curriculum on what you have to teach.  I often "beg, borrow, and steal" materials I use in class.  When assessing the quality of OER, I make sure I preview the material before showing it to the class.  For example, if I find a Kahoot that looks like it may cover material we are learning in class, I read through all the questions first to make sure they are accurate and pertain to the topic.

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I think there are so many resources out there that can be used as OER. Technology has definitely made it easier for people to keep up with the most current curriculum and information. The sites provided for us are great because you are able to locate grade friendly information. I think giving students some time to explore those sites would be beneficial.
Some things to look at when deciding the quality of the OER is alignment with standards and curriculum, looking at the rubric, and just taking the time to look through the OER ourselves as educators to see time spent creating it. We want to be sure that what we are exposing our students to is of high quality.

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I love using OER.  I plan on implementing them in a variety of different ways.  I love how so many of them are free to use.  I love that I will be able to test my kids knowledge on what they learned as well as thinking outside of the box.
To see if they are quality OER I will use the rubric and make sure I am on a creditable site.  If the OER looks like it was thrown together last minute then its probable not the best quality of material to use.

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I am always looking for FREE resources that I can use in my classes.  I simply love the fact that all these FREE resources are current content since most of my textbooks are OLD, which is why I don't use them much.  Some teachers in the school use Kahoot and Quizlet, but I have not taken the time to learn all about them yet.  It does seem that most of what I have seen out there for virtual gaming is for Science, which I do not teach.  I had no idea that there was an additional resource that I could be using until this module.  TeacherTube is what I am talking about, and I have already searched topics and found content that I will be implementing in my curriculum starting this next week already.  First thing I can look for to tell if the OER I am finding has quality to it is to make sure I look at the rubric to make sure the info correlates to the standard.  Also make sure that the content is appropriate for school use and that the students are going to be able to relate to it and that it is current.  Happy OER Hunting!

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I have used OER in my classroom before, and loved exploring the new resources. I think there are so many great ideas and ways to implement curriculum. As educators, why shouldn't we share these resources. I took some of the sites, and added them to my symbaloo for my kids to explore specifically on computer lab days. Some of the resources are limited use on the ipad. Websites are tricky whether the ipad will allow the games to play. I look forward to my students exploring these new resources.

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I had such a great time today exploring OER and different resources. I am excited to implement different virtual games, especially within my guided math instruction. Right now in grade 4 we are working on division, and it is a real challenge for my intervention group. I found an awesome game that is engaging and easy to differentiate called Arithmetic Workout. It allows kids to see the inverse relationship between multiplication and division, find multiple factors to equal the same product, and get immediate feedback.

You can tell the quality of OER by looking at rubrics that judge the correlation to standards, explanation of topic, materials designed to support teaching, quality of assessment, quality of technology, quality of practice, chance for deeper learning, and assurance of accessibility. These are great factors to keep in mind as you explore and engage in resources. To me, the most important factors when telling the quality are making sure the resource is connected to the standard of learning and then focusing on how I integrate it into my instruction.

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Since I am just getting back into teaching after nearly a decade away, I certainly appreciate the ability to utilize OER.  I feel that I don't have the time or the talent to create high quality resources of my own, but I love the fact that I can find things that are already available to use with my math classes.
I have already used YouTube videos from Khan, MathAntics and others.  I've also created some games in Kahoot.
In order to keep our students' attention, I feel that these types of resources are a necessity and bring a lot of value to instruction.  However, there are also some drawbacks.
One of the biggest problems that I see is time.  A great deal of time can be spent searching for the perfect resource.  It is important that the OER be aligned to our state standards, be clear and concise, and be something that we can see our students benefiting from.
A perfect example would be the OER of "Lure of the Labybrinth" that was shared in this module. I can see great value in a critical thinking and mathematical game such as this, but I spent hours experimenting with it ,and still am not prepared to implement it into my classroom without further review. Even great resources take a lot of time to evaluate and introduce.

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I think there is a huge benefit to OER and I know from earning my bachelor's in education that we shared materials, lesson plans and more with each other quite often. OER seems like a very natural progression from this! We always joked about "stealing" from other teachers, but really it is about using our collective knowledge to create a better learning environment for our students. You might be really good at creating a video on a subject, while I can design a test that really focuses on what concepts the students should be learning. Why not combine our efforts to create a superb unit?! I plan to use OERs a lot when I have a teaching position!

You need to evaluate an OER on a number of criteria - whether the item aligns to current standards, how well the item explains a subject matter, how well you can teach the material and any materials provided with it, the quality of the testing involved, the quality of the technology tools that are included (if there are any), the quality of the exercises in the material (asking students to perform or practice something), whether the OER has ways to connect to deeper learning, and how well the OER can be accessible to a variety of learners and their learning types.

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Some teachers at our school have implement OER, for example: Prodigy, Kahoot, and Quizzizz. With our new science standards, we are sterning toward more relevant content. I am on the science curriculum and STEM committee; I found materials that coincide with these positions. Our school is trying to introduce STEM more and more in elementary and this organization has Building STEM Literacy. We can also save heaps of money by using OER in the classroom. Best of all, students enjoy learning from videos, online quizzes, and exploring games.

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My school does not purchase textbooks anymore. I've been searching for many OERs in Journalism and have struggled with finding things that are relevant and work for my students. I'm hoping with these added resources I'll be able to find things that will work for journalism. I can tell the quality of OERs by whether or not it adheres to my standards, has materials to support teaching and learning and has opportunities for deeper learning.

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I have not got a full-time teaching job yet.  During my observation, I noticed that many of the classes did not use textbooks much.  The procedural classes did like keyboarding and info(office).  More of the business classes used material other than textbooks.  I didn’t know much about OER’s at the time but looking back on it that’s probably what they were using.  I think it’s a great idea.  One of the biggest gripes about textbooks is that they are out of date as soon as you get them.  Also, they are expensive.  With budget cuts and funding getting low, free material is a good option.  I would like to include real-world examples in my classes and show students how the skills we are learning are used in the business world.  OER’s offer a lot of ways for students to interact with the material and put it to use.

To tell if an OER is good for your class I would use the rubrics

Rubric I. Degree of Alignment to Standards

Rubric II. Quality of Explanation of the Subject Matter

Rubric III. Utility of Materials Designed to Support Teaching

Rubric IV. Quality of Assessment

Rubric V. Quality of Technological Interactivity

Rubric VI. Quality of Instructional and Practice Exercises

Rubric VII. Opportunities for Deeper Learning

Rubric VIII. Assurance of Accessibility

Not having a lot of experience, I think following this rubric would help me make sure that the OER was the right fit for the class.  The specific guild lines will help a teacher who doesn’t have much experience.  As I gain more experience and become more familiar with OERs I will be able to size them up faster.

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I'm all about OERs. Why reinvent the wheel that someone already has started? Sometimes however, finding quality OERs is hard. I like to stick to known names, like I've used Khan Academy a lot in my classes. Any kind of history simulation or U.S. archives resources are things I have used in my classroom frequently. I especially used OERs when I was teaching my blended learning class because in order to create a lot of different assignments. That upfront work can be hard but I've found OERs dealing with analyzing political cartoons or propaganda videos that I was able to implement into my classroom and my students really enjoyed.

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Who doesn't love free resources?! I will implement them in my classroom by browsing the videos in teachertube. I have used this very little in my Business Classroom. Some OER's we currently use are Notepad, Quizlet, Kahoot, Everfi and Teachertube. It takes time to tell the quality of the OER. You need to take the time to look over the resource being used to make sure the content is correct. Once you review the information once, you won't need to do it again. So it's extremely important to make sure it's good quality for your topic.

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I love that all of the resources are free!  As an education major, I remember being told that we "beg, borrow and steal" our ideas from other educators.  There are so many more resources available to us now, than just a few years ago.  I like TeacherTube, it is something that I already use in my classroom.  I have used Khan academy a few times too. I often use videos to introduce a topic that I am teaching to hook the students. OER's take some additional planning on the the teacher side, but when used correctly they are extremely effective.

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I can implement OER in teaching when I’m helping students learn a subject like math, science, or social studies. I can look up videos of these topics to help present the material in an additional way than what their classroom teacher did. The students I teach need lessons presented to them multiple times in multiple ways to ensure they fully understand the concept. There are many videos, jingles, and songs to help my students remember concepts and important information. My younger students respond extremely well to videos that have songs and actions to help them remember concepts.

Deciding the quality of OER is sometimes more challenging. First you have to make sure that the content is correct and pertains to what you are teaching. The videos need to be clear and concise and not confuse the students. You also need to make sure that it meets the content standards. Good OER should enhance the lesson you are teaching.

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OER resources seem to be fairly useful and I have certainly used some of these resources before in my classroom. For example, I have used videos from Khan academy in my classroom and I find that they are very helpful and often they seem to appropriately cover various topics. I will say that the possibility of creating a game (Lure of the Labyrinth) into my classroom is very intriguing. I plan to look further into this particular OER and see if I can implement it into my classes. In regards to quality and content, it seems the best way to judge the quality and content is simply to use the source myself. As a teacher, I should know my content area well enough to judge what is and isn't acceptable as well as what may or may not be a good source. Additionally, we should focus are students on a particular area of a site, instead of let them have free reign.

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I have always found OER content to be helpful, even when I was in my studies. They helped me not only make my lesson plans well-rounded, but also help me to revamp my knowledge in material that I may not have seen since I was in that particular class myself! Currently, I teach a math class for Life Skills students where I am pulling almost all of my day-to-day material from the web. OERs have helped me to find solid content that is both educational and entertaining for my students (the entertainment plays a large role for my kids, otherwise a meltdown my ensure).

With OER content, it is essential to find material that will enhance the lesson you are teaching, not work as just a "break" in the lesson. It also needs to be a reliable and safe source. My school district has gone through a long and large process to "weed out" online materials that are less suitable or educationally sound than others.

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I love the fact that there are so many resources available to help me help my students succeed!  I have already used videos, almost on a daily basis in my classroom.  Many times I take the "flipped" approach and have my students watch one for homework and then we will come in the next day and attack the concept.  Generally speaking, I rely on videos to reinforce content.  I have also had the opportunity to use the virtual labs.  When I taught in Missouri we had no place within a 3 hour drive to take students for a good science experiment, so I found virtual labs to be incredibly helpful.
The most important thing to remember with these and other resources is to make sure they will contribute to the learning, they are accurate and do not "muddy" the concept and that they are aligned to the standards.

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Because I inherited a blank slate (new program at our school), I already GREATLY appreciate the free resources stashed around the web. I have found tons of great lessons and content on federal reserve websites for personal finance, among other verified sites. I am excited about all the new resources we are exposed to in this course and have been bookmarking all the ones that are useful to business and career instruction. As my career progresses, I plan to squeeze everything I can out of all of these resources - what's the purpose of reinventing the wheel if it's already available?!?

The quality of the resource must meet several criteria - does it meet the content standards, is it accurate, is it clear and help develop a better understanding?

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OER can be implemented on a supplemental or as main instruction. I would use OER in the classroom supplementally at this point. For example, KHAN academy videos can be posted for students to watch as an introduction to a topic. Also, I frequently use Math Open Reference Videos for my students. I used it to repetitively show students how to complete constructions with a compass in Geometry. I enjoyed being able to go step-by-step or play on repeat for them with auditory and visual cues.  I, also, posted the videos to our google classroom page for help at home or prior to a test.  The quality of OER can depend on a variety of factors. But the bottom line is does it meet the students needs effectively. Does it meet the standards? Does it explain the topic well? Is the content accurate and quality? Does it allow for a more clear and deeper understanding?