Changes

The National Curriculum Framework 2005 speaks of contextual, inclusive and meaningful education. For these ideas to come true, relevant learning resources must be available for the students (teachers) and teachers (teacher-educator).  These resources must be contextual, easily available and allow for learners to modify and adapt for their requirements.  

The National Curriculum Framework 2005 speaks of contextual, inclusive and meaningful education. For these ideas to come true, relevant learning resources must be available for the students (teachers) and teachers (teacher-educator).  These resources must be contextual, easily available and allow for learners to modify and adapt for their requirements.  

Currently, textbook may be the most important resource for many teachers.  This resource is limited, made once in a year and represent on set of thoughts. The text based resource does not incorporate audio visual resources, and may not address multiple learning needs. External resources, though available, are also largely non-digital, expensive and cannot easily be adapted for local needs and contexts. For critical and diverse perspectives to develop, multiple resources must be made available and it must be possible for knowledge to be constructed and shared from multiple contexts. Otherwise, it is possible that only some forms of knowledge will remain important and other will die out. For knowledge sharing to freely happen, educational resources must become freely available, freely shareable and freely changeable to adapt to local contexts and needs.  Open Educational Resources (OERs), as they are called are such learning resources. Open Educational Resources are digital resources that are available freely, in multiple formats – text, audio, video – to allow for multiple learner needs.

Currently, textbook may be the most important resource for many teachers.  This resource is limited, made once in a year and perhaps represent one set of thoughts. The text based resource does not incorporate audio visual resources, and may not address multiple learning needs. External resources, though available, are also largely non-digital, expensive and cannot easily be adapted for local needs and contexts. For critical and diverse perspectives to develop, multiple resources must be made available and it must be possible for knowledge to be constructed and shared from multiple contexts. Otherwise, it is possible that only some forms of knowledge will remain important and other will die out. For knowledge sharing to freely happen, educational resources must become freely available, freely shareable and freely changeable to adapt to local contexts and needs.  Open Educational Resources (OERs), as they are called, are such learning resources. Open Educational Resources are digital resources that are available freely, in multiple formats – text, audio, video – to allow for multiple learner needs.

As per [http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/Events/English_Paris_OER_Declaration.pdf UNESCO], OER are "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions."<br>OER became a global phenomenon when [http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia] was launched in 2001, this is an encyclopedia on the internet, where knowledge is created and shared by many people and not restricted to one person.  Following this, [http://web.mit.edu/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology], a leading university in the United States of America, released many of its course materials for free called [https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm Open Courseware] (2001).  In teacher education, educational resources were developed collaboratively by a programme for Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa and published [http://www.tessafrica.net on-line]. These are few early initiatives in OERs; now many more OERs are available across the world teaching and learning.  In India, National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning ([http://nptel.iitk.ac.in NPTEL]) and IGNOU have offered many of the courses as OER.

As per [http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/Events/English_Paris_OER_Declaration.pdf UNESCO], OER are "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions."<br>OER became a global phenomenon when [http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia] was launched in 2001, this is an encyclopedia on the internet, where knowledge is created and shared by many people and not restricted to one person.  Following this, [http://web.mit.edu/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology], a leading university in the United States of America, released many of its course materials for free called [https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm Open Courseware] (2001).  In teacher education, educational resources were developed collaboratively by a programme for Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa and published [http://www.tessafrica.net on-line]. These are few early initiatives in OERs; now many more OERs are available across the world teaching and learning.  In India, National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning ([http://nptel.iitk.ac.in NPTEL]) and IGNOU have offered many of their courses as OER.

====Principles of OERs====

====Principles of OERs====

Open Educational Resources are those resources that allow the following four kinds of freedoms to learners/ users.  These “Freedoms” are as follows:

Open Educational Resources are those resources that allow the following four kinds of freedoms to learners/ users.  These “Freedoms” are as follows:

#Resources can be accessed for free and ''''re-used'''<nowiki/>'

#Resources can be accessed for free and ''''re-used'''<nowiki/>'

#Resources can be '''revised''' to make it relevant

#Resources can be '''revised''' to make it relevant or more useful

#Resources can be '''re-mixed''' / combined to make a new resource

#Resources can be '''re-mixed''' / combined to make a new resource

#Resources can be  '''redistributed''' - the revised/ remixed resource can be shared back.  

#Resources can be  '''redistributed''' - the revised/ remixed resource can be shared back.  

====Licensing and copyright====

====Licensing and copyright====

OER are shared under copyright which are less restrictive than the usual 'all rights reserved' and allow for some or all of the four R's. One popular copyright used for such resources is the “[http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons]”.  Creative Commons is a type of copy right (sometimes called Copy Left, to contrast it with the traditional 'all rights reserved' copyright) that will allow you to use the resources, modify them, combine them and also redistribute.  When you are accessing/ sharing something as OERs, you can share  it under Creative Commons License, by explicitly mentioning that 'Copyright – Creative Commons' in your text. If nothing is mentioned, the default copyright is 'all rights reserved', which will mean others cannot modify or share your resources. The ICT hand book and text book are released as OER, which allows teachers, teacher educators and others to re-use, as well as revise and re-distribute.

OER are shared under copyright which are less restrictive than the usual 'all rights reserved' and allow for some or all of the four R's. One popular copyright used for such resources is the “[http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons]”.  Creative Commons is a type of copy right (sometimes called Copy Left, to contrast it with the traditional 'all rights reserved' copyright) that will allow you to use the resources, modify them, combine them and also redistribute.  When you are sharing a learning resource as OER, you can share  it under Creative Commons License, by explicitly mentioning the license 'Copyright – Creative Commons' in your text. If nothing is mentioned, the default copyright is 'all rights reserved', which will mean others cannot modify or share your resources. The ICT hand book and text book are released as OER, which allows teachers, teacher educators and others to re-use, as well as revise and re-distribute.

====OERs – A national priority====

====OERs – A national priority====

At the national level, the NCERT is maintaining the [http://nroer.gov.in National Repository of Open Educational Resources].  In Karnataka, teachers have collaborated through the Subject Teacher Forum program of RMSA and SCERT Karnataka to create and publish resources on the [http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/KOER_background-note Karnataka Open Educational Resources].  It is organized on the same principles of OERs and is built on a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki Mediawiki] platform like [https://en.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia].

At the national level, the NCERT is maintaining the [http://nroer.gov.in National Repository of Open Educational Resources].  In Karnataka, teachers have collaborated through the Subject Teacher Forum program of RMSA and SCERT Karnataka to create and publish resources on the [http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/KOER_background-note Karnataka Open Educational Resources].  It is organized on the principles of OER and is built on a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki Mediawiki] platform like [https://en.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia].