Three simple letters that can mean so much to teachers, students, and learners. OERs or "Open Educational Resources" include such things as books, syllabi, podcasts, and several other varieties of learning tools that can be used with ease by teachers, students, and learners. Teachers can use them instead of expensive textbooks or in addition to the materials that they use in class. iTunes U, which has a variety of materials, such as podcasts, could be used by the teacher and students to read a book, listen to a lecture, etc.
They are valuable tools and can be used in multiple ways. But they don't have to be used just within the classroom; they can be used outside the classroom for additional homework or just for fun. Personally, I love the ability to listen to my favorite book, Pride and Prejudice, via a free podcast rather than buying the audio book. It's more cost-effective. In classrooms, teachers can allow their students to read along to books while listening to these free podcasts. Another thing that is valuable to both teachers, students, and learners, is accessing syllabi online. Although this might help the teachers more because they can pick and choose what aspects of other classroom's that they want to use, their students can access this syllabus anytime online.Other than just these two resources, I found many other things that OERs can be used for. On the OER Commons Website, I found many other posts by teachers that allow for their colleagues to gather ideas from. Games, ways to set your classroom environment, ideas how to use group work in the classroom, etc. can all be explored on this website. There are so many ways for teachers, students, and learners to use OERs and I can say that I would like to use them not only in my future classroom, but also in the classes that I'm taking today. They provide variety and new ideas for all three groups of people. Therefore, they are very valuable tools!
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