The document discusses open educational resources (OER) and how teacher communities can impact their use. It notes that while many educational resources are available through portals, there is little evidence of their impact or use of more traditional teaching methods. An study examined teachers who were members of a sharing community compared to those who were not. It found community members were more likely to share resources and experiences and found the community helpful for improving practices and creating new materials. For OER to change teaching, teachers must collaborate and participate in networks, while schools must facilitate communication and sharing among teachers.

1. International Center of Studies for
Educational Research and AdvancedTraining
Ca’ Foscari University ofVenice - Italy
PaoloTosatoPaoloTosato
Open Educational ResourcesOpen Educational Resources
and ProfessionalTeaching

2. WebWeb developmentdevelopment
6/27/2013 2
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
From a static, unchanging world of information to a From a static, unchanging world of information to a
constantly changing one
 A growing number of "Open" and freely accessible
teaching/learning content hubs

3. Open EducationalOpen Educational ResourcesResources
6/27/2013 3
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Portals such as MACE, Share.TEC, OpenScout, MERLOT, allow to
access to hundreds of thousands of educational resources in digital
format
… and
Portals such as MACE, Share.TEC, OpenScout, MERLOT, allow to
access to hundreds of thousands of educational resources in digital
format
… and new projects are in progress
 OportUnidad (http://www.oportunidadproject.eu/)
 Open Discovery Space (http://www.opendiscoveryspace.eu/)

4. Open AccessOpen Access RepositoriesRepositories
6/27/2013 4
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

5. Open AccessOpen Access RepositoriesRepositories
6/27/2013 5
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Data provided by: ROAR & OpenDOAR (http://maps.repository66.org/)
From 1990 to 1995From 1990 to 1995

6. Open AccessOpen Access RepositoriesRepositories
6/27/2013 6
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Data provided by: ROAR & OpenDOAR (http://maps.repository66.org/)
From 1990 to 2000From 1990 to 2000

7. Open AccessOpen Access RepositoriesRepositories
6/27/2013 7
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Data provided by: ROAR & OpenDOAR (http://maps.repository66.org/)
From 1990 to 2005From 1990 to 2005

8. Open AccessOpen Access RepositoriesRepositories
6/27/2013 8
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Data provided by: ROAR & OpenDOAR (http://maps.repository66.org/)
From 1990 to 2010From 1990 to 2010

9. Open AccessOpen Access RepositoriesRepositories
6/27/2013 9
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Data provided by: ROAR & OpenDOAR (http://maps.repository66.org/)
From 1990 to 2013From 1990 to 2013

10. WhatWhat isis the impact inthe impact in educationeducation??
6/27/2013 10
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Despite an increasing number of institutions have decided to share
their educational resources, there is still a
Despite an increasing number of institutions have decided to share
their educational resources, there is still a
 little evidence in the use of these materials
 predominance of traditional teaching methods
It is necessary to investigate the impact of open
educational resources
It is necessary to investigate the impact of open
educational resources
 on teaching and learning quality ("Paris OER
Declaration", 2012, European Commission,
"Rethinking Education strategy", 2012)
 on teachers’ professional practices

11. 6/27/2013 11
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
UNESCO – COL Guidelines for Open Educational
Resources in Higher Education (2011)
producer
UNESCO – COL Guidelines for Open Educational
Resources in Higher Education (2011)
 underline the importance of end-user-producer
communities
 advise teachers to leverage networks and
communities of practice
TeachersTeachers’ community’ community
&& resourceresource--usingusing experiencesexperiences
Educational resources as a product of a process of reification and Educational resources as a product of a process of reification and
participation that involves the whole community of learning
(Wenger, 1998)
 What makes a digital object "educational" is the information that
surrounds a resource, emphasizing its use in a particular learning
context (DeWaal, 2007)

12. 6/27/2013 12
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Supporting community of teachers and the sharing of material best practices,
promotes
Supporting community of teachers and the sharing of material best practices,
promotes efficient use of resources and improves teachers’ didactic
Development of two platforms Development of two platforms
 Repository: http://projectschool.wikispaces.com/
 Wiki: http://www.projectschool.it/minerva/
 Support a community of teachers (Minerva), which uses these platforms
HHypothesisypothesis

13. 6/27/2013 13
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
SampleSample
130 teachers of secondary school (primary and
secondary
130 teachers of secondary school (primary and
secondary level)
 A group of 38 teachers members of Minerva
community (M)
 A group of 92 teachers (NM)
 31 members of a community

14. 6/27/2013 14
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
ResultsResults
Share resource-using experiences (NM)Share resource-using experiences (NM)
 88.04% of teachers consider important the sharing of resource-using
experiences
 78.18% of teachers that share their resources online, states that the
sharing of resource-using experiences helped them to reuse the
resources.
Share resources (NM)Share resources (NM)
 90.92% of teachers consider their community an important support to
share materials
 Do you share your materials online?
 Teachers that are not members of a community (Yes: 59.78%)
 Members of a community (Yes: 77.42%)

15. 6/27/2013 15
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
ResultsResults
Professional practices
Is the community helpful to improve your practices and to develop new
Professional practices
 Is the community helpful to improve your practices and to develop new
educational activities?
 M (Yes: 34.21%)
 NM (Yes: 12.24%)
Create new resourcesCreate new resources
 Is the community helpful to create new materials?
 M (Yes: 76.67%)
 NM (Yes: 69.23%)
 Are you available to share freely (without restrictions) your resources
online?
 M (Yes: 34.21%)
 NM (Yes: 27.17%)

16. ConclusionsConclusions
A repository of educational resources can not change teachers' practices.
To do this, teachers have to
Therefore, it will be important
Schools will need to provide tools
A repository of educational resources can not change teachers' practices.
To do this, teachers have to
 accept collaboration
 participate in teachers' networks
Therefore, it will be important
 interweave teachers' communities with digital object repositories
 share resource-using experiences
Schools will need to provide tools to facilitate
 communication among teachers
 the sharing of content and experiences
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
6/27/2013 16
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Real-world information is not held inside silos like academic institutions
pretend
Real-world information is not held inside silos like academic institutions
pretend (De Rossi, 2012)

17. Email
ptosato@unive.it
Wiki
http://projectschool.wikispaces.com
Repository
http://www.projectschool.it/minerva/
Jute 2013 Paolo Tosato
6/27/2013 17
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
“Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is
progress.Working together is success.”
- Henry Ford -