ICT Essentials for Teachers (Module 2)

General Search

1)     Google Search: Google is the most commonly used search tool on the web. It has a set of algorithms that helps you find whatever information you search for provided it is on the World Wide Web. You can use google search to find OERs by clicking on  Google Advanced Search, Scroll down in advanced search and set “usage rights” parameters to be “Free to use, share, or modify”. If you want content for commercial use be sure to select the appropriate option.

2)     Creative Commons search tool: Click on Creative Commons search tool. The CC Search tool automatically filters your search to find Creative Commons licensed resources that you can share, use, and remix.

3)     Encyclopedia of Life: All content on EOL is licensed under Creative Commons (CC) licenses, but each contributor defines what Level of CC licensing is applicable to their content. Specific licensing information can be found adjacent to media or by clicking on desired media. Encyclopedia of Life

4)     Public Library of Science (PLOS): PLOS is a non-profit publisher and advocacy organization focused on science and medicine. Every article they publish is open access. All written content and images are licensed using a Creative Commons Attribution license. Searching through PLOS journals and collections can yield many highly useful images including figures, tables, and graphs.

5)     YouTube : The best way to find a video that is licensed under the Creative Commons license on YouTube is to use the CC Search tool . However, http://www.youtube.com/creativecommons lets you see the most viewed and most reused Creative Commons licensed videos

6)     Vimeo lets you easily post and find Creative Commons licensed videos. https://vimeo.com/creativecommons

7)     TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, and Design. These videos are released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license, so they can be freely shared and reposted. https://www.ted.com

8)     Jamendo offers more than 350,000 free music tracks licensed under Creative Commons, all available for streaming and unlimited download without ads.

Educational Search

1)     OER Commons: has forged alliances with over 120 major content partners to provide a single point of access through which educators and learners can search across collections to access over 30,000 items, find and provide descriptive information about each resource, and retrieve the ones they need.

2)     The Orange Grove digital repository provides an environment for educators to search for, use, remix, share, and contribute educational resources. A wide range of K-12 and post-secondary resources are available. The repository can also be integrated with a Learning Management Systems (e.g., Blackboard, Desire 2 Learn, and Canvas).

3)     Open Yale Courses (OYC) provide lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses licensed using Creative Commons.Each course includes a full set of class lectures produced in high-quality video accompanied by such other course materials as syllabi, suggested readings, and problem sets.

4)     MIT is also well known for the MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative, a Creative Commons licensed web-based publication of virtually all MIT on campus course content online including lecture notes, exams, and videos.MIT has their own MIT YouTube channel where recorded lectures are uploaded.

5)     UC Berkeley’s webcast.berkeley is a central service for online video and audio lectures. From the home page you can search for a particular course or simply choose to view all courses. Video and audio lectures are licensed as Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) and made available through YouTube and/or iTunes.

6)     The Khan Academy has a large library of videos covering math, biology, chemistry, physics and even the humanities, finance and History. Khan videos aren’t so much recorded lectures as short 10 minute long tutorials with an instructor narrating explanations and working things out on a board by hand on your computer screen.

7)     The Community College Open Textbooks Collaborative, funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is focused on driving awareness and adoptions of open textbooks. This includes providing training for instructors adopting open resources, peer reviews of open textbooks, and mentoring online professional networks that support for authors opening their resources, and other services.

8)     PhET provides fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena for free. PhET simulations enable students to make connections between real-life phenomena and the underlying science, deepening their understanding and appreciation of the physical world. All PhET simulations are freely available from the PhET website and are easy to use and incorporate into the classroom. They are written in Java and Flash, and can be run using a standard web browser as long as Flash and Java are installed. The PhET Interactive Simulations are distributed under the Creative Commons-Attribution 3.0 license and the Creative Commons GNU General Public License. Here’s a list of PhET simulations.

9)     Connexions is a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute. Content is licensed with Creative Commons.

10)Saylor.org is a free and open collection of college level courses developed by a team of experienced college professors to fulfill the same learning objectives as traditional college courses. Courses are licensed using Creative Commons.