CAS Digital Learning in Emergencies/module4-Margaret

Module 4 design for Margaret and Lucy

The overall objective of this design is to become familiar with Open Education Resources

The time required for the module is 47 hours. The distribution of the timeframe can be seen in the below link;

Here is my link for module 4 Design and Activities

Activity 1

Our learning outcomes for the above section and activity are as highlighted below;

• Present the 5R characteristics of OER in our own words
• Describe the different Creative Commons (CC) licences and their specificities
• Discuss the relationships between the 5R and CC licences with the backdrop of given resources

Activity

The first sub-activity under Activity 1 for my design was to Present the 5R characteristics of OER in my own words. The link below can elaborate more on the 5Rs in my own words under this link;Output Assignment 1.1

Activity

The second sub-activity was to explore the various licences under the creative commons. The licenses are discussed here below as per their guidelines. Here is the link for the same; Output Assignment 1.2

Activity

The third sub activity under Activity one was to discuss the relationships between the 5R and CC licences with the backdrop of given resources. The comparative analysis and discussions can be found in the attached link for in-depth discussions; Out put Assignment 1.3

Activity 2

The learning outcomes for our second activity was to;

• Find OERs
• Evaluate the quality of OERs

OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES(OER)

Open Education is gaining popularity in academia. Its replacing the known classroom setup form of learning to making it more open to more people. Open learning is in the public domain and has come with many benefits. The link below could shed more light on what open learning is all about Open Education. For learning to take place, learning resources are a fundamental prerequisite. Below are some OERs that facilitate open education; ==== Open Education Resources searched from the OER archives include; ====

1. Open Med
2. Wikimedia
3. Wikipedia
4. Edu Tech Wiki
5. Open University
6. Open Course Ware(OCW)
7. Open Education Consortium
8. Open stax CNX -Connexions
9. BC Open text books
10. Open Text Book Library
11. Khan Academy
12. Saylor Academy
13. Open Game
14. OER Africa
15. African Virtual University
16. and many more others

During the previous CAS, i explored on the area of psycho-social support(PSS) for teachers during an emergency situation . My case in point was how teachers would cope with their work during the COVID-19 emergency situation which affected the entire world. In times of crisis and emergency, most interventions targeting children are focused on addressing their visible and pressing needs such as food, clothing, and shelter with little focus on the invisible needs, such as psychosocial support (PSS). PSS is a very wide area in emergency response because it comprises help that is can be offered as soft or hard(physical). My topic in the CAS was on provision of PSS support as soft skills to help teachers cope with the upsurge of the covid-19 pandemic and the challenges thereof in their work and the new dispensation in which the teacher would teach and how they could assist their learners to also accept change and develop life skills for resilience. The OER that i would then wish to search are on the topic of life skills. Life skills can be defined as abilities that help a person to cope with challenges of every day life. Life skills as topic has three major components on awareness namely;

• Intra-personal skills-Lifeskills of understanding and dealing with one self
• Inter-personal skills--Lifeskills of understanding and dealing with others
• Lifeskills of making effective decision making

Below are some of the OER related to our topic of life skills that we have been able to identify using the X5GON tool

1. COUNSELLING SKILLS FOR TEACHERS
2. Strategies for Academic Success
3. Principles of Social Psychology
4. Life skills[https://cnx.org/contents/Tgl3H6iq@8.6:TGHLb4ZB@7/17-2-
5. Developing your Interpersonal skills is Key to your Success
6. What are lifeskills[1]

EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES(OER)

As can be seen from the OER that we have identified, they are quite few from the vast materials that were available in the search gadgets such as of advanced google search and X5GON Tool. This means open education materials on PSS and Life skills have not been able to be availed publicly as much as other materials from other areas. However, this area of PSS need to be taken up by actors in Education as a crucial component in Education in Emergency including in Distance Education In Emergency

Below is an evaluation of 5 OER searched and evaluated,

1. Strategies for Academic Success
2. Counselling for Teachers
3. Developing Inter-Personal Skills
4. Life Skills
5. Principles of Social Psychology

Reflection on the Assignment in searching for OER on the Topic of Life skills for Psycho Social Support

Searching for OER using the X5GON tool and advanced google search for the above area was quite taxing. Our experience especially in searching for open learning materials for our topic of interest which was Life skills for Pyscho-Social Support which is an in area of child protection was a little bit difficult from the list of OER that we searched. We were not able to get a resource that was explicit in the way it brought about the issues of teaching/cultivating life skills for teachers who teach in situations of emergency. During emergency situations, teachers are beacons of hope for the many children who they come in contact with. The children just like them are affected by disaster and they need teachers whose life skills abilities are fully developed so that they can disseminate the same skills to leaners. Our thoughts were backed by the fact that during emergencies, many people including teachers, children and parents are not interested in learning per se, their interest during such moments are to know how to cope and survive in situations of uncertainties to be able to bounce back when normalcy returns. Many researchers who have looked at effects of disasters in the lives of teachers show that many suffer from mental health challenges which disable their thinking and decision making ability leading to poor coping mechanisms. When teachers are ill equipped, they lack the ability to help and support the children they teach to overcome their situations and become resilient.

Recommendations

Having spent a lot of time in searching for life skills training materials that are open and which can be accessed and help in teachers training, we noted many of the OER sites do not have such materials. OER that were available are either too wide in context and do not clearly address the skills-set that teachers need for resilience both for them and their learners. We therefore recommend that more people especially those in child protection in emergencies re-look at the area of psycho- social support and endeavor to research more and post more OER in relevant sites so that they become easily accessible to our teachers and their learners noting that these soft skills are indeed the genesis of recollection and resilience for anyone affected by crisis situation. It’s worth noting that in Kenya, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum development (KICD) has developed and adapted many learning and teaching materials on the area of psycho-social support. The most recent materials on psycho-social support which were developed and gained popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic are yet to be uploaded in websites. According to our assessment, these materials which are in the Kenyan curriculum for both primary and secondary education need to be in the public domain especially through the African [Virtual University ] for many educationist in Africa to access to better their society and education system.

References

https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/fr/2011/01/article_0002.html

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=38922

https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/

https://www.cyjma.qld.gov.au/protecting-children

https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140614090047/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/oer2/LearnerVoice.aspx

Open Education Resources https://library.educause.edu/topics/teaching-and-learning/open-educational-resources-oer

Seven Things You Should Know About Open Education: Content. (Cable Green et.al 2018)https://library.educause.edu/resources/2018/6/7-things-you-should-know-about-open-education-content

Bibliography

Wu, Michelle M., The Corruption of Copyright and Returning It to Its Original Purposes (July 13, 2021). Legal Reference Services Quarterly (forthcoming), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3892269Mackintosh, W. (2016).

OERu: Realising Sustainable Education Futures. In F. Miao, S. Mishra, & R. McGreal (Eds.), Open Educational Resources: Policy, Costs and Transformation (pp. 129–146). UNESCO and Commonwealth of Learning.

UNESCO 2019 OER recommandation: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=49556&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Module 4 Assignment-Margaret Ngotho and Lucy Tengeye licensed under © Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0-ShareAlike 4.0 International