Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Contextualised open educational practices: Towards student agency and self-directed learning
Jako Olivier; Charlene du Toit-Brits; Byron Bunt; Amit Dhakulkar · AOSIS Publishing · 2022
This book covers original research on the implementation of open educational practices through the use of open educational resources at the university level. The emphasis on open education in this book is on contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning specifically within a South African milieu. The envisaged chapters cover conceptual and review research and empirical work focussing on open educational practices and the use of renewable assessments. The work starts off with an overview of an institutional-wide open education project that prompted the research followed by research on open education in terms of various modules in the health science, music education, law, philosophy, dietetics, anthropology, French language learning, journalism and political science. There is a clear gap in the literature on open education in terms of open educational practices, specifically in terms of contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning in a South African context. Despite the existence of some general works on open education in terms of policy, social justice and open textbooks, this book will be unique in exploring the intersections of openness, specifically with contextualisation, student agency and self-directedness.
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Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy
Mary Ann Cullen; Elizabeth Dill · Association of College and Research Libraries · 2022
"The present volume is timely not only because it models creative and effective strategies to advance both open education and information literacy, but especially because it poses critical questions and urges practitioners to go well beyond questions of access to and the use of information. It demands reflection on what is being accessed (and what is not), who is gaining access (and who is not), who is providing access (and who is not), and what the goal is of this access (and what lies beyond access)."—from the Foreword by Rajiv S. Jhangiani Information literacy skills are key when finding, using, adapting, and producing open educational resources (OER). Educators who wish to include OER for their students need to be able to find these resources and use them according to their permissions. When open pedagogical methods are employed, students need to be able to use information literacy skills as they compile, reuse, and create open resources. Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy captures current open education and information literacy theory and practice and provides inspiration for the future. Chapters include practical applications, theoretical musings, literature reviews, and case studies and discuss social justice issues, collaboration, open pedagogy, training, and advocacy. The book is divided into six parts: Foundations Teaching Info Lit with OER Librarian Support of Open Pedagogy/OER Social Justice/Untold Stories Student Advocacy Spreading the Love: Training Future Advocates and Practitioners Chapters cover topics including library-led OER creation; digital cultural heritage and the intersections of primary source literacy and information literacy; situated learning and open pedagogy; critical librarianship and open education; and developing student OER leaders. Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy—which went through an open peer review process—informs and inspires on OER, info lit, and their man
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Open Music Theory
Mark Gotham; Kyle Gullings; Chelsey Hamm; Bryn Hughes · Virtual Library of Virginia · 2023
Open Music Theory is a natively-online open educational resource intended to serve as the primary text and workbook for undergraduate music theory curricula. OMT2 provides not only the material for a complete traditional core undergraduate music theory sequence (fundamentals, diatonic harmony, chromatic harmony, form, 20th-century techniques), but also several other units for instructors who have diversified their curriculum, such as jazz, popular music, rhythm, counterpoint, and orchestration. This version also introduces a complete workbook of assignments.
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Teaching Early and Elementary STEM
Alissa Lange; Laura Robertson; Jamie Price; Amie Craven · East Tennessee State University · 2021
This Open Access Educational textbook, "Teaching Early and Elementary STEM", was written to support pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers in their journey to become facilitators of science, technology, engineering, and math, or “STEM,” and "integrated STEM" in their future classrooms. Students who read and use this text will deepen their understanding of “STEM” and “integrated STEM,” learn what early childhood and elementary students need to know and be able to do in relation to STEM, and understand ways to create activity plans and implement current research-based approaches to teaching and pedagogy. This text arose out of our Early/Elementary STEM Collaboration project, which started in 2017 with the intention of increasing the quality of teacher preparation in STEM across early childhood and elementary education. The team is composed of math and science education professors, classroom in-service teachers, and pre-service teachers in pre-school through fifth grade. We are driven by the values of collaboration, strengths-based approaches to teaching and learning, constructivist philosophy of teaching and learning, and applied STEM experiences to increase access and equity. Our model of preparing pre-service teachers has been published elsewhere in more detail (Robertson, Nivens, & Lange, 2019). We built this open access product to include the following: 1) completely new content that includes input from our team as well as examples of integrated STEM learning experiences; 2) adaptations of existing resources, and; 3) compilations of existing free resources (e.g., Next Generation Science Standards).
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Salón de Clase: Intermediate Spanish for Education Professionals
Fernando Castro Ortiz; Giovanni Zimotti · University of Iowa · 2021
Salón de clase, Intermediate Spanish for Education Professionals is a comprehensive intermediate Spanish open access textbook with reading, listening, speaking, and writing practice for students who have an interest and/or intend to pursue a career in the field of Education (teachers, administrators, counselors, psychologists, social workers, support staff members, paraprofessionals, among others). This Open Education Resource (OER) aims to explore the role of Spanish language and Spanish speakers in the American education system, as well as to improve student communicative abilities in Spanish. Salón de clase integrates interactive activities (h5p), video interviews with Spanish speakers to present authentic materials, and topics related to education. Grammar is not presented as a standalone topic, but it is seemly integrated into all parts of this book.
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Making and Being
Susan Jahoda; Caroline Woolard · Pioneer Works Press · 2019
Making and Being offers a framework for teaching art that emphasizes contemplation, collaboration, and political economy. Authors Susan Jahoda and Caroline Woolard, two visual arts educators and members of the collective BFAMFAPhD*, share ideas and teaching strategies that they have adapted to spaces of learning which range widely, from self-organized workshops for professional artists to Foundations BFA and MFA thesis classes. This hands-on guide includes activities, worksheets, and assignments and is a critical resource for artists and art educators today. Making and Being is a book, a series of videos, a deck of cards, and an interactive website with freely downloadable content (click on links below to download worksheets, activities, and chapters as PDFs and editable Google Docs). *BFAMFAPhD is a collective that formed in 2012 to make art, reports, and teaching tools to advocate for cultural equity in the United States. The work of the collective is to bring people together to analyze and reimagine relationships of power in the arts. BFAMFAPhD core members are: Susan Jahoda, Emilio Martínez Poppe, Agnes Szanyi, Emily Tareila, Vicky Virgin, and Caroline Woolard. We wrote this book for those of you who want a holistic art education that includes how to be both more fully present with yourself and with others. The term holistic means that the parts of any given system are intimately interconnected; that they are understandable only in relation to the whole system. How can you talk about making a new project without talking about labor conditions? How can you talk about labor conditions without talking about payment? It’s time to address your artistic labor, your budgets your storage units, your gifts, and your well-being.
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Humanizing Science through STEAM Challenges
EunJin Bahng; John Hauptman · Iowa State University · 2021
In a science methods course during the Covid19 pandemic, 51 future elementary teachers authored children's books and then read them aloud as part of a giving-back, service-learning activity as Open Educational Resources (OER). The 51 children's stories and their accompanying audiobooks aim to integrate STEM and the Arts to humanize science and scientific inquiry with history and philosophy of science in mind.
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Teaching Math for Emergent Bilinguals: Building on Culture, Language, and Identity
Ji-Yeong I; Ricardo Martinez · Iowa State University · 2020
This book is designed for pre-service/in-service teachers and others who will work or work with K–12 students who have linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds, especially students of other languages (English language learners/Emergent bilingual/multilingual). The core concept of this course is helping teachers understand the needs of various Emergent Bilinguals (a.k.a. English language learners (ELLs)/English Learners (ELs), learn to use their language and culture as a resource in mathematics classrooms and implement research-based instructional strategies that are effective to teach mathematics for Emergent Bilinguals.
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Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science with Western Science
Gloria Snively ; Wanosts’a7 Williams · University of Victoria · 2016
Knowing Home attempts to capture the creative vision of Indigenous scientific knowledge and technology that is derived from an ecology of a home place. The traditional wisdom component of Indigenous Science—the values and ways of decision-making—assists humans in their relationship with each other, the land and water, and all of creation. Indigenous perspectives have the potential to give insight and guidance to the kind of environmental ethics and deep understanding that we must gain as we attempt to solve the increasingly complex problems of the 21st century. Braiding Indigenous Science and Western Science is a metaphor used to establish a particular relationship. Linked by braiding, there is a certain reciprocity. Each strand remains a separate entity, but all strands come together to form the whole. When we braid Indigenous Science with Western Science we acknowledge that both ways of knowing are legitimate forms of knowledge. The book provides a window into the vast storehouse of innovations and technologies of the Indigenous peoples who live in Northwestern North America. It is our hope that the Indigenous Science examples, research and curriculum models will inspire deep reflection regarding the under-representation of Aboriginal students in the sciences. It is intended that the rich examples and cases, combined with the resources listed in the appendices, will enable teachers and students to explore Indigenous Science examples in the classroom, and in addition, support the development of curriculum projects in home places.
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Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology
Richard West · EdTech Books · 2018
This book received the 2018 AECT Outstanding Book Award! "What is this field?" "Where have we come from as a discipline, and where are we going?" "What do I want to study?" These and other questions are typical for new students in the field of Learning and Instructional Design Technology. This textbook is designed to help answer these questions and provide the quickest route to understanding the history and current trends in the field. After surveying classic theories and writings, as well as more recent applications of theory and practice, students will be better prepared to chart their own course and careers within the discipline. This book is designed to support foundations courses common in departments, as well as seminars on current trends and issues.
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Exploring Physical Phenomena
Emily van Zee; Elizabeth Gire · Oregon State University · 2019
This course is intended for prospective and practicing elementary and middle school teachers. By exploring physical phenomena in class, you will learn science in ways in which you are expected to teach science in schools or in informal settings such as afterschool programs, youth group meetings, and museum workshops. This course also is appropriate for general science students and others interested in exploring some of the physical phenomena underlying global climate change. The theme for the course is: What happens when light from the Sun shines on the Earth? The emphasis is on questioning, predicting, exploring, observing, discussing, reading, and writing about what one thinks and why. This first unit focuses on exploring the nature of light phenomena. Among the unit’s many goals are two primary ones: to learn about light phenomena and to learn about ways to foster science learning for yourself and others such as your family, friends, and students.
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Writing Instruction Tips For Automated Essay Graders: How To Design an Essay for a Non-human Reader
Alise Lamoreaux · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2020
As schools, as well as the workplace, become more automated, and remote or distance learning/working becomes the “new normal,” understanding and leveraging artificial intelligence will become a critical skill.
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Trauma Informed Behaviour Support: A Practical Guide to Developing Resilient Learners
Kay Ayre; Govind Krishnamoorthy · University of Southern Queensland · 2020
If we want to impact the world of children who have experienced trauma then we must change not only ourselves and our classroom, but we must change our schools, our organisations, and our systems of care for children. We must all speak out for these children who have no voice to bring awareness of new educational and mental health approaches to children who will become tomorrow’s failed adults unless they receive our understanding and our help. For whatever reason you have been attracted to this book, you have come to the right place. You may at times put it down and wonder if the challenge is too great, but trust me it is not. If you stay engaged with this book and with a child who has experienced trauma then you will learn new understandings, new ideas and new ways to reach the mind, the heart and the soul of young people who need our support and our love.
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Wellbeing in Educational Contexts
Susan Carter; Cecily Andersen · University of Southern Queensland · 2019
This text endeavours to focus on wellbeing promotion in educational contexts as schools and other educational contexts play a pivotal role in teaching students about nonviolence, promoting understanding of diversity, endowing people with a shared purpose and meaning and the skills and behaviours to create a more inclusive, healthy, and positive future.
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Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research
Terri Pantuso; Sarah LeMire; Kathy Anders · Texas A&M University · 2023
Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research(4th Edition) is a premier Open Educational Resource (OER) designed to bridge the gap between critical thinking and rhetorical mastery. This edition refines the art of academic inquiry, offering students a transparent and accessible framework for deconstructing complex claims and constructing evidence-based positions. By prioritizing digital literacy and diverse perspectives, it empowers learners to navigate today’s information-saturated landscape with analytical precision. Comprehensive yet concise, this textbook remains an essential, cost-free solution for fostering scholarly voice and civic engagement in the modern composition classroom.
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Introduction to Curriculum for Early Childhood Education
Jennifer Paris; Kristin Beeve; Clint Springer · College of the Canyons · 2018
Welcome to learning about how to effectively plan curriculum for young children. This textbook will address: Developing curriculum through the planning cycle Theories that inform what we know about how children learn and the best ways for teachers to support learning The three components of developmentally appropriate practice Importance and value of play and intentional teaching Different models of curriculum Process of lesson planning (documenting planned experiences for children) Physical, temporal, and social environments that set the stage for children’s learning Appropriate guidance techniques to support children’s behaviors as the self-regulation abilities mature. Planning for preschool-aged children in specific domains including Physical development Language and literacy Math Science Creative (the visual and performing arts) Diversity (social science and history) Health and safety How curriculum planning for infants and toddlers is different from planning for older children Supporting school-aged children’s learning and development in out-of-school time through curriculum planning Making children’s learning visible through documentation and assessment
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Information Literacy: Research and Collaboration across Disciplines
Barbara D'Angelo; Sandra Jamieson; Barry Maid · WAC Clearinghouse · 2016
This collection brings together scholarship and pedagogy from multiple perspectives and disciplines, offering nuanced and complex perspectives on Information Literacy in the second decade of the 21st century. Taking as a starting point the concerns that prompted the Association of Research Libraries (ACRL) to review the Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education and develop the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2015), the chapters in this collection consider six frameworks that place students in the role of both consumer and producer of information within today's collaborative information environments. Contributors respond directly or indirectly to the work of the ACRL, providing a bridge between past/current knowledge and the future and advancing the notion that faculty, librarians, administrators, and external stakeholders share responsibility and accountability for the teaching, learning, and research of Information Literacy.
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Reading With My Eyes Open: Embracing the critical and the personal in language pedagogy
Gerdi Quist · Ubiquity Press · 2013
Untangling the various approaches to language teaching and their history, Gerdi Quist maps recent thinking in language studies at university. Using an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, drawn from educational philosophy, cultural studies, intercultural studies and language pedagogy, the author discusses the many tensions and currents in contemporary language teaching. The author puts forward an alternative pedagogy, that of a cultuurtekst-perspective, which engages learners at complex linguistic and cultural levels. In discussing the case study in which this approach is tested, the author develops her argument for embracing various critical perspectives through the personal engagement of students. From the start the author acknowledges her own engaged position as a language teacher in a liberal humanistic educational environment. She adopts a self-critical perspective through which her engagement with adverse student reaction leads to deepening insights both for the author and her students as part of the non-linear process of learning. Gerdi Quist teaches Dutch language and lectures on multiculturalism and intercultural communication. Recent publications included a book chapter and journal articles on language pedagogy and intercultural communication.
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WAC and Second-Language Writers: Research Towards Linguistically and Culturally Inclusive Programs and Practices
Terry Zawacki; Michelle Cox · WAC Clearinghouse · 2014
In WAC and Second-Language Writers, the editors and contributors pursue the ambitious goal of including within WAC theory, research, and practice the differing perspectives, educational experiences, and voices of second-language writers. The chapters within this collection not only report new research but also share a wealth of pedagogical, curricular, and programmatic practices relevant to second-language writers. Representing a range of institutional perspectives—including those of students and faculty at public universities, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, and English-language schools—and a diverse set of geographical and cultural contexts, the editors and contributors report on work taking place in the United States, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
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Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction
Beth Hewett; Kevin DePew; Elif Guler; Robbin Zeff Warner · WAC Clearinghouse · 2015
Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction, edited by Beth L. Hewett and Kevin Eric DePew, with associate editors Elif Guler and Robbin Zeff Warner, addresses the questions and decisions that administrators and instructors most need to consider when developing online writing programs and courses. Written by experts in the field (members of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Committee for Effective Practices in OWI and other experts and stakeholders), the contributors to this collection explain the foundations of the recently published (2013) A Position Statement of Principles and Examples Effective Practices for OWI and provide illustrative practical applications. To that end, in every chapter, the authors address issues of inclusive and accessible writing instruction (based upon physical and mental disability, linguistic ability, and socioeconomic challenges) in technology enhanced settings. The five parts of this book attempt to cover the most important issues relevant to principle-centered OWI: (1) An OWI Primer, (2) OWI Pedagogy and Administrative Decisions, (3) Practicing Inclusivity in OWI, (4) Faculty and Student Preparation for OWI, and (5) New Directions in OWI. Working from the belief that most writing courses eventually will be mediated online to various degrees, the editors offer principles and practices that will allow this collection to inform future composition theory and praxis. To this end, the editors hope that the guidance provided in this collection will encourage readers to join a conversation about designing OWI practices, contributing to the scholarship about OWI, and reshaping OWI theory.