Involving students in creating OER

I decided some years ago now to work as an open educational practitioner and I have found this very beneficial to my own development. I curate resources to share with other language teachers and students and I am very active on slideshare, pinterest and other social media tools. More recently in the UK the fees charged to students for their study and accommodation became very real to me as my son went of to Uni. This focused my mind on how I could increase student agency in the creation and sharing of learning resources and I ran several small projects in my modules to encourage them to be creators rather than just passive consumers as part of their learning and the learning of others. 

Here are some examples of their work. 

One small group of beginners learning French shared their learning insights through our e-portfolio tool, Mahara. I presented their work at a Mahara Hui in 2015 and one of the participants talked of her experience in this short video. 

As part of their learning my students often have assignments which produce outputs which can then be used by younger learners such as this thinglink board for oral role play practice and this   padlet board about clothes. This encourages them to think about their learning as part of a continuum, connecting with other learning communities such as school students who in turn get an insight to the importance of language learning. 

For the past 6 years I have been involved in running virtual exchange between students of French at Warwick and those learning English in Clermont Ferrand, France. Known as the Clavier network, we have used social media to connect and extend our reach and many unexpected collaborations have resulted. This activity crosses the traditional divides between formal and informal learning and produces rich interactions and some serendipitous connections and opportunities. Participation also builds digital capabilities and transversal skills for both staff and students. 

Central to the impact of these activities is the fact that they take place largely in the open. A recent project I have been involved in looked at how we can strengthen understanding of the benefits of a free and open internet for equality of opportunity, sustainability of teaching and the future for our young people.