As educators begin to develop OER, one component of that process is navigating concerns around copyright when finding digital teaching materials. This webinar series addresses that and is divided into two tracks: K-12 and Higher Education. There are also two stand-alone webinar options that can be attended by both the K-12 and Higher Education community. All of the webinars will also be available on YouTube and linked to this page after the live event has ended.

A practical guide to creating blended learning, with lots of videos to illustrate steps and concepts. Written for higher ed, but definitely usable for anyone.

The Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession  – Teacher Tech Project provides information, resources and learning opportunities for teachers to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding of Learning Management Systems and instructional design for distance learning. 

Technology can be a powerful tool to assist students with special needs or any sort of learning challenge. In particular the Chrome web browser allows users to install a wide variety of web extensions that provide tools that can help all learners, regardless of ability level.

In this blog post we will take a look at over 30 Chrome web extensions that can assist students in five main categories:
Text to Speech
Readability
Reading Comprehension
Focus
Navigation

Some of the tools fit into more than one topic, but each is only listed once. Certainly this list does not cover all of the useful web extensions available for struggling learners, but it is a great place to begin. In addition to the list of extension, I have also linked in the video from a webinar I did a while back on "Google Tools for Special Needs".

With students and educators under shelter-at-home orders, states and districts are faced with difficult decisions about how to support students’ science learning while they are home. Home environments support different aspects of student learning than school-based environments. Designing home-based learning experiences to intentionally take advantage of the unique assets of being at home can be supportive of students’ social, emotional, and mental health; provide a meaningful and complementary science learning experience; and allow students to explore real-world and personally relevant science in ways that are difficult to accomplish in school. Field-based examples of home and neighborhood investigations of ecological systems will be shared.

This guide is meant to help teachers utilize technology in the classroom while protecting their students’ privacy.

Technology tools and apps are making it possible for educators and students to collaborate, create, and share ideas more easily than ever. When schools use technology, students’ data—including some personal information—is collected both by educators and often the companies that provide apps and online services. Educators use some of this data to inform their instructional practice and get to know their students better. It is just as essential for educators to protect their students as it is to help them learn.

What does formative assessment look like during distance learning? Without proximity, how can teachers gather and act on “in-the-moment” information – the behaviors, emotions, and situations that affect learning and inform instruction?
This resource provides explanations, sample questions, and possible actions to implement formative assessment during distance learning scenarios.

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

For educators using Google technology in their classrooms, this toolkit from Google for Education provides videos and best practices for educators to share with their students' families and guardians.Materials are copyright Google. This document from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction provides links to the online resources.

This book is your guide to blended teaching in K-12 spaces. It was designed to help both pre-service teachers and in-service teachers prepare their classes for blended teaching. This book begins by orienting you to the foundational dispositions and skills needed to support your blended teaching practice. Then you will be introduced to four key competencies for blended teaching:

Online Integration – ability to effectively combine online instruction with in-person instruction.
Data Practices – ability to use digital tools to monitor student activity and performance in order to guide student growth.
Personalizing Instruction – ability to implement a learning environment that allows for student customization of goals, pace, and/or learning path.
Online Interaction – ability to facilitate online interactions with and between students

This textbook provides a set of high-quality resources to university educational technology courses. All chapters are written by professionals in the field, including university researchers, teacher educators, and classroom teachers.

The book in its entirety and each chapter can be freely accessed, downloaded, printed, and remixed. Professors of educational technology courses can select the chapters that will work best for them when creating course packets, and preservice and inservice teachers can use relevant chapters for trainings and professional development purposes.

Student created presentation to educate kids and communities about safe internet habits and practices.

Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects is a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary integration can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. 

This slide deck on Learning Management Systems by the Washington Association of Educational Service Districts is intended to be customized and presented by district personnel to families and caregivers. Materials are available for districts to use with families in nine languages for each of the following learning management systems (LMS): Canvas, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Schoology, and Seesaw.

Training and support links for the four most widely used Learning Management Systems in Washington school districts (as identified in the annual state technology survey from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction).

NCCE is a leader in professional learning with a mission to lead, engage, and assist educational communities to reach higher levels of teacher and student success through the use of 21st century technology.The NCCE Live events are free to attend via Microsoft Teams or to watch archived versions on YouTube. 

The National Standards for Quality Online Courses provide a framework for schools, districts, state agencies, statewide online programs and other interested educational organizations to improve online learning courses. The standards are intended to provide guidance while providing maximum flexibility for the users.

In response to school closures due to COVID-19, OSPI content experts have curated a selection of links to external organizations providing high-quality online educational materials – courses, lessons, videos, physical and outdoor activity suggestions, etc. Please note that in many cases, these resources are free to use online but are not openly licensed for wide scale reuse and adaptation.

This document provides guidance about issues related to using videoconferencing to support continuous learning and student data privacy and  online safety.

To support K-5 teachers during this challenging time in education, we have bundled the NGSS standards for each grade into a few topic units with an anchoring phenomenon and guiding questions along with a variety of instructional resources for every grade-level standard. Knowing teachers are remote, face-to-face and hybrid, you will find both print and digital resources to choose from in the form of videos, interactives, lesson sketches, full lesson plans, and full units.  All listed resources are free online.  Please email kimberley.astle@k12.wa.us at OSPI with feedback and questions.

The PBS Learning Media Teacher Planning Kits for New School Routines are eight-week planning kits filled with lesson ideas, activities and professional learning support. 

PBS Learning Virtual Professional Learning Series is created for teachers—by teachers—to bring together content experts and educators from all backgrounds. With an emphasis on fun, engaging, accessible, and free tools for classrooms, these bite-sized opportunities are designed to connect educators with each other and PBS shows, themes, and content.

Your involvement in your child’s education can lead to better learning results and outcomes. This “Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide” will inform you, as a parent or caregiver, as you monitor your child’s progress as your child accesses and uses technology for learning.

This guide aims to help all parents and caregivers, including those who have limited experience with digital tools, those who are expert with these tools, and anywhere in between. Each section starts with foundational pieces and builds from there.

Part 1: Benefits of Digital Learning
Meeting the Learning Needs of Your Child: Personalized Learning
Understanding Your Child’s Progress: Competency-Based Learning
Connect with Your Community and Beyond: Developing Partnerships
Part 2: Enabling Digital Learning
Ensuring Your Child’s Access: Personal Learning Devices
Ensuring Your Child’s Access: Internet Service
Ensuring Your Child’s Safety, Privacy, and Responsibility Online

The activities in this weekly reading routine from Student Achievement Partners (Achieve the Core website) are designed to support growth in all three areas of reading fluency (accuracy, rate, and expression). Detailed guidance is given on how to implement the routine during in-person (or virtual synchronous learning), virtual asynchronous learning, or limited access/technology situations. 

This resource is intended to help school and district leaders understand, reflect upon, and prioritize actions to improve student learning in remote settings. The guide:

Is organized around five key school leadership focus areas, which enable critical best practices

Highlights specific school-based “Power Moves,” examples and resources,

Can be used in concert with the accompanying deeper Remote Learning Reflection Tool to help leaders assess current readiness and practice and then work with their teams and technical assistance partners to choose areas for highest-impact.

This resource guide is based on a three-session series to support leaders in building staff capacity for implementing remote and distance learning models. It is openly licensed (free!) and includes concrete resources to begin designing and launching effective remote learning. Each session includes a set of slides that contain basic information on the topic and can also be used in team professional learning sessions. This document also includes playlists of additional resources and artifacts to accompany each session that teams can explore.
Session A: Introduction to Remote Learning
Session B: Driving Remote Instructional Quality and Improvement
Session C: Building Staff Capacity Remotely

Learning Management Systems (LMS) specialists from the Washington Association of Educational Service Districts have put together a list of key words and their meanings to help families become familiar with the basic vocabulary around LMS. Available in multiple languages.

This document highlights privacy and equity considerations that emerge when students are required by districts to use video in online classrooms and explores alternative ways to measure student engagement that account for these concerns.

Future of Privacy website is available under a Creative Commons Attribution License : https://fpf.org/privacy-policy
Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay

This “School Leader Digital Learning Guide” is a resource to help you consider, plan, fund, implement, maintain, and adapt learning programs that meet the unique needs and requirements of the students and teachers that you serve.

This “School Leader Digital Learning Guide” is part of a series of guides, including the “Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide” and “Teacher Digital Learning Guide,” intended to support parents and families, teachers, and education leaders in leveraging the capabilities of digital tools and resources for teaching and learning.

What does effective science teaching and learning look like for possible 2020-2021 back-to-school plans?

This series of one-pagers addresses four areas for teachers of science, school/district science specialists, and administrators - curriculum, assessment, instruction, and safety and well being.

Visit the Council of State Science Supervisors website to download editable copies of this resource. http://cosss.org/projects

This 5th grade unit iterates an earlier version and is designed to maximize the integration of science with the other content areas, especially English Language Arts and Math. It is designed to be used now for remote teaching and includes learning activities to be delivered via Zoom or another similar platform, as well as activities students will complete independently or with their families.  You are free to adapt this OER unit as needed. Please note that this unit is a first draft beta version, so please communicate any questions, errors or omissions, feedback and suggestions for improvement to kimberley.astle@k12.wa.us.  

Modules 1 through 4 are organized around essential distance learning topics for anyone who is supporting a student whilst in their care. Each module invites choice and personalization. These self-paced, independent experiences are designed with the hope that you will tailor your online experience to your individual supporting needs and interests.
Module 1: What is a Learning Management System (LMS)
Module 2: Creating an At-Home Learning System
Module 3: Support Like a Coach
Module 4: Encourage a Growth Mindset -Why Struggle is Good for Learning

As schools close their doors as part of public health measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, educators are faced with how to support the diverse needs of all learners when students are not in school. This guide recognizes that solutions will not be – nor should be – “school as usual,” simply delivered in a virtual environment. Instead, this resource was developed by members of the Council of State Science Supervisors to provide guidance around how to support student science learning during these unique circumstances. Image by April Bryant from Pixabay 

This guide is designed to provide important resources and recommendations to support teacher implementation of digital learning.

This “Teacher Digital Learning Guide” is part of a series of guides including the “Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide” and “School Leader Digital Learning Guide” intended to support teachers, parents, families, and leaders in leveraging the capabilities of digital tools and resources for teaching and learning.

These easy-to-use guides have been crafted by teacher librarians to help K12 educators select and effectively implement commonly-adopted digital learning tools in Washington State. Specifically designed for classroom educators, this resource bank provides links, support and guidance for the effective use of over 20 digital learning tools already in use in many classrooms and schools across the state. 

This rubric is designed to be adapted for any content area. Educators may use it to review supplemental lessons or units on the Washington OER Hub and/or being used in the classroom. It is also intended to inform the development of new lessons and units.

Wide Open School is a free collection of online learning experiences for kids curated by the editors at Common Sense.This site has a very user friendly interface, an excellent organizational structure, and reputable partners providing quality content. Though the connected resources are free for viewing online, please note that not all are openly licensed so your permitted use of the materials will vary.