A weekly half hour chat focused on improving access to education for PK-12 students through the use of Accessible Educational Materials (AEM), Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and Assistive Technology (AT).
Sandi Smith here! PATINS Open Education Resources, Secondary SLD & Transition, and Chrome Accessibility and Integration Specialist from snowy, soggy Columbus Indiana. Staying inside and griping about snow and cold weather :-)
#PatinsIcam,#GoOpen, #AEM4All
I'm Daniel McNulty, Director of @PATINSPROJECT, former Sp.Ed. Teacher, Behavior Consultant, Paraprofessional & AT Coordinator! Enthused to have NECESSARY conversations 2nite about Open Educational FAV snow activity=dirtbikes! Resources! (OER) #PatinsIcam
Howdy friends! Jena here, PATINS Specialist focused on low incidence, severe ASD, Microsoft & Web Accessibility. I'm ready to get my chat on! #PatinsIcam
Hi! I'm Jessica, PATINS Specialist and SLP and former tech integration specialist, and on a snowy day, my favorite thing is to make hot chocolate and never leave the house. #PatinsIcam#TiredOfSnowDays
A1: Resources for teaching, learning and research, That have an open licence, are no-cost and have an open license. They do not have to be digital or accessible. #PatinsIcam,#GoOpen, #AEM4All
A2: They may provide more creativity to teachers than a set textbook curriculum and digital materials can be designed to allow easy reuse in a wide range of teaching and learning situations. #PatinsIcam,#GoOpen, #AEM4All
A2: OER's more recent popularity likely has to do with them being open-source (proprietary free) and probably also because of the federal GoOpen initiative with some states. #PatinsIcam
A2: Budgets are a real reason...but the timelessness in true science is a concern, as paper books are published they are already out of date. #PatinsIcam
A3: Costs to students may be lowered but the educator time to create the materials is costly. That time is extended when materials require extra time and training to make them accessible to all students. #PatinsIcam, #GoOpen, #AEM4All
A2: Engagement is also a reason, crowd sourcing documents, even textbooks allows for multiple perspectives and cultural competence as well! #PatinsIcam
A3: Not necessarily - anything that is free in the way of money usually means you must share the proper attribution or that you are sharing your data #PatinsIcam
A3: I would strongly say NO. There's time, there's paying for images, graphs, and diagrams, there's the cost to properly vet them for content, copyright, and accessibility, to archive & catalog them, etc. #PatinsIcam
A4: They do take time to create and time is a precious commodity for Ts. Hopefully Ts are also considering the accessibility of the materials and this step is also takes time. #PatinsIcam
I see vetting OER as a great curriculum committee replacement for textbook adoption but at a more critical level; probably by grade level or subject #PatinsIcam
A3: They do take time to create and time is a precious commodity for Ts. Hopefully Ts are also considering the accessibility of the materials and this step is also takes time. #PatinsIcam
I think you're right! My schools' ciric committees met every 7 years or so (as budget allowed) over one subject, this would be a needed team shift #PatinsIcam
Plus...OER isn't always a one size fits ALL students or classroom. Modification to fit needs and make them accessible needs to be intentionally thought out #PatinsIcam
A4: Some yes, some no. It depends upon the mandated attribution. Read the fine details carefully! As @PATINSSandi said Creative Commons does a good job helping to explain how to give the proper credit: https://t.co/ZPyM5d8aAZ#PatinsIcam
A3: But more of a follow up question... are these resources that other teachers create that I could use or is it tools for me to create resources for my class?? #timeconsuming??? #PatinsIcam
OER are resources that other educators, companies, nonprofits, people, etc are putting out there for you to use with your Ss like Teachers Pay Teachers, NASA, Smithsonian, PBS to name a few #PatinsIcam
A 3: - Cost can be the learning of the students. Our district went to OER for math - BIG mistake! Not SO awful for secondary Ts who are content experts, but many Ts had to search, vet, etc. sources while teaching MANY subjects in elementary. Students paid the price! #patinsicam
A5: OERs are accessible if they are formated without barriers to usage. A great tool to check this in Google is the Grackle Accessibility Checker for G Suite. #PatinsIcam, #GoOpen, #AEM4All
YES... but Creative Commons is fairly complicated to use. I've been pushing teacher to build CC into their curriculum for years (for theirs and their Ss content), but it's just complex. #PatinsIcam
And, sadly, often the special education experts are not part of the adoption committee, so don't even see the materials before they are adopted. #patinsicam
That's unfortunate but not shocking. Leaving educators without textbooks after many years of use is a change that must be handled properly. This includes training on how to create curriculum resources that are accessible, engaging, and sensible #PatinsIcam
No doubt! Learning and applying what your rights are as a content creator consumer helps (and part of Indiana academic standards) and there are lots of resources for educators. Also, this tool to help choose right license: https://t.co/1g4jYbeLEt#PatinsIcam
YES... but Creative Commons is fairly complicated to use. I've been pushing teacher to build CC into their curriculum for years (for theirs and their Ss content), but it's just complex. #PatinsIcam
Soooo... is this worth my time?? Im not being a smart a## I really dont know enough... I feel like its a lot of work that may not be what my Ss with Significant Disabilities need... 🤷♀️🤷♀️ #PatinsIcam
That makes sense, but I'd have no real idea where to start. Creative Commons is getting easier to use in my opinion. At least when you find images that you'd like to use that are licensed that way #PatinsIcam
A5: One quick and easy way to check for accessibility is to see if you can select the text. If it is, this will allow access to the text in many instances. #PatinsIcam
Engagement, absolutely. I like to point out knowing a students level of independence with any school task, which is implied with engagement. We should shout it out! #PatinsIcam
