In my experience, an elementary school teacher’s preferred methods of acquiring new teaching ideas and resources are primarily from word of mouth, and to varying degrees through teacher in-service, structured (paper based) programs and then popular commercial websites such as Teachers Pay Teachers. My firm belief is that time is an extremely scarce resource for a classroom teacher, and spending time searching for excellent new resources is time that is difficult to sacrifice. My preferred methods for finding new ideas, programs, worksheets and so on is through a simple Google search, and then a quick sift through to find the most reputable sites. Very seldom does my search begin with sifting through an open educational resource database. This is not to say that open educational sites do not contain great ideas, information and resources; rather, that there seem to be fewer quality resources targeted toward younger learners.
“The world of open educational resources (OERs) is both a blessing and a curse for educators. The blessing lies in access to a host of free educational materials for use in the classroom. The curse is the sheer scope of the resources and providers.” (Randles, 2017)
I believe that open educational resources should make up most, if not all the resources that I and other teachers like myself access. Resources in the areas of Social Studies and Science are sadly lacking in most districts. Textbooks have been allowed to become outdated, and new books have not been purchased. Finding relevant reading material for topics in the curriculum has become a struggle, and many teachers resent having to seek out and purchase commercially prepared materials. Unfortunately, school districts have downloaded resource gathering onto teachers. Our lack of current and relevant resources with which to Indigenize our curriculum is one area that I hope to see much more open educational resources collected. Without equitable access to resources and programs, we will continue to see great discrepancies between schools and school districts as those who can afford the commercial sites and programs will be able to offer a different standard of learning to their students.
References:
Randles, Julie. “5 Open Educational Resources to Try.” ISTE, 31 Mar. 2017, https://www.iste.org/explore/In-the-classroom/5-open-educational-resources-to-try.
