Sunder,+Saravana

// 1) // Open Educational Resources: According to OER Commons, the definition of Open Educational Resources: // Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student or self-learner. Examples of OER include: full courses, course modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab and classroom activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources contained in digital media collections from around the world. // 2) Open Source : refers to programs that display the source code freely to the public and can be modified by anyone without any restrictions on redistribution. 3) Copyright: is a legal protection given to the creators to have exclusive right over their work. Creators have exclusive right to distribute, copy, and/or benefit from the work being copied, and can change of use of their work as they see fit. It is protection of intellectual property and this legal protection varies with territory, meaning it can differ in each state, country, and among countries. 4) Intellectual Property Rights(IP) __: __ Refers to creations of the mind – inventions, literary and articitc works, and symbols, logos, names, images, and designs. IP is divided into two categories. A) Industrial property (patents, trademarks, inventions, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source) B) Copyright – see above. 5) __Creative Commons __: Copyright laws give the creator exclusive right on his or her work, Creative Commons that works alongside the Copyright laws and allows the creator to change the copyright terms to suit the creator’s choice of who can access and how much of their work can be shared. CC is a non-profit organization. 6) __Public Domain: __ Where collection of works made available for public use that are not restricted by copyright laws within a given jurisdiction. The term of the copyright might have expired for that work, and/or the rightsholder of this work might have surrendered the copyright and therefore is available for public use freely. 7) __CC Licenses: __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Creative Commons Licenses allows the digital content creator to share their work with limited rights for public copying, editing, distributing, remixing, and to build upon the creator’s work and within the copyright terms. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">8) __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Curriki: __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">A non-profit program that started as online project by Sun Microsystems, a GELC- the global Education and Learning Community. It is a global community that plays a crucial role in breaking down the barriers of the Education Divide between educators who have access to high-quality education and those who do not. It allows educators to share curricula online. Educators can categorically share resources and are able to review and rate the lessons and resources shared by other educators thus making the lessons more dynamic and innovative. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">9) __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Thinkfinity: __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Verizon partners with commercial organizations and the state education departments to provide standards based content resources and lessons for students and educators. It is sponsored by the Verizon foundation which focuses on enabling all students with 21st Century Skills to be successful. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">10) __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Connecxions: __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">online place where the lessons/educational materials are presented in modular form, and allows custom building and collaboration among educators to create lessons to suit their learning needs. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">11) __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">P2PU: __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Peer to Peer University is an open education project that allows learners to learn on their own alongside peers by completing regular classroom like structures set up for learning. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">12) __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">EPICEd: __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Another online educators community where educators, technology and media facilitators, administrators, and the technology officers all can collaborate and reach for resources that suit their needs. They receive support through professional development models for all content specific resources, assessment tools, instructional strategies, and provide a platform for collaboration. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">13) __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">21s Century Skills: __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> In simple terms, every learner is required to possess the 3Rs- reading, riting, rithmatic(foundational skills) and the 4Cs (creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking) along with Life & Career Skills(self directed, flexible, interpersonal skills) and Information, Media, and Technology Skills (technology and media literacy) to be ready for 21st Century Learning and working. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">14) __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Wiki: __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Free server software that allows users to create free websites that allows open editing to all users. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">15) __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Merlot __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">:(no, not the wine) I wish it was ;-)! Merlot is a free and open online community of resources like many other educator sites but what is unique about Merlot is that it provides the collection of best peer reviewed learning content and pedagogy for educators with high quality higher education materials. Its initiatives include building and sustaining online academic communities, online teaching communities, and to build, organize, review, and develop applications for online learning-teaching materials. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">16) __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Blog: __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is like your journal entries, also known as the WebLog now termed as the blog. This is a website/page where you enter your thoughts, remarks, reviews of a particular topic and allow viewers to add comments and suggestions to your post. Blogs can also be protected from public viewing with permissible accessibility to a community or group, by the blogger.
 * <range type="comment" id="551975">Module 1 Notes**
 * Write a short definition for the each of the following:
 * // If the OERs are open to everyone, does this mean that the pages are publicly available to all or only to the closed communities? For eg: the list given above has a classroom quiz as an example OER, isn’t that only available for one classroom set of students? Just wanted to clarify. //


 * Module 2 Notes**
 * Respond to the questions on this Google Form for your Module 2 notes. - //** Completed **//[]


 * Module 3 Notes**
 * Respond to the questions on this Google Form for your Module 3 notes. -//** Completed **// [|https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvAMiub7oF73dFUxMEl3VG9FRkZKRXpraWQzT291NFE#gid=0]


 * Module 4 Notes**
 * Repost the link to your Google Docs Web Resource List []
 * Post the link to your lesson plan. - I used Google sites as required by this course to post the lesson, not a lesson plan but personal experiences shared for the project. Please click [] for the lesson.
 * Fill out this Online Tools Comparison Chart: //** COMPLETED **//

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">NO -Cannot receive any comments or posts on this site, but only reading and viewing is allowed. NO one can post anything on this. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Not really a UDL but a toolkit item for learners which can be used as file crater for collecting all their learning materials on the web under one site. It is highly mobile which means learners can access from anywhere. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Not much experience to decide on this. I could only create the account and test out first two tutorials – did not give enough flexibility during that attempt, neither did it increase my eagerness to learn about this new site. ||
 * ||< **<span style="background-color: aqua; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Google Sites **  ||  **<span style="background-color: aqua; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Wikispaces **  ||  **<span style="background-color: aqua; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Merlot **  ||  **<span style="background-color: aqua; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">My eCoach **  ||  **<span style="background-color: aqua; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Livebinders **  ||  **<span style="background-color: aqua; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Moodle **  ||
 * **<span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt;">Ease of Use ** ||< <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fantastic! I loved the choices I had to play around and learn along the way! It actually, finally, made me feel a bit like a techie! J <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;"> I liked it! || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Simple and direct. The editing features on this page were so easy that I didn’t have to move around or lose the content while working. Very simple! || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I was surprised to use a scholarly journal collection kind of resources warehouse! I liked the amount of peer reviewed materials and variety of topics under one site. Not used it as much as the other sites yet – but definitely can become easier when using frequently. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I am not sure how to use this as a site manager – but as a user it was very easy and simple to navigate around and to view embedded links. Not a problem. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">This site is not so familiar to me except being able to try for this course. I think it must be easy to use as a file folder based on the description I read on their site. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Definitely was not as smooth as Google sites. Also, I think it is used by large organizations for their entire community. Given my little connection to this tool, I would not say it was one of the easy tool to play with. ||
 * **<span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt;">Appropriateness of Format ** ||< <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes, very much appropriate! There is lot of room to toy around the formatting lot of features with borders, colors, frames, titles, and so much more. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Appropriate for small close classroom discussions or to see class students have their own page under one roof as a classroom community. But I am not sure if it is appropriate for classroom assignments or other important class requirements that will assess student performance can be done via wiki – yeah, we did it in our current class, but I think it worked because we are accountable as adults. I am a little skeptical using this in students work, but definitely will use it for community building and sharing activities/ checking in for resources etc. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Definitely needs more navigation and patience = these days we are so spoiled with Google and Apple kind of highly intuitive websites that this feels like an old school! J || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Appropriate to use it for Flipped Classrooms as a homework readings, research, viewing videos, hearing lectures, choosing to review assignments etc. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes, the formatting is simple and very similar to Etudes. Lot of binders and tabs can allow user to create different sub set areas to store and organize information gathered. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">The formatting feature is not used until now. Considering the fact that this is used largely by schools and districts, I would presume that the formats used are appropriate. ||
 * **<span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt;">Overall Design ** ||< <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes, limited to an extent but not at all a minus for novices like me. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it! || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Simple- not too many choices for designing or making it exciting. But the ease of use and editing simplicity is attractive and useful. NO major learning or tutorial needed to take off. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Please see above. I did not look for fancy websites and I am very used to using University Library database systems that are quite similar or even less sophisticated so this one did not bother me – but I can tell for many this will be a minus. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Simple, direct tabs for many lessons and specific areas labeled as tabs for both horizontal menu and in the sidebar – good design. It allows user to create different page backgrounds and such I believe. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Simple and straightforward. With one glance and creating some new folders, I would say the overall design is pretty sophisticated. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Looks simple and easy – all neatly labeled and properly active links posted all over the page but I had to take lot of time to understand how to create account and learn the site’s objectives are! ||
 * **<span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt;">Availability of Templates ** ||< <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Limited and have to choose from a gallery that is posted by other website creators. Then again, we could also create our own template and give it back to Google for others to freely choose it. There is lot of room to develop new templates. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I think there is only one page set up that is preloaded J <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">! May be we have the possibility to include templates with background and such, but so far I have not seen any wiki page with fancy templates. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes – there a quite a few templates that are preloaded are available for various purposes. For eg: for this course, to reflect upon resources – we had to choose a particular template that was preloaded into which we entered comments for each area. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I am not sure as I did not use it as a site manager yet but I believe the sites are available with different templates because two of my courses have the same site and both sites had a similar template format with different color for background. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">There are simple tab folders and files within each tab or folder. So many options to store in the folders but not as many template designs other than what we see on the site. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Not so sure, again there was not playing around that happened with this site features. ||
 * **<span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt;">Ability to Meet Universal Access Requirements ** ||< <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes – definitely. We could embed videos, tutorials, create forum(I haven’t played around with this feature), mailing list within the closed groups in Google for better communications, sharing, availability of audio and video features with simple direct clicks are able to meet the UDL access requirement. Of course, assuming that all learners have the computers, and the web access to start off! J <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;"> I say this because the tutorials on the site were so easy and simple enough for me to figure out things and finally create a site which I never thought I could. So Yes! || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I think it will meet the simple ULD requirements in the sense, visual display of the content that can be accessed outside of classroom and at own pace of learning, but as far as videos and audio content are not embedded but instead must be clicked as a url posted on the page. Still meets minimal UD access features not fully. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I would say No first and Yes later – No because if the students are young and new to using web resources, this is not an easily accessible resource – someone must guide them or clarify the use. So, it cannot be UDL. Yes because it provides lot of modality learning resources under one site – this collection can provide UDL experiences for well versed 21C learners. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes, it is possible to include links to all modalities of learning, all the readings, and the assignments or class expectations are put in one place.
 * **<span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt;">Appropriateness for Your Purposes ** ||< <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Very much so! Remember that I shared how it enabled me to believe in myself being able to create something on my own! For my purposes it was personal not related to teaching resource – but I think I would use this more often while teaching as I could create class site and add links to it what I want my students to get on a daily basis anywhere they are even if they miss the class there it is on the web- no more excuses for not learning! || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Definitely will use this page for community sharing features and communication for each student separately. Peer editing will be a good idea to use this for – but I will not use it for student evaluations on content presentation because I am afraid other students would edit someone’s work and I am not even sure if we can trace each student editing – at least until I get the confidence and trust within my student community I will wait. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I think this is more suitable for adult learners than young learners. When you feel your students are at a very high research skills level and are capable of self exploration using technology and are mature learners – yeah sure, give it a shot for them to explore this site. Otherwise, save it for your own use as a collective resource. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Format is easy to use to post lessons and resources and links to various topics under one page with different tabs or links at the sidebar separated for each lesson or unit in a subject. Foe eg: Science – life sciences, physics, chem. Etc can be the tabs with main link at the top. At the side, you can have separate units for each area like life sciences – cells, genetics, plants etc.at the sidebar. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I have not used it fully yet, but I will use it for classroom purposes as a online file storage system for students who could access their work and the online resources that they could share with us in class or at home working on it. This feature enhances the appropriateness of using this site for my purposes. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I don’t think this site is useful for classroom use for an individual teacher. I felt confused with the site and could access the resources easily. I think it might be a better tool when use in larger community. ||
 * **<span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt;">Likelihood I'll Use This ** ||< <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Definitely! Without a doubt – above attestations says it all why! || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes – but for very specific reasons that I shared above. Not for assignments and presentations that I must evaluate because I don’t want others editing someone’s work before evaluation. Of course peer editing feature is good to use on this site. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I personally will use it for sure – but for classrooms not so sure… see my reasoning above. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes, once I learn the tricks to manage this site as a creator, I can post the lessons and not worry of it being deleted or modified and can be used several times without having to worry about editing or losing content. Then again. Why use this when we have Google sites for free?? I think for this one we must pay online as a service fee to use this area. May be I won’t! || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">I will definitely learn more and use it for my own personal use. I have so many things collected as bookmarks on my home computer, now I can just walk free without any flash drives, now I can use this online tool to store all my documents and resources and access it from any computer. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">It is unclear right now. Need more time to explore this site as an individual user before sending it out for classroom use? To use as an individual teacher too it might become overwhelming is my guess. ||