Can the OER help more people without the internet?
We all know Open Educational Resources (OER) is a hot topic in the recent education field. In 2001 MIT announced a bold initiative to publicly share its course materials – lecture notes, problem sets, syllabi, exams, and video lectures – with the world. This unique initiative enables the open sharing of MIT teaching materials with educators, enrolled students, and self-learners around the world.
I know the vision looks marvelous and incredible, it really can help to make education more equitable and fair. But, to be realistic, can the ORE help more people?
At my last year of college, which was also my internship year, I did become not only a high school physical educator but also joined a distance teaching project launched by the Shanghai Education Bureau. During that time, I realized that a striking disparity exists between rural and urban China regarding professional skills and training opportunities.
For example, in Shanghai, China’s wealthiest and most dynamic city, physical educators can get the most exceptional expertise and training resources. But such resources are scarce in rural areas of China.
Therefore, I believe that more efforts need to be devoted to providing excellent skills and training resources to the countryside of China, in particular on the adjustment and advancement of the educators’ knowledge level and educational skills.
In this distance teaching program, we recorded several instructional videos with CD to demonstrate innovative teaching techniques and emergency first-aid treatment of physical education and shared them with educators in Yunnan Province, China.
We have to know, there are a lot of places around the world like the rural area of Yunnan Province, China; people live in poverty in that place. They don't have enough food, to say nothing of education. In this distance teaching program, we have to use CD to record the videos for them. Because they don't have internet and computer to use. The whole village only has one CD recorder to play the CD.
With the development of Open Educational Resources, can the OER help more people without the internet?
At my last year of college, which was also my internship year, I did become not only a high school physical educator but also joined a distance teaching project launched by the Shanghai Education Bureau. During that time, I realized that a striking disparity exists between rural and urban China regarding professional skills and training opportunities.
For example, in Shanghai, China’s wealthiest and most dynamic city, physical educators can get the most exceptional expertise and training resources. But such resources are scarce in rural areas of China.
Therefore, I believe that more efforts need to be devoted to providing excellent skills and training resources to the countryside of China, in particular on the adjustment and advancement of the educators’ knowledge level and educational skills.
In this distance teaching program, we recorded several instructional videos with CD to demonstrate innovative teaching techniques and emergency first-aid treatment of physical education and shared them with educators in Yunnan Province, China.
We have to know, there are a lot of places around the world like the rural area of Yunnan Province, China; people live in poverty in that place. They don't have enough food, to say nothing of education. In this distance teaching program, we have to use CD to record the videos for them. Because they don't have internet and computer to use. The whole village only has one CD recorder to play the CD.
With the development of Open Educational Resources, can the OER help more people without the internet?
Hi Johnny! Great post and thank you for the insight into OER and rural China. Very interesting. This discussion goes back to my first semester class where we discussed the evolution of distance learning and the strengths/weaknesses of each medium. You would know better than I about the infrastructure of rural China and the possibilities. This also pertains to OER. What is your take on OER in China? Someone will need to produce the instructional material in whatever format (CD, print material etc.). Will that someone(s) be compensated?
ReplyDeleteI touch on the concept of OER and the "need" for a college degree in one of my posts as well:
http://snavelyeme6414.blogspot.com/2017/07/does-getting-degree-still-matter.html