The open central role of teachers for the effectiveness of open educational resources

Main Article Content

Giovanni Fulantelli
Manuel Gentile
Davide Taibi
Mario Allegra

Abstract

Open Educational Resources (OER) represent a great opportunity for schools and universities. Beyond the significant benefits of free availability of reusable learning contents, there is considerable potential at pedagogical level when resources are generated and shared by teachers. Thus, it is possible to exploit skills and knowledge of a community of teachers to create highquality and pedagogically effective resources. When OER are generated collaboratively, they become the social objects around which the community grows.

In this paper we present the experience gained in three European projects in which teachers have been guided in the production of digital learning resources and encouraged to share them within a community of colleagues with similar interests. The projects, which embraced the priorities set by UNESCO for the dissemination of OER, highlighted the need for more widespread sharing and use of OER in schools, together with suitable support policies.

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Articles - Special Issue

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