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=== Creating your own personal digital library (PDL) ===
 
=== Creating your own personal digital library (PDL) ===
A personal digital library can store information on different topics of interest to you. It is 'personal' meaning it is available on your own computer, for your use any time. It is 'digital';  it is available in a digital format, which makes it  easy for you to store, search and share. Most importantly, it is a 'library' meaning the digital resources are organised meaningfully, for you to easily access information when you want it. For any topic, the PDL will consist of the set of resources downloaded in your folders and sub-folders, along with a 'meta document' which has information about the resources and the files stored in the library.  
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A personal digital library (PDL) is simply a folder containing a set of sub-folders and files on your computer, which contain information on a particular topic. You can store information on different topics of interest to you in different folders, which together constitute your PDL on your computer.
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The PDL is 'personal' meaning it is available on your own computer, for your use any time. It is 'digital';  it is available in a digital format, which makes it  easy for you to store, search and share. Most importantly, it is a 'library' meaning the digital resources are organised meaningfully, for you to easily access information when you want it. For your chosen topic, you can create a PDL, consisting of the set of resources downloaded from the GDL,  in your folders and sub-folders. You can later create a 'meta document' for each topic, using a simple text editor, which will have information about the resources and the files stored in the PDL.  
    
You can build such libraries on any topic you are interested in, and support your own self-learning in a structured manner. Since the internet has resources on almost all topics, you have an opportunity to keep learning on topics of your interest. The topic or area need not be only one of theoretical interest or only to build your knowledge. You can also work on building skills, there are likely to be videos available for helping you learn a new language, or even a skill like swimming.  
 
You can build such libraries on any topic you are interested in, and support your own self-learning in a structured manner. Since the internet has resources on almost all topics, you have an opportunity to keep learning on topics of your interest. The topic or area need not be only one of theoretical interest or only to build your knowledge. You can also work on building skills, there are likely to be videos available for helping you learn a new language, or even a skill like swimming.  
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You can share this personal digital library with your colleagues so that they can also benefit. When teachers share their personal digital libraries / resources from their library with their colleagues, cumulatively, it creates a rich and diverse resource environment.  
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You can share this personal digital library with your colleagues, by simply copying the folder containing the sub-folders and files, so that they can also benefit. When teachers share their personal digital libraries / resources from their library with their colleagues, cumulatively, it creates a rich and diverse resource environment. (You may already be sharing music and video files with your friends on your phone or computer, for entertainment, the PDL extends the same idea for self-learning and peer-learning).  
 
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There are several steps in creating a resource folder.
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# Make a folder on the computer by topic
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# Create a 'meta' document which will provide your thoughts on the topic and link the resources you have collected to these thoughts
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# Access relevant resources from Internet
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# Save pages, images, videos
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# Insert into document
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# Copy links of the resources you find useful, and which you would like to refer to in your document
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# Paste / insert links into document
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# Add your own comments, suggestions in the meta document, and connect the resources accessed and shared, with your ideas to create a resource document on the selected topic.
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# Format the document
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There are a few steps in creating the PDL.
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# Make a folder on the computer by topic, the topic name can be the folder name. Always give full and complete names to any folder or file, avoid using abbreviations or acronyms. This way, just reading the folder or file name will give you an idea of its contents.
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## You should create a folder on your computer (this could be under your 'home' folder or your 'documents' folder) with the <name of the topic> that you would like to create OER on; this can have sub folders for ‘Text’, ‘Image’ and ‘Audio Video’ for saving your save your text, image, audio and video files respectively. By organizing your files and folders carefully on any topic, you are creating what can be termed as a ‘Personal Digital Library’ on that topic. Having personal digital libraries allows you to access and re-use OER easily and effectively.
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## You could instead create sub folders for different sub-topics for your topic and save your files based on the sub topic. For instance, the topic 'energy' could serve as the name of your folder, within which you could create sub-folders for heat, light, magnetism, electricity etc. You should think about the way you would want to access your OER later, and create the sub-folders (and sub sub-folders) on basis of this hierarchy. Searching for files later becomes easier if you have categorised them and then organised them in folders based on these categories.
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## As a teacher, you could also have the 'academic year' as the base folder, within which you could create the OER folders and sub folders. This way, when you begin a new year (2017-18), you can simply copy the folder of the previous academic year (2016-17) with the new year (2017-18) as the folder name. You can then add, modify or delete files in the sub folders within this year folder as per your requirements for the new year.
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# Access relevant resources - web pages, text files, images, animations, audio clips, videos, from internet
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# Save these on relevant sub-folders in your folder.
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# Create a 'meta' document which will provide your thoughts on the topic (you will learn how to create a text document in unit 2, so this can be done later)
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## Copy links of the resources you find useful, and which you would like to refer to later, in your meta document
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## Add your own comments, suggestions in the meta document, and connect the resources accessed and shared, with your ideas to create a resource document on the selected topic.
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#
 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources <nowiki/>]
 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources <nowiki/>]
 
===Equitable access to ICTs===
 
===Equitable access to ICTs===

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