M7-Marshall Duke–OER, Where have you been all my life??

Many years ago, while reading an article about a psychologist who was doing some work on person perception in paintings, I came across the name of E.H. Gombrich.  I had never heard of the man but wanted to see if he had written anything that I might be interested in (the art historians out there, please contain your laughter).   We had card catalogues in the library back then (I am quite old, remember) so I had to physically go to the library to search him out.  Having braved the frigid crossing of quadrangle, I entered the cavernous catalogue room of the library  and pulled out the drawer labeled “Gom to Gom.”  This label struck me as odd until I opened the drawer and realized the entire thing was nothing but E.H. Gombrich!  He was a giant figure in art history and he was totally new to psychologically provincial old me.

And so it was again  today with these OER’s and the Creative Commons. I felt the same sort of shock (and thrill, actually) I had felt standing before the card catalog in the library. I had not heard of these things (I admit total spaciness on this) and here they are, arguably among the most important advances in education in my lifetime (whiteboards and smart podiums have not really moved me that much).  As I read about what is available and saw how relatively easy they are to access and use, I was blown away.  Ready-made for my course on abnormal psychology, I found Open Access Youtube videos depicting various types of mental disorders.  I found PowerPoints from old friends at Yale who are teaching the same sort of abnormal psychology curse I am planning. I learned that Youtube videos are automatically closed captioned, that they can be translated via Google translate into and from any language, that I can actually embed them into a VoiceThread.    I found Flickr (anyone else old enough to refer to this as “My Friend Flickr”?) and Bookstax.   What a delightful afternoon of surprises.  I have not used these OER’s before, but clearly I will be using them now and will not wait until my online course.

The tutorial on finding OER’s was excellent.  The materials on copyright and varieties of Creative Commons licenses were helpful and enlightening.  This has been fun, pure and simple.

 

3 thoughts on “M7-Marshall Duke–OER, Where have you been all my life??

  1. It’s amazing what’s out there once you start looking! I’m glad that you’ve finally found these wonderful resources and that you’ll be able to use them to support (enhance?) your already great teaching. I’d reference old dogs and new tricks, but don’t think I’m calling you old, Marshall. 😉

  2. Wow Marshall, I am not exactly sure why but I am delighted by your post and have had all of these “special feelings’ in my brain…I actually think it’s because you were able to relay your excitement via this platform and I was able to receive it! For those who are open, the sky is the limit! I cannot wait to see how these work for you in all of your courses! And, will you be reconnecting with your colleagues through this medium? All best, Leah

    1. Thank you, Leah. I am already planning to use VT in my freshman seminar, but the OER’s I found on fiction at Yale will be very useful as well. I really do like all this stuff and I’m sorry it’s comer along so late in my day. Marshall

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