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Fresno's Public Schools Make Students The Teachers With New Technology

(Photo Credit: Thinkstock) (Photo Credit: Thinkstock)

This article is presented in partnership with CA Lottery.

 

Many parents, educators and kids shake in their boots at the very mention of the Common Core. Meeting Core standards can be challenging, despite support from California's Department of Education, which works to help schools through a variety of professional learning modules. A number of teachers strive to go above and beyond by identifying online resources aligned to the Common Core. Given the amount of content online, this can be challenging.

Enter OpenEd.io, a staggeringly large online resource library full of media and other content geared toward kids in grades K-12, all of which are Core-aligned and most of which are free.

 

Surprisingly Simple, Surprisingly Effective

One of OpenEd's biggest users and advocates is Brandon Dorman, who manages the program as lead curriculum curator for the Fresno Unified School District. A champion of technology, Dorman is currently on assignment working with local middle schools. His mission is to morph teachers into super techno-nerds, able to provide the tools and guidance needed to steer their students toward meeting Common Core State Standards.

"OpenEd does the work to find the best videos, games and allied content for students, saving teachers and kids massive amounts of time," explains Dorman. "It's more than just a time-saver. It is also a powerful learning vehicle geared toward teaching kids in a format they can connect to and understand quickly."

The benefits of OpenEd also translate into engaging conversations for students and teachers.

"The OpenEd process is very engaging for students," says Dorman. "I find that they are able to talk mathematically more readily, allowing educators to guide conversations much more organically than what happens during a classroom lecture."

Unlike presenting a classroom lecture, where kids listen and the teacher has fingers crossed that they get it right, OpenEd creates a forum where kids are required to explain concepts. This removes the teacher from the equation, unless the student is struggling or needs help.

When a student doesn't answer an assessment correctly, OpenEd automatically sends him or her to a video resource that explains the correction in a nuanced format via a review process which isolates the incorrect. Then, they can retake the assessment.

OpenEd does a significant amount of groundwork supporting the learning experience, and it aligns to Common Core standards. But it also helps students become masterful and adept thinkers across a broad range of subjects including science, English, math and social studies.

 

Making the Future the Now

"I think open education resources are the future and we all should be using them so we don't have to wait for a text book company to update their textbooks, when there are high quality resources on the web available already and instantaneously," says Dorman, who spent nine years in the trenches, teaching at Fresno's Edison CompuTech Middle School and McLane High School. "The ease of use is a huge benefit. It also allows kids to determine what elements they will include in their own online cache of tools, plus provides a safe place to learn without the fear of peer derision that holds so many kids back when they need classroom help."

Click here to watch an OpenEd and Brandon Dorman in action.

 

Corey Whelan is a freelance writer in New York. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.

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