November 29, 2012
Joint OER Meeting
On November 29, SETDA co-hosted a meeting with iNACOL, CCSSO, and EducationCounsel on open educational resources (OER) for DC-based education associations. In attendance were representatives from American Association of School Administrators, CoSN, the Learning First Alliance, ISTE, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Association of State Boards of Education, National School Boards Association, and the PTA.
November 15, 2012
Achieve's OER Institute
Geoff Fletcher took part in Achieve's OER Institute in Chicago, November 15 and 16th by kicking off the Institute with a talk on the importance of open and online resources in the Age of the Waterbed and working with states in creating plans to encourage OER in schools.
October 15, 2012
The State Education Policy Center Website Launched
The State Education Policy Center (SEPC) is a database of state policies related to education and technology curated by the State Educational Technology Directors Association.
September 24, 2012
Out of Print: Reimagining the K-12 Textbook in the Digital Age Report
Out of Print highlights the sea change underway in the multi-billion dollar U.S. K-12 instructional materials market enabled by recent technology and intellectual property rights innovations. With a focus on the ultimate impact on student learning, the report provides examples of lessons learned from recent digital and open (OER) content initiatives by leading states and school districts and offers comprehensive recommendations for government, industry, and educators to ensure that the inevitable shift to digital instructional materials improves student achievement and engagement and efficiently uses scarce resources.
Learn more, view the archived webinar of the Out of Print Report Release and Briefing event.
Digital Learning Day Applications for 2013
The Alliance for Excellent Education seeks to build upon the success of its first-ever Digital Learning Day by identifying and continuing to showcase teachers and schools that are effectively using digital learning technologies to accelerate student achievement. They seek to highlight best practices and models where leaders are strategically and systemically incorporating technology into instructional practices including digital content, online courses & professional development, formative assessment, as well as the use of data to inform school improvement efforts. The Alliance encourages teachers, schools, districts, states and other organizations such as libraries, afterschool programs or community-based organizations to submit proposals to be considered for their work leading up to Digital Learning Day 2013. Additional information is available at http://www.digitallearningday.org/showcase/callforproposals2012. Submissions are due no later than April 27th.
April 11, 2012
OER Webinar Recording
On Wednesday, April 11, SETDA co-hosted an OER webinar with The Council of Chief State School Officers, Creative Commons and iNACOL. The webinar featured opening remarks by CCSSO about the important relationship between OER and implementation of the Common Core State Standards, followed by a discussion with a leading intellectual property legal expert from American University and Creative Commons and an overview of Utah's efforts in creating and distributing OER. Presenters included Peter Zamora, Council of Chief State School Officers, Mike Carroll, Professor of Law, American University and Founding Member of Creative Commons and Tiffany Hall, K-12 Literacy Coordinator, Utah Department of Education. States may access the webinar archive here.
April 4, 2012
Mobiledia: The Future of Education: Tablets or Textbooks? by Margaret Rock
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 3:30 to 4:30 (EDT) K-12 Open Educational Resources and the Common Core State Standards: An Intellectual Property Briefing for Lawyers and State Education Leaders
SETDA will co-host an OER webinar with The Council of Chief State School Officers, Creative Commons and iNACOL. The webinar will feature opening remarks by CCSSO about the important relationship between OER and implementation of the Common Core State Standards, followed by a discussion with a leading intellectual property legal expert from American University and Creative Commons.
Presenters include:
- Peter Zamora, Council of Chief State School Officers
- Mike Carroll, Professor of Law, American University and Founding Member of Creative Commons
- State Education Agency Leader To Be Announced
To participate in the webinar, please RSVP to Ashley Gardiner, ashleyg@ccsso.org and connect to the meeting online using the below Webex instructions:
- Step 1: Visit: https://ccsso.webex.com/ccsso/onstage/g.php?d=316838296&t=a
- Step 2: Click "Join Now". ** Once in the web portion of the meeting you will be prompted to have webex call you onyour landline or cell phone. If you do not want this option continue to step 3:
- Step 3: Call 1-866-469-3239
Open Educational Resources: Why Open Matters Video Contest
Creative Commons, the Open Institute Society and ED are sponsoring a video contest in conjunction with Open Education Week. The contest was announced in conjunction with the Open Education Week celebration, Why Open Matters, http://whyopenedmatters.org. The competition will award cash prizes, provided by the Open Society Institute, of up to $25,000 for the best short videos that explain the use and promise of free, high-quality open educational resources and describe the benefits and opportunities these materials create for teachers, students and schools. For a complete list of the video submission requirements and answers to other contest-related questions, visit the website.
Achieve OER Rubrics and Evaluation Tool videos
On March 19, Achieve presented information regarding their OER Evaluation Rubrics which can be found on their website at www.achieve.org/oer-rubrics. They also have a YouTube page, which has informational and instructional videos about the Evaluation Rubrics and Tool. There are seven additional videos that show how to apply each of the rubrics individually: http://www.youtube.com/achieveinc. These videos will soon be embedded on the Evaluation Tool on OER Commons. For a link to the virtual tour of the Rubrics and Tool created for Open Education Week, go to http://www.openeducationweek.org/achieve-oer-rubrics-and-evaluation-tool-virtual-tour/
OER Policy Registry: Request for Help
Creative Commons (CC) has received a small grant to create an “OER Policy Registry.” The Open Education Resources (OER) Policy Registry will be a place for policy makers and open advocates to easily share and update OER legislation, OER institutional policies and supporting OER policy resources.
- Contribute any OER policies you know about on this form: Click Here
- Review the draft list of OER policies: Click Here
February 1, 2012
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski joined Education Secretary Arne Duncan to unveil the Obama Administration's "Digital Textbook Playbook" to accelerate the K-12 transition to digital textbooks. Read more in Geoff Fletcher's Digital Content Chronicle blog post.
January 27, 2012
Definitive Common Core Identifiers and Metadata
At the 2011 Leadership Summit, a significant number of states participated in a Birds of a Feather session organized by Jeff Mao of Maine and Bruce Umpstead of Michigan on the general topic of better coordinating the tagging of educational resources for teaching and learning, professional development, and assessment. At that meeting, we discussed a variety of federal and national initiatives underway that either presume or would benefit from a common and definitive way to identify and tag educational resources, with a particular focus on CCSS-aligned resources. Whether the issue is coordinating work with your school districts or embarking on an effort to share and benefit from resources developed in other states or by vendors, SETDA members underscored the critical importance of definitive CCSS identifiers and metadata to allow for the cost-effective interoperability of systems. For this reason, we are pleased to share that late last week - at the behest of SETDA and other actors - CCSSO and the National Governors Association (NGA) announced that they would be embarking on just such an effort and that SETDA members will have an opportunity to have input into their work. The products of this work will be published on the official CCSS website. Developments also can be followed by joining the Education Interoperability group on assess4ed.
January 25, 2012
Utah State Office of Education to Create Open Textbooks
On January 25, the Utah State of Office of Education (USOE) announced it will develop and support open textbooks in the key curriculum areas of secondary language arts, science, and mathematics. USOE will encourage districts and schools throughout the state to consider adopting these textbooks for use beginning this fall. “Utah’s open textbooks are a great use of technology,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Larry K. Shumway. “Texts get into classrooms quickly and can be updated as needed rather than on a publishing schedule – something that’s particularly important in science. The open textbook also adds to Utah’s reputation as the most cost-efficient school system in the country. This is a fantastic way to get the latest textbooks into the hands of Utah’s nearly 600,000 public school students.” Access full announcement.
Archived News and Announcement >>
