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https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/108450/overview	Play as Learning Overview Play is something that every child enjoys doing. Since this is the case why not use play as a tool for education? Playing with the intent to learn is a great way to keep students interested and motivated in the lessons. This OER talks about different aspects of using play as a learning tool and why it is beneficial for all students. Active Learning What is it? Active learning is an approach where learners are actively involved or engaged in the learning process. Active involvement is characterized by learner choice or autonomy regarding the task itself, as well as how and when learners respond. Active learning leverages learners’ own interests to engage them in the learning process. It uses hands-on, authentic, real-world-related activities with teachers occupying the role of facilitator rather than didactic instructor. Reference: "Active Learning" by Maura Healey is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 "Learning through Play at School" by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 "The Active Learning Method" by Sprouts is licensed under CC BY 4.0 What does it look like? We use the term knowing in doing to refer to the knowledge children spontaneously use in their play activity. In the richly detailed context of the play, children do not think, then act, as if planning their play in some sequential, deliberate way. Rather, their play activity stems from the creative synergy of the moment. It is shaped by the here and now, the just-previous activity, and all sorts of ideas and notions accrued from past experiences. In the press of absorbing play activity, all these forces tug and pull at children to yield what they know, understand, and prefer. The knowledge they make use of in Polanyi’s (1967) terms, is tacit–that is, children know more than they can say about what they are doing. Moreover, what they know is always on the move, because it is open to new features and structures that push hard for new forms of organization in response to the novelty and surprise that are the hallmarks (and fun) of play. Play, in other words, is a dynamic knowledge system that fluctuates at the edge of children's capabilities. It is, as Vygotsky (1967) astutely observed, a zone of proximal development where children try to “jump above” their everyday behaviors. Reference: "Active Learning Looks Like " by Ken Whytok is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 "Knowing in The Doing" by Child Development is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 What are the benefits? Successfully implementing playful pedagogies involves planning for intended learning outcomes. As discussed above, learning via playful pedagogies is understood in the broadest sense to refer to educating the whole child; fostering a range of skills and understanding. The focus on the whole child's development is a key distinguishing feature of learning through play when compared with other less-playful educational approaches regarding outcomes. All learning gains made by children are valued when learning through play, be they social, emotional, physical, cognitive, or creative. Active learning positively influences learning outcomes in the following ways: Cognitive and socio-emotional Achievement and growth mindset Social and emotional skills References: "Learning Through Play at School - A Framework for Policy and Practice " by Rachel Parker, Bo Thomsen, & Amy Berry is licensed under CC BY 4.0 "Learning through Play at School" by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 "Learn, Play, Grow" by the Province of British Columbia is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Cooperative and Collaborative Learning What Is It? Cooperative and collaborative Learning is an instructional strategy designed to encourage positive peer and social interaction, by grouping students together for an assignment or project. These two terms can be used interchangeably since they are both based on active student participation, but are not the same. Cooperative learners will meet face to face, sharing work as a team, while Collaborative learners will work independently and combine their contributions. This strategy can include meaningful tasks, active participation, and learners working together helping one another. Finally cooperative learning is more effective with learners who have more of a foundational understanding of early grades, while collaborative learning does not require a foundational understanding since it pushes students to draw their own conclusions. This makes for linear learning with collaborative learning picking up where cooperative learning leaves off. "Learning Through Play at School" by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Video Reference : "Cooperative Learning" is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 What Does it Look Like? For Cooperative and Collaborative Learning to be successful there are strategies that educators can follow to help students be successful. First, is to create positive independence. What this looks like is for the learners to gain an understanding that there are no “free rides” for any of the group members, but there is also an understanding that their fellow learners are there for questions, assistance, and resources. Secondly, as a teacher, you are responsible for explaining, modeling, and reinforcing how to work in a group. Students should, from there, be able to help, support, praise and encourage each other. This will assist students with their interdependence, and will also help gain verbal and interpersonal skills. Another strategy that is used to help students gain an understanding of cooperative and collaborative learning is having a distinct indication of their participation in the group. This can be used to individually see if students are comprehending the material as well as be able to give each student their own feedback. Creating small group skills is another strategy used, this will again help students with their social skills. Lastly, group processing assists students in being able to reflect on their work as a whole, as well as their work they individually contributed to their group. This deepens their cognitive and metacognitive learning and will help establish a foundation for future group work. Reference: "Learning Through Play at School" is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 What Are the Benefits? There can be benefits for both Cooperative and Collaborative Learning that can assist the students with their learning. Cooperative and Collaborative Learning will help students gain a deeper understanding of the content, will help students remain on task, as well as help students gain confidence in their abilities. Students will be able to have an understanding of what it means to work in a group as well as receive critical feedback. Students will also gain critical thinking knowledge where they will be able to successfully engage with their peers in a positive way. Most of all, both learning strategies will help students gain confidence in their group work skills that they can carry on with them not only in their academic career but also in their professional one. Reference : "Cooperative Learning and Elementary Classrooms" by Kimberly Lightle is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Video Reference: "The impact of collaborative teaching and learning" is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 Refrences "Cooperative Learning" is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 "Cooperative Learning and Elementary Classrooms" by Kimberly Lightle is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 "Learning Through Play at School" by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 "Students Group Work" is licensed under CC BY 1.0 "The impact of collaborative teaching and learning" is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 Experiential Learning What is it? Experiential learning is a range of educational theories and practices which share common principles about the value of experience, within and beyond the classroom. It is the idea that children can gain knowledge through their experiences. These experiences are inspired by their interests and motivations. In order to have quality experiential learning, the activities need to be comprised of meaningful experiences, important or intriguing inquiry topics, and interaction between peers, teachers, and learners. Experiential learning must consist of four attributes, concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. What does it look like? Experiential learning puts emphasis on the experience part of learning. Instead of being taught in a traditional classroom, learners will use their surroundings as their classroom. This could be going outside, learning through acts of service, kitchen and garden programs, creative arts programs, and community development initiatives. An example would be children going to a community garden and getting to have a hands-on experience with the different plants. This would allow them to use all of their senses to fully learn what it is like to be in a garden. After they have their experience the children must then reflect on the learning. What are the benefits? Experiential learning has a lot of benefits. One is that it has been known to foster social and interpersonal skills. This means that this learning style can expand the learner's social networks. Another benefit is that it helps students at high risk for disengagement. Experiential learning is highly engaging because of the hands-on learning as well as a rich discussion environment. Since this style of learning uses a child’s interests as learning motivation, it makes the child more likely to fully participate in the activities. The last benefit is experiential learning encourages relationships between the schools and the community. Since the children will mainly be learning outside of the typical classroom, this increases the chances that they will be able to go out and learn from the people in their communities. Resources: "Knowing in The Doing" by Child Development is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 "Learning through play at school " by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 "What is Experiential Learning?" by Ideas(s) Lab is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Montessori Method What is it? - The Montessori Method was developed by Italian Physician, Dr. Maria Montessori in the early 1900’s. This form of education strives to provide children with developmentally appropriate tasks that focus on the progression of concrete thinking to abstract thinking. The Montessori Method uses many different forms of instruction including individual learning with an abundance of hands-on learning activities with montessori-specific materials as well as group work and pair work. The role of the educator in a Montessori classroom is to facilitate and guide students while they are working. - This method of education believes that children can not only have the ability to be autonomous in the classroom, but that they are motivated to achieve autonomy with their education as well as have the ability to self correct to achieve in order to high rate of success with the work. In a Montessori classroom you will find an organized and prepared space for the children to choose specifically designed materials that they will be able to freely explore and manipulate. "At the centre of the method we firstly find a new vision of childhood, which considers the child as a proponent of its own development, being able to realize its human potential in a work of delicate construction of the personality through self-education." (Tovazzi & Caprara 2019) Video Reference: "Montessori Education- Explain in a Nutshell" is licensed under CC BY 4.0 What does it look like? - In a Montessori classroom you will also find that the method encourages self-humanization; children will often complete their work on the floor to encourage movement. The curriculum is self-paced in an individual or small group setting, and children learn from their peers, environment, and the teacher with the ability to self-correct. Montessori curriculum helps develop perceptual skills, physical coordination, language arts, math, as well as emotional skills. Another emphasis that is placed in the Montessori classroom is learning life skills such as cleaning and self-care. The purpose of not only educating the child’s intellect but also the child’s overall ability to do daily tasks is to help the child grow into an autonomous, capable adult. - The role that play has in the Montessori environment is through the manipulation of the prepared space. Students have the ability to choose the task that they want to complete by surveying the array of prepared Montessori materials which help build gross and fine motor skills. By giving the students the ability to choose what tasks they would like to work on for that day, the pattern will begin to emerge that they will continue to work on that task until they have successfully completed it. Self-correction and perseverance is developed during this time within the student as well as the building of intrinsic motivation through the satisfaction of completing the task. Video Reference: "Montessori Dictionary- Prepared Environment" is licensed under CC BY 4.0 What are the benefits? - The benefits of the Montessori education style is that it ultimately promotes autonomy and increases the intrinsic motivation to succeed in their tasks. A great benefit of the Montessori method is that it greatly focuses on developing a positive relationship with learning as well as developing strong relationships with peers in a supportive and encouraging environment. In a Montessori classroom, the blocks of time where students are working on their tasks are extended for a longer duration when compared to the traditional classroom. These extended time blocks allow students to truly involve themselves in their learning and go through the process of successfully completing a task to their full potential. The most notable impact that this method of education has for development is shown through students’ reasoning skills, positive shared play, and more creativity shown in problem-solving and writing skills. Overall, the Montessori Method encourages self-regulation and positive work habits which will benefit students throughout every stage of development into and through adulthood. Resources "Learning Through Play at School" by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 "MacDowell Montessori, Milwaukee, Primary Classroom" by flickr is licensed under CC BY 2.0 "Montessori approach, math education and gender differences: how can teachers manage pupils’ math anxiety?" by Alice Tovazzi, Barbara Caprara is licensed under CC BY 4.0 "Montessori Dictionary- Prepared Environment" is licensed under CC BY 4.0 "Montessori Education- Explain in a Nutshell" is licensed under CC BY 4.0 "Montessori Pin Map" by Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 "Preschool classroom- Montessori preschool classroom" by flickr is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Additional Resources for the Montessori Method: Gettman, D. (1987). Basic montessori. St. Martin’s Press. Orem, R. C. (1972). Montessori today. Capricorn Books.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.688591	Homework/Assignment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/108450/overview", "title": "Play as Learning", "author": "Elementary Education" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/69209/overview	https://www.oercommons.org/courses/are-ethics-fixed-animal-welfare-exercise/view Animal Rights Overview Explore animal rights. Animal Rights Exercise Here we will explore animal rights. First complete exercise to find out your position on animal rights. Then complete the reading pages 4 -10. Animal Rights 101 Read pages 4-10 after completing the exercise.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.708866	Frank Waters	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/69209/overview", "title": "Animal Rights", "author": "Reading" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93655/overview	Photosynthesis - Light Reaction Overview This illustration shows both the linear and cyclic flow of electrons during the light reaction of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis - Light Reaction Light reaction of Photosynthesis showing both the linear flow and cyclic flow of electrons.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.721345	Diagram/Illustration	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93655/overview", "title": "Photosynthesis - Light Reaction", "author": "Ecology" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/120418/overview	TEMPLATE: OERizona Student Trading Card Student Trading Card (Billy Gerchick, Central Arizona College) Overview OER Fundamentals Academy participants are invited to remix this sharing template to design and share their OER project plans, course information, any related resources and syllabus, and reflection. How To Remix This Template My audience: Any grade 3 - 20 educator that's looking to engage students and build community by having their students insert a picture, write about why they came to the school, what there focus is at the school, and what their plans are beyond that school. Project Planning My OER Goals & Purpose: I've learned different levels of OER resource sharing, and I plan to produce this product and want to grow my abilities to help Central Arizona College English's ENG-RHET 101-102 textbook, and OER textbook for our students and for others. My Audience: Any grade 3 - 20 educator that's looking to engage students and build community by having their students insert a picture, write about why they came to the school, what there focus is at the school, and what their plans are beyond that school. My Team: I will complete this independently but share it willingly with collaborators who want to adapt the template and lesson to implement with their own students, extracurricular participants, and colleagues. Existing Resources: I am making the primary resource from Canva and from my past lessons, so I'll need to draw from my own resources. New Resources: What new resources will you need for your OER item's next steps? I'll need to revise the TEMPLATE: OERizona Student Trading Card template. Supports Needed: I want to find a list of Arizona institution "HEX" codes, which gives the exact color schemes to colleagues looking to adapt the color scheme to the template by the HEX codes. Our Timeline: I want to create a draft today and want to finish the publication process within the next two weeks. OER Item Add your OER item here including the course name and number and any aligned learning outcomes. To add content in this section: - Add any text, images or videos by using this editing pane. - Include any external links in this editing pane by using the hyperlink button above or the command "Control" + "K" - Attach any documents or files to this section by using "Attach Section..." paperclip image below, then choose the correct file from your computer and save. Please check any sharing settings to external links (like Google Docs) to ensure others can access your resources. Reflection Please reflect and share any observations and insights you noticed as a result of this OER Item, such as changes in your own practice, impact on colleagues or student engagement and impact.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.743441	Billy Gerchick	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/120418/overview", "title": "Student Trading Card (Billy Gerchick, Central Arizona College)", "author": "Lesson Plan" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/119496/overview	Compact Anthology of World Literature Overview The Compact Anthology of World Literature II is an invaluable resource for students and educators, offering a carefully curated selection of key literary works from diverse cultures and historical periods. Edited by a team of experts, this anthology spans genres from ancient to modern times, providing insightful commentary and context that help readers engage with universal themes like justice, morality, and identity. As part of the Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative, it offers free access to high-quality literature, making it a vital tool for fostering critical thinking and global awareness in today’s interconnected world. Its flexibility supports a range of teaching approaches, making it an essential text for exploring the transformative power of literature. Introduction The Compact Anthology of World Literature II is an invaluable resource for students and educators, offering a carefully curated selection of key literary works from diverse cultures and historical periods. Edited by a team of experts, this anthology spans genres from ancient to modern times, providing insightful commentary and context that help readers engage with universal themes like justice, morality, and identity. As part of the Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative, it offers free access to high-quality literature, making it a vital tool for fostering critical thinking and global awareness in today’s interconnected world. Its flexibility supports a range of teaching approaches, making it an essential text for exploring the transformative power of literature.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.760578	Ron Stafford	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/119496/overview", "title": "Compact Anthology of World Literature", "author": "Textbook" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/109890/overview	Media Literacy / OER Item Sharing Template Overview OER Fundamentals are invited to remix this course planning template to design and share their OER project plans, course information and syllabus, and reflection. Media Literacy - Make sure you are logged in by looking at the top right of the platform for your Avatar. - Click the "Remix" button on this resource to make your own version of this template. (You might want to "right-click" and choose "Open in a New Tab".) - Change the title to describe your project and add text, videos, images, and attachments to the sections below. - Delete this section (Section One) and any instructions in the other sections before publishing. - When you are ready to publish, click "Next" to update the overview, license, and description of your resource, and then click Publish. In a globalized age of seemingly endless information, misinformation, dysinformation, advertising, and propaganda, one where our thoughts and allegiances are the commodities that fuel our (social) media platforms, it is essential that we develop our powers of discernment and interrogate our own biases. As students in WOrld Regional Geography, you will be studying other cultures, resouces, development, regions, strategies for shifting power dynamics. This two week unit on media literacy is intended to not only aid us in recognizing the biases we encounter, but also to recognize the information inherent in those biases and interrogate both the weighting and probabilities of their intended and unintended impacts. A unit outline will go here. In addition to a relatively short history of advertising and propaganda, the following resources will be explored, concentrated, and remixed to create an utterly too brief preparatory encounter for students enrolled in my World Regional Geography course. https://oercommons.org/courses/technology-media-literacy-and-the-human-subject-a-posthuman-approach https://storytogo.ca/classroom/course/media-literacy-for-young-adults/ https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/68696 There are so many more within my OER media literacy folder. Project Planning My OER Goals & Purpose: What have you discovered during this OER Series and what are you planning to accomplish next? I am not sure that I need to create OER. What I need is more time to view existing resources! My Audience: Who are you designing this OER item for and what are their learning needs and preferences? I am designing a teo week unit on Media Literacy for my World Regional Geography students. This is my first semester teaching this course, and it is evident that most of my students have not yet begun a critical analysis of bias, propaganda, advertising, or the difference between a critical mass of adherents and critical thining. My Team: Who else might support your OER item and what are their roles and responsibilities? There are many disciplines concerned with Media Literacy, and I imagine the consequences of not holding media sources accountable impacts all disciplines directly or indirectly as it erodes the education process and institutions at large. Journalists, educators, political scientists, digital information workers, anthropologists, geographers, and sociologists are likely to benefit from a greater academic scrutiny of media processes and local/global human relations and policies. Existing Resources: What existing resources can you utilize for your OER item? You can curate these resources in our Group Folders. There are so many resources! I am very grateful. I need more time to discern how to use which ones. New Resources: What new resources will you need for your OER item's next steps? I need interactive exercises, but I teach online, so I need to be very thoughtful about how to engage group dynamics. Supports Needed: What additional supports do you need to complete your OER item? Do you need to gather more research and data to inform the design of your OER item? I need more time! I don't even have time to look at all of these let alone process and synthesize and compare them to course outcomes and then remix them accordingly. I know it is the most important thing I could be doing, but there are too many fires to put out for me to tend the constant slow burn of 'manufacturing consent'. Our Timeline: What deadlines do you have for your OER item deliverables? I believe this one was supposed to be due today. I was going to try to create a World Regional Geography text by July when the grant runs out, but I may need to scale back to simply creating a two week unit on Media Literacy if I can show that it alligns with course outcomes. I will still need to use OER to replace the current expensive and terrifyingly bised text, but nearly all of my time will go to understanding what already exists so that i am not reproducing the wheel. Eventually, I'd really like to see a global collaboration amongst geographers allowing students direct access to different perspectives and lived experiences informed by place. OER Item Add your OER item here including the course name and number and any aligned learning outcomes. To add content in this section: - Add any text, images or videos by using this editing pane. - Include any external links in this editing pane by using the hyperlink button above or the command "Control" + "K" - Attach any documents or files to this section by using "Attach Section..." paperclip image below, then choose the correct file from your computer and save. Please check any sharing settings to external links (like Google Docs) to ensure others can access your resources. I am simply leaving these instructions for now. I do not want to clutter the OER platform by publishing something that will waste others' time. Reflection Please reflect and share any observations and insights you noticed as a result of this OER Item, such as changes in your own practice, impact on colleagues or student engagement and impact. From the breakout sessions, I noticed that nearly everyone I spoke with wants to spend more time getting to know and use OER and cannot get ahead enough to make time. I think there is a systemic education problem that utilizing OER will help address, but we can't adquately provide OER without addressing the problems enough to allow educators time to understand and produce or utilize OER. This is exacerbated by the understanding that the percentage of participants in this course who are adjuncts is not at all proportional to the percentage of college course instructors who are adjuncts. I wonder if we could have some brief conversations about this which would allow a few doable action items to be generated and implemented thus justifying the time alotted to the convwersation. It seems that we are mostly overwhelmed and many feel that if we can't easily fix the problem, our attention is better turned elsewhere. I think this is a mistake and we need to take measures (no matter how small) to pursue closer approximations of our intentions.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.778515	11/03/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/109890/overview", "title": "Media Literacy / OER Item Sharing Template", "author": "Danyell Dahn" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93660/overview	Oxidative Phosphorylation Overview This illustration depicts the last stage of aerobic respiration: oxidative phosphorylation. Oxidative Phosphorylation This illustration depicts the last stage of aerobic respiration: oxidative phosphorylation. This illustration depicts the last stage of aerobic respiration: oxidative phosphorylation. This illustration depicts the last stage of aerobic respiration: oxidative phosphorylation.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.795122	Ecology	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93660/overview", "title": "Oxidative Phosphorylation", "author": "Botany" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76299/overview	Directional Verbs Video Google Slideshow Story Cards Directions, ASL, Intermediate mid, ONLINE Overview Students will be able to practice translating written English to ASL with a focus on directional verbs and classifiers in storytelling. Description Description: Students will be able to practice translating written English to ASL with a focus on directional verbs and classifiers in storytelling. Keywords: Translating, Directional Verbs, Classifiers, Story World Readiness Standards - Standard 1.1 - Students engage in conversations and correspondence in American Sign Language to provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions. - Standard 1.3 - Students present information, concepts, and ideas in American Sign Language to an audience of viewers on a variety of topics. - Standard 4.1 - Students demonstrate an understanding of the nature of language through comparisons of American Sign Language and their own languages. Idaho Content Standards for World Languages: - COMM 1: Interact with others in the target language and gain meaning from interactions in the target language. - COMM 1.1: Interact and negotiate meaning (spoken, signed, written conversation) to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements: - I can explain fictional circumstances comfortably - I can articulate a concept without using specific vocabulary - I can understand how to translate written English to ASL Materials Needed: Warm Up and Main Activity Lead-in or Warm-up (2-3 minutes): We are going to review directional verbs in preparation for the main activity. Discuss directional verbs and provide some examples. Have students discuss the connections between a directional verb and classifiers. Watch THIS VIDEO to practice directional verbs . You can watch the video by clicking on the link and then sharing your screen and computer audio. Main activity: Directional Verb practice! Share the story cards with your students using the chat box on zoom. Break students into break out rooms into partners/ small groups. Using the story cards, each student will read/translate a chunk of the story. Have them stop at the dinosaur card. They will then switch this. Go over the first story card first Have students sign a chunk of the story, making sure they focus on the directional verbs After they reach the dinosaur, have them give the card to the next person Once the stories are finished each pair of students will take turns drawing a directional verb card and creating a sentence. Remember to stress that the directional verb cards are not to be signed specifically. Encourage students to SHOW the card rather than TELL what happened. Wrap-up questions: - Do you see the importance of classifiers? - How will this help your ASL skills in the future?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.820589	Amber Hoye	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76299/overview", "title": "Directions, ASL, Intermediate mid, ONLINE", "author": "Camille Daw" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/120437/overview	Graham Boorse OER Item Sharing Overview OER Fundamentals Academy participants are invited to remix this sharing template to design and share their OER project plans, course information, any related resources and syllabus, and reflection. Project Planning My OER Goals & Purpose: What have you discovered during this OER Series and what are you planning to accomplish next? Through this OER Series, I've discovered the importance of creating accessible, adaptable, and high-quality educational materials for microbiology students. My focus on the lactose operon has revealed the need for clear, engaging content that explains complex regulatory mechanisms in bacteria. Next, I plan to develop interactive diagrams and animations along with problem sets that will help students visualize and apply their understanding of the lactose operon. My goal is to create a comprehensive, yet easily digestible resource that can be used by educators and students worldwide, promoting a deeper understanding of gene regulation in prokaryotes. My Audience: Who are you designing this OER item for and what are their learning needs and preferences? This OER item is designed primarily for undergraduate students in microbiology, molecular biology, or related life science programs. The target audience includes: - Second or third-year university students taking courses in microbiology or genetics - Advanced high school students in AP Biology or similar advanced courses - Graduate students needing a refresher on prokaryotic gene regulation The learning needs and preferences of this audience include: - Clear, concise explanations of complex biological processes - Visual aids to help understand the structure and function of the lactose operon - Interactive elements to engage with the material and self-assess understanding - Accessibility features to accommodate diverse learning styles and needs - Compatibility with mobile devices for on-the-go studying By addressing these needs, the OER aims to provide a comprehensive yet accessible resource for students to master the concept of the lactose operon and its significance in prokaryotic gene regulation. My Team: Who else might support your OER item and what are their roles and responsibilities? To support the development and implementation of my OER item on the lactose operon, I will reach out to a diverse team with complementary skills: - Content Experts: I will consult with my fellow microbiologists at Mesa Community College for content review and input to ensure scientific accuracy and relevance of the material. - Student Representatives: I will reach out to current and former students to provide feedback from a learner's perspective and help tailor the content to student needs - Librarian: I will communicate with MCC librarians to assist with OER curation, metadata, and ensuring proper attribution for any remixed content By collaborating with this team, I aim to create a comprehensive, engaging, and accessible OER resource on the lactose operon that meets diverse learning needs." Existing Resources: What existing resources can you utilize for your OER item? You can curate these resources in our Group Folders. I have placed all information that is present with in the OER commons that pertains to the Lac operon and other operons as well. New Resources: What new resources will you need for your OER item's next steps? I am mostly focused on using software to generate animations to help students better understand the mechanisms of the lac operon. Additional H5P content will be generated, allowing students to answer questions in an interactive way to ensure their competency with this material. Supports Needed: What additional supports do you need to complete your OER item? Do you need to gather more research and data to inform the design of your OER item? I have been thinking and planning this for some time and just need to start the process. Our Timeline: What deadlines do you have for your OER item deliverables? Timeline: My hope is to complete this before the end of the calendar year. - Finalize project scope and objectives; Finalize the gathering of existing resourcs; Outline content for animations and H5P activities. - Write detailed scripts for animations; Design storyboards for each animation sequence - Develop basic animations; Add details and refine movements; Finalize animations with colors, textures, and transitions - Create H5P interactive elements (quizzes, drag-and-drop activities, etc.); Develop flashcards and other supplementary activities - Combine animations and H5P elements into a cohesive resource and Publish. OER Item Add your OER item here including the course name and number and any aligned learning outcomes. To add content in this section: - Add any text, images or videos by using this editing pane. - Include any external links in this editing pane by using the hyperlink button above or the command "Control" + "K" - Attach any documents or files to this section by using "Attach Section..." paperclip image below, then choose the correct file from your computer and save. Please check any sharing settings to external links (like Google Docs) to ensure others can access your resources. Reflection Please reflect and share any observations and insights you noticed as a result of this OER Item, such as changes in your own practice, impact on colleagues or student engagement and impact.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.838552	10/04/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/120437/overview", "title": "Graham Boorse OER Item Sharing", "author": "Graham Boorse" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/71406/overview	Langara-OpenEdGuidelines2020-final (PDF) Langara Open Education Guidelines (2020) Overview Open Education Guidelines from Langara College (2020). Open Education Guidelines from Langara College (2020)	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.855368	08/19/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/71406/overview", "title": "Langara Open Education Guidelines (2020)", "author": "Darcye Lovsin" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/103199/overview	FTEC 144 Sample Assignment 2 FTEC 144: Emergency Medical Technician Overview Welcome to the El Camino College EMT program! Emergency Medical Technicians are professional medical responders that work to help ill and injured patients in various emergency field and clinical settings. EMT principles that are covered throughout this course include, but are not limited to: leadership, followership, communication, safety, situational awareness, basic life support (BLS), patient assessment and professionalism. EMT students learn about the practices and procedures for treating medical illnesses and traumatic injuries through facilitated discussion, skills lab, simulations, scenarios and field experience. Students who successfully complete all 170 hours with an overall grade of 80% (B) or better will qualify to take the NREMT test for certification. Once the NREMT is completed, the student would be eligible for a state EMT license. Syllabus, Sample Assignment Welcome to the Durham Technical College EMT program! Emergency Medical Technicians are professional medical responders that work to help ill and injured patients in various emergency field and clinical settings. EMT principles that are covered throughout this course include, but are not limited to: leadership, followership,communication, safety, situational awareness, basic life support (BLS), patient assessment and professionalism. EMT students learn about the practices and procedures for treating medical illnesses andtraumatic injuries through facilitated discussion, skills lab, simulations, scenarios and field experience. Students who successfully complete all 170 hours with an overall grade of 80% (B) or better will qualify to takethe NREMT test for certification. Once the NREMT is completed, the student would be eligible for a state EMT license. Other things	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.873991	Joanna Schimizzi	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/103199/overview", "title": "FTEC 144: Emergency Medical Technician", "author": "Syllabus" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/98191/overview	MS Word Quiz Overview This is a simple quiz for beginners using MS Word to create and edit documents. MS Word Beginners Quiz MS Word Quiz Please complete the below steps in order. Read the directions carefully. Once completed you will submit all saved files for grading. - Create a short letter asking for an appointment to speak to someone about the possibility of working together on a community bottle drive. - Add in the date, an opening salutation (Dear Sir: ) and a closing (Sincerely yours, ). - Spellcheck the document. - Save the letter by using your first initial and last name to your USB drive. - Add in a statement below the opening of the letter : Re: Community Bottle Drive - Copy and paste the opening to the bottom of the letter. - Resave as Letter2. - Add a picture of flowers anywhere at the bottom of the letter that you retrieve from the stock images in MS Word. - Resave as Letter3. - Submit your three saved files to the instructor for grading.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.890520	10/24/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/98191/overview", "title": "MS Word Quiz", "author": "Chris Gibson" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/113264/overview	The Russian Revolution Overview Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History: Unit 12, Lesson 8 A discussion of the Russian Revolution, beginning with the conditions in Russia at the start of the 20th century and the causes of the revolution of 1905, and ending with Lenin's death in 1924. Includes the Assumption of Soviet Power proclamation. Includes the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Proclamation to the Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants. The early 20th century was a period of social, political and cultural change as important revolutions would occur in Iran, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Mexico and China. These revolutions challenged the existing order and sought to create states capable of better serving their citizens and meeting the challenges of modernity. In the early 20th century, Russia appeared like an unlikely candidate for a communist revolution. Russian troops and the secret police worked in tandem to quell any discontent or calls for reform. Ruled by a czar, the czar’s word was final, and he could, and often did, rule with an iron fist. Russia had no tradition of democracy; there was no freedom of the press or association. This autocratic rule extended over a 5,000-mile expanse and comprised more than a hundred different ethnic and linguistic groups. Russia had fallen behind the other Great Powers. At the beginning of the 20th century, as other nations had successfully industrialized, nine out of 10 Russians were still peasants. The middle class was small and politically still relatively weak as the czar and a small group of aristocrats continued to hold most of the wealth and power. During the second half of the 19th century, partly due to fears of falling behind, Russia started to invest in industry and had a small urban working class by the turn of the century. Like elsewhere, these workers were poorly paid, had virtually no rights, and worked long hours in often dangerous conditions. The proof of this falling behind could be found in Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Fought over rising tensions and imperial ambitions, especially over access and control over Pacific territories, the Japanese victory confirmed their ascendency while highlighting Russia’s failure to keep pace. This put pressure on the czar and increased demands to reform the Russian state. Members of Russia’s middle class wanted reform. Although divided over what to reform and how far reform should be carried out, many desired for Russia to become a Western-inspired constitutional monarchy similar to what existed in Britain. They did not ask for the dissolution of the monarchy or the aristocracy but wanted to implement a parliamentary system that would give them some say in how the government operated. Czar Nicolas II (r. 1894-1917) refused to allow significant reform or to alter his position and power. On January 22, 1905 (known as Bloody Sunday), workers attempted to petition the czar by gathering outside his palace in St. Petersburg. They called for improved working conditions, better pay and an eight- hour workday. They came in peace, singing songs like God Save the Czar. Instead of hearing their demands the unarmed subjects were met with bullets. While the numbers vary widely, hundreds of people were killed by bullets or from being trampled as people tried to flee. This was a turning point for many Russians. After this, the widely held belief that it was not the czar but his ministers responsible for the problems in Russia seemed to go up in smoke. Coupled with the general discontent and disillusionment with the poor progress against Japan, Bloody Sunday led to a wave of strikes across the Russian Empire. These events are called the Revolution of 1905. Needing to calm the people, the czar agreed to a more limited form of monarchy, a parliament called the Duma, and a new Russian constitution. Czar Nicholas II did not believe in these reforms, and as soon as discontent settled down, he took back much of these concessions and tried to rule as he always had. Going back on his word further undermined the trust many had place in the czar, serving to increase the number of people advocating for reorm or desiring a revolution. The Revolution would have to wait another 12 years. The catalyst for this event was World War I. To change Russian fortunes, Czar Nicholas went to the front to take direct control of the army. The czar could not change the war’s course as Germany drove deeper into Russian territory. The only thing keeping the czar on his throne was the forces of law and order which had stayed loyal to him. Even these elements began to waver. The final blow to the czar’s rule came in 1917 when troops, instead of firing on a crowd of protestors in St. Petersburg, joined the protestors. Without power or protection, Czar Nicolas II abdicated his throne. The following year, Nicholas, his wife and five children were executed. With the czar out of the way, a new Provisional government operated out of the Duma. Dominated by liberal thinkers who wished to modernize Russia without completely altering the current system, the Provisional government failed to bring order to the Russian state. It continued the war effort despite how unpopular it had become. At the same time, the Russian experiment with democracy spread to the local level as workers elected councils called Soviets to govern factories. These Soviets offered a rival government and power structure to the Provisional government. At this point, a long-time revolutionary named Vladimir Ulyanov (known as Lenin) gained increasing notoriety and power. Exiled for his revolutionary activities, Lenin stayed committed to revolution in Russia. Indeed, Lenin had written numerous influential pamphlets on communism and Russia since leaving the country in 1900. He was critical of capitalism (which he believed, just like Marx, would be done away with) and Russia’s participation in World War I. Lenin was the leader of the Bolsheviks, a radical faction of the Russian socialist movement that emerged in the early 20th century. The term Bolshevik comes from the Russian word for "majority," as Lenin's faction won a crucial vote within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) in 1903. The Bolsheviks believed in a highly disciplined, centralized revolutionary party led by professional revolutionaries who would overthrow the existing government and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat (working-class people). Their ideology was rooted in Marxism, but Lenin adapted it to fit Russia’s conditions, advocating for immediate revolution rather than a gradual transition to socialism. Still living in Zurich when the czar lost his throne in 1917, the 47-year-old Lenin knew the time was right for his return, but Switzerland, which remained neutral during the war, was surrounded, and it seemed that there was no way to get to Russia. Aware that Lenin was opposed to the war, the Germans agreed to put him on a train home so that Lenin could use his influence to agitate against the war effort. Once he arrived, Lenin announced that the revolution would provide “peace, land and bread.” Despite his years in exile, Lenin judged the mood of Russians perfectly, which helped him win sympathy for the communist cause. While on the train from Switzerland, Lenin composed his April Theses which called on communists to end any support for the Provisional government. Caught between the communists and those who wanted to re- establish the old system, the Provisional government began to waver. Called upon to defend the desperate Provisional Government during the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the Soviets instead chose to overthrow it. They issued the "Proclamation to the Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants", marking the formalization of Bolshevik power and the establishment of the Soviet Union. These actions ensured that the second revolution was indeed a socialist one. Lenin worked to establish peace with Germany. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which finally got Russia out of the war, stands as a testament to how badly Lenin wanted peace, for he gave Germany some of Russia’s most fertile and industrialized areas and a third of the Russian population. Lenin defended losing so much territory by stating that it did not matter, for soon, a worldwide communist revolution would make such treaties irrelevant. After years of fighting, losing so much territory to Germany was, for many Russians, a bitter pill to swallow. Although he promised peace, for the next nearly four years Russia would be involved in a devastating civil war that pitted the communist Bolsheviks (Reds) against an alliance of czarist forces (Whites) and Russia’s former war allies (who hoped to do away with Lenin and force Russia back into the war). Luckily for Lenin, most troops from England, France, Japan and the United States were withdrawn after the war ended in 1918. As Commissar of War, Leon Trotsky’s leadership played a crucial role in suppressing the counterrevolution allowing the communists to claim victory in the civil war. After the civil war, Lenin turned his attention to reforming Russia. True to his Marxist roots, Lenin abolished private ownership of land and, to better organize Russian industry, confiscated factories and merged them into giant government-controlled trusts. He established the legal equality of women, including making divorce more accessible, while implementing universal education. Lenin did not seek consent for his actions as he had no intention of letting the Soviets direct policy and quickly brought them under the control of the Communist party. He ruled like an autocrat, creating a party dictatorship rather than a communist state along the lines envisioned by Marx. Dying in January 1924, it would be up to Lenin’s successors to bring forward the revolution and the vision of a better and more egalitarian world led by workers. 1 Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. (2024, November 26). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_All-Russian_Congress_of_Soviets_of_Workers%27_and_Soldiers%27_Deputies Primary Source \| Assumption of Soviet Power Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Proclamation to the Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants (November 7, 1917) The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies has opened. The vast majority of the Soviets are represented at the Congress. A number of delegates from the Peasants’ Soviets are also present. The mandate of the compromising Central Executive Committee has terminated. Backed by the will of the vast majority of the workers, soldiers and peasants, backed by the victorious uprising of the workers and the garrison which has taken place in Petrograd, the Congress takes the power into its own hands. The Provisional Government has been overthrown. The majority of the members of the Provisional Government have already been arrested. The Soviet government will propose an immediate democratic peace to all the nations and an immediate armistice on all fronts. It will secure the transfer of the land of the landlords, of the crown and monasteries to the peasants’ committees without compensation; it will protect the rights of the soldiers by introducing complete democracy in the army; it will establish workers’ control over production; it will ensure the convocation of the Constituent Assembly at the time appointed; it will see to it that bread is supplied to the cities and prime necessities to the villages; it will guarantee all the nations inhabiting Russia the genuine right of self-determination. The Congress decrees: all power in the localities shall pass to the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, which must guarantee genuine revolutionary order. The Congress calls upon the soldiers in the trenches to be vigilant and firm. The Congress of Soviets is convinced that the revolutionary army will be able to defend the revolution against all attacks of imperialism until such time as the new government succeeds in concluding a democratic peace, which it will propose directly to all peoples. The new government will do everything to supply all the needs of the revolutionary army by means of a determined policy of requisitions and taxation of the propertied classes, and also will improve the condition of soldiers’ families. The Kornilovites–Kerenskii, Kaledin and others–are attempting to bring troops against Petrograd. Several detachments, whom Kerenskii had got to move by deceit, have come over to the side of the insurgent people. Soldiers, actively resist Kerenskii, the Kornilovite! Be on your guard! Railroad workers, hold up all troop trains dispatched by Kerenskii against Petrograd! Soldiers, workers and employees, the fate of the revolution and the fate of the democratic peace is in your hands! Long live the revolution!” From Michigan State University Seventeen Moments in Soviet History	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.917026	Constanze Weise	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/113264/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History, World in Crisis, Conflict, and the Struggle for Independence - World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Indian Independence Movement, The Russian Revolution", "author": "John Rankin" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/70919/overview	Methods of Calculus eText Overview Methods of Calculus eText Full Course Adaptation Textbook About This Innovative eText Chapter 1 Review contains review material that you should recall before we begin calculus. Chapter 2 The Derivative builds on the precalculus idea of the slope of a line to let us find and use rates of change in many situations. Chapter 3 The Integral builds on the precalculus idea of the area of a rectangle to let us find accumulated change in more complicated and interesting settings. A Preview of Calculus Calculus was first developed more than three hundred years ago by Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz to help them describe and understand the rules governing the motion of planets and moons. Since then, thousands of other men and women have refined the basic ideas of calculus, developed new techniques to make the calculations easier, and found ways to apply calculus to problems besides planetary motion. Perhaps most importantly, they have used calculus to help understand a wide variety of physical, biological, economic and social phenomena and to describe and solve problems in those areas. Part of the beauty of calculus is that it is based on a few very simple ideas. Part of the power of calculus is that these simple ideas can help us understand, describe, and solve problems in a variety of fields. Innovation This eText harnesses cutting-edge pedagogy aligned with module-level learning objectives through the implementation of simulations and dynamic videos for award-winning innovation (United States Distance Learning Association 2020 Innovation Award) of the project development. Over 50 short videos are embedded to enhance teacher-, social-, and cognitive-presence in the delivery of online instruction. These videos were produced using a Lightboard. The mutli-media components of this zero-cost eText afford readers the opportunity to learn the mathematics in action and review as often as needed for ownership of learning. How is Applied Calculus Different? Students who plan to go into science, engineering, or mathematics take a year-long sequence of classes that cover many of the same topics as we do in our one-quarter or one-semester course. Here are some of the differences: No Trigonometry We will not be using trigonometry at all in this course. The scientists and engineers need trigonometry frequently, and so a great deal of the engineering calculus course is devoted to trigonometric functions and the situations they can model. The Applications Are Different The scientists and engineers learn how to apply calculus to physics problems, such as work. They do a lot of geometric applications, like finding minimum distances, volumes of revolution, or arclengths. In this class, we will do only a few of these (distance/velocity problems, areas between curves). On the other hand, we will learn to apply calculus in some economic and business settings, like maximizing profit or minimizing average cost, finding elasticity of demand, or finding the present value of a continuous income stream. Additionally, we will apply calculus in life and social science settings, like determining the rate at which drug concentration in the body is changing, or exploring the rate at which a subject learns. These are applications that are seldom seen in a course for engineers. Fewer Theorems, No Proofs The focus of this course is applications rather than theory. In this course, we will use the results of some theorems, but we won’t prove any of them. When you finish this course, you should be able to solve many kinds of problems using calculus, but you won’t be prepared to go on to higher mathematics. Less Algebra In this class, you will not need clever algebra. If you need to solve an equation, it will either be relatively simple, or you can use technology to solve it. In most cases, you won’t need “exact answers;” calculator numbers will be good enough. Simplification and Calculator Numbers When you were in tenth grade, your math teacher may have impressed you with the need to simplify your answers. I’m here to tell you – she was wrong. The form your answer should be in depends entirely on what you will do with it next. In addition, the process of “simplifying,” often messy algebra can ruin perfectly correct answers. From the teacher’s point of view, “simplifying” obscures how a student arrived at his answer, and makes problems harder to grade. Moral: don’t spend a lot of extra time simplifying your answer. Leave it as close to how you arrived at it as possible. When should you simplify? 1. Simplify when it actually makes your life easier. For example, in Chapter 2 it’s easier to find a second derivative if you simplify the first derivative. 2. Simplify your answer when you need to match it to an answer in the book. You may need to do some algebra to be sure your answer and the book answer are the same. When you use your calculator A calculator is required for this course, and it can be a wonderful tool. However, you should be careful not to rely too strongly on your calculator. Follow these rules of thumb: Estimate your answers. If you expect an answer of about 4, and your calculator says 2500, you’ve made an error somewhere. Don’t round until the very end. Every time you make a calculation with a rounded number, your answer gets a little bit worse. When you answer an applied problem, find a calculator number. It doesn’t mean much to suggest that the company should produce items; it’s much more meaningful to report that they should produce about 106 items. When you present your final answer, round it to something that makes sense. If you’ve found an amount of US money, round it to the nearest cent. If you’ve computed the number of people, round to the nearest person. If there’s no obvious context, show your teacher at least two digits after the decimal place. Occasionally in this course, you will need to find the “exact answer.” That means – not a calculator approximation. (You can still use your calculator to check your answer.)	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.941742	Interactive	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/70919/overview", "title": "Methods of Calculus eText", "author": "Diagram/Illustration" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96816/overview	Librande - Human Anatomy Laboratory Manual (First Edition, Rev. Fall 2022) Overview Human Anatomy Laboratory Manual is a diagram-based lab manual for 1-semester Human Anatomy courses. Included are over 100 openly-licensed images that students will be able to label and learn from.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:48.960131	Diagram/Illustration	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96816/overview", "title": "Librande - Human Anatomy Laboratory Manual (First Edition, Rev. Fall 2022)", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/90496/overview	Lesson 1 Section 2 The Rise of the Suburbs Lesson 1 Section 3 Race and Education Lesson 1 Section 4 Civil Rights in an Affluent Society Lesson 1 Section 5 Gender and Culture in the Affluent Society Lesson 1 Section 6 Politics and Ideology in the Affluent Society The Affluent Society Overview Link to student view Unit 3 Lesson 1 https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/90496/overview Teacher resources linked for The American Yawp content can be found at this link https://www.americanyawp.com/text/teaching-materials/ Quiz for Unit 3 Lesson 1 https://www.americanyawp.com/text/wp-content/uploads/Quiz-26.pdf Did you have an idea for improving this content? We’d love your input. Introduction In 1958, Harvard economist and public intellectual John Kenneth Galbraith published The Affluent Society. Galbraith’s celebrated book examined America’s new post–World War II consumer economy and political culture. While noting the unparalleled riches of American economic growth, it criticized the underlying structures of an economy dedicated only to increasing production and the consumption of goods. Galbraith argued that the U.S. economy, based on an almost hedonistic consumption of luxury products, would inevitably lead to economic inequality as private-sector interests enriched themselves at the expense of the American public. Galbraith warned that an economy where “wants are increasingly created by the process by which they are satisfied” was unsound, unsustainable, and, ultimately, immoral. “The Affluent Society,” he said, was anything but.1 While economists and scholars debate the merits of Galbraith’s warnings and predictions, his analysis was so insightful that the title of his book has come to serve as a ready label for postwar American society. In the two decades after the end of World War II, the American economy witnessed massive and sustained growth that reshaped American culture through the abundance of consumer goods. Standards of living—across all income levels—climbed to unparalleled heights and economic inequality plummeted.2 And yet, as Galbraith noted, the Affluent Society had fundamental flaws. The new consumer economy that lifted millions of Americans into its burgeoning middle class also reproduced existing inequalities. Women struggled to claim equal rights as full participants in American society. The poor struggled to win access to good schools, good healthcare, and good jobs. The same suburbs that gave middle-class Americans new space left cities withering in spirals of poverty and crime and caused irreversible ecological disruptions. The Jim Crow South tenaciously defended segregation, and Black Americans and other minorities suffered discrimination all across the country. The contradictions of the Affluent Society defined the decade: unrivaled prosperity alongside persistent poverty, life-changing technological innovation alongside social and environmental destruction, expanded opportunity alongside entrenched discrimination, and new liberating lifestyles alongside a stifling conformity. Notes Title image Little Rock schools closed rather than allow integration. This 1958 photograph shows an African American high school girl watching school lessons on television. Library of Congress (LC-U9- 1525F-28). 1. John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1958), 129. 2. See, for example, Claudia Goldin and Robert A. Margo, “The Great Compression: The Wage Structure in the United States at Mid-Century,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 107 (February 1992), 1–34. The Rise of the Suburbs The seeds of a suburban nation were planted in New Deal government programs. At the height of the Great Depression, in 1932, some 250,000 households lost their property to foreclosure. A year later, half of all U.S. mortgages were in default. The foreclosure rate stood at more than one thousand per day. In response, FDR’s New Deal created the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), which began purchasing and refinancing existing mortgages at risk of default. The HOLC introduced the amortized mortgage, allowing borrowers to pay back interest and principal regularly over fifteen years instead of the then standard five-year mortgage that carried large balloon payments at the end of the contract. The HOLC eventually owned nearly one of every five mortgages in America. Though homeowners paid more for their homes under this new system, home ownership was opened to the multitudes who could now gain residential stability, lower monthly mortgage payments, and accrue wealth as property values rose over time.1 Additionally, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), another New Deal organization, increased access to home ownership by insuring mortgages and protecting lenders from financial loss in the event of a default. Lenders, however, had to agree to offer low rates and terms of up to twenty or thirty years. Even more consumers could afford homes. Though only slightly more than a third of homes had an FHA-backed mortgage by 1964, FHA loans had a ripple effect, with private lenders granting more and more home loans even to non-FHA-backed borrowers. Government programs and subsidies like the HOLC and the FHA fueled the growth of home ownership and the rise of the suburbs. Government spending during World War II pushed the United States out of the Depression and into an economic boom that would be sustained after the war by continued government spending. Government expenditures provided loans to veterans, subsidized corporate research and development, and built the interstate highway system. In the decades after World War II, business boomed, unionization peaked, wages rose, and sustained growth buoyed a new consumer economy. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (popularly known as the G.I. Bill), passed in 1944, offered low-interest home loans, a stipend to attend college, loans to start a business, and unemployment benefits. The rapid growth of home ownership and the rise of suburban communities helped drive the postwar economic boom. Builders created sprawling neighborhoods of single-family homes on the outskirts of American cities. William Levitt built the first Levittown, the prototypical suburban community, in 1946 in Long Island, New York. Purchasing large acreage, subdividing lots, and contracting crews to build countless homes at economies of scale, Levitt offered affordable suburban housing to veterans and their families. Levitt became the prophet of the new suburbs, and his model of large-scale suburban development was duplicated by developers across the country. The country’s suburban share of the population rose from 19.5 percent in 1940 to 30.7 percent by 1960. Home ownership rates rose from 44 percent in 1940 to almost 62 percent in 1960. Between 1940 and 1950, suburban communities with more than ten thousand people grew 22.1 percent, and planned communities grew at an astonishing rate of 126.1 percent.2 As historian Lizabeth Cohen notes, these new suburbs “mushroomed in territorial size and the populations they harbored.”3 Between 1950 and 1970, America’s suburban population nearly doubled to seventy-four million. Eighty-three percent of all population growth occurred in suburban places.4 The postwar construction boom fed into countless industries. As manufacturers converted from war materials back to consumer goods, and as the suburbs developed, appliance and automobile sales rose dramatically. Flush with rising wages and wartime savings, homeowners also used newly created installment plans to buy new consumer goods at once instead of saving for years to make major purchases. Credit cards, first issued in 1950, further increased access to credit. No longer stymied by the Depression or wartime restrictions, consumers bought countless washers, dryers, refrigerators, freezers, and, suddenly, televisions. The percentage of Americans that owned at least one television increased from 12 percent in 1950 to more than 87 percent in 1960. This new suburban economy also led to increased demand for automobiles. The percentage of American families owning cars increased from 54 percent in 1948 to 74 percent in 1959. Motor fuel consumption rose from some twenty-two million gallons in 1945 to around fifty-nine million gallons in 1958.5 On the surface, the postwar economic boom turned America into a land of abundance. For advantaged buyers, loans had never been easier to obtain, consumer goods had never been more accessible, single-family homes had never been so cheap, and well-paying jobs had never been more abundant. “If you had a college diploma, a dark suit, and anything between the ears,” a businessman later recalled, “it was like an escalator; you just stood there and you moved up.”6 But the escalator did not serve everyone. Beneath aggregate numbers, racial disparity, sexual discrimination, and economic inequality persevered, undermining many of the assumptions of an Affluent Society. In 1939, real estate appraisers arrived in sunny Pasadena, California. Armed with elaborate questionnaires to evaluate the city’s building conditions, the appraisers were well versed in the policies of the HOLC. In one neighborhood, most structures were rated in “fair” repair, and appraisers noted a lack of “construction hazards or flood threats.” However, they concluded that the area “is detrimentally affected by 10 owner occupant Negro families.” While “the Negroes are said to be of the better class,” the appraisers concluded, “it seems inevitable that ownership and property values will drift to lower levels.7 Wealth created by the booming economy filtered through social structures with built-in privileges and prejudices. Just when many middle- and working-class white American families began their journey of upward mobility by moving to the suburbs with the help of government programs such as the FHA and the G.I. Bill, many African Americans and other racial minorities found themselves systematically shut out. A look at the relationship between federal organizations such as the HOLC, the FHA, and private banks, lenders, and real estate agents tells the story of standardized policies that produced a segregated housing market. At the core of HOLC appraisal techniques, which reflected the existing practices of private real estate agents, was the pernicious insistence that mixed-race and minority-dominated neighborhoods were credit risks. In partnership with local lenders and real estate agents, the HOLC created Residential Security Maps to identify high- and low-risk-lending areas. People familiar with the local real estate market filled out uniform surveys on each neighborhood. Relying on this information, the HOLC assigned every neighborhood a letter grade from A to D and a corresponding color code. The least secure, highest-risk neighborhoods for loans received a D grade and the color red. Banks limited loans in such “redlined” areas.8 Phrases like subversive racial elements and racial hazards pervade the redlined-area description files of surveyors and HOLC officials. Los Angeles’s Echo Park neighborhood, for instance, had concentrations of Japanese and African Americans and a “sprinkling of Russians and Mexicans.” The HOLC security map and survey noted that the neighborhood’s “adverse racial influences which are noticeably increasing inevitably presage lower values, rentals and a rapid decrease in residential desirability.”9 While the HOLC was a fairly short-lived New Deal agency, the influence of its security maps lived on in the FHA and Veterans Administration (VA), the latter of which dispensed G.I. Bill–backed mortgages. Both of these government organizations, which reinforced the standards followed by private lenders, refused to back bank mortgages in “redlined” neighborhoods. On the one hand, FHA- and VA-backed loans were an enormous boon to those who qualified for them. Millions of Americans received mortgages that they otherwise would not have qualified for. But FHA-backed mortgages were not available to all. Racial minorities could not get loans for property improvements in their own neighborhoods and were denied mortgages to purchase property in other areas for fear that their presence would extend the red line into a new community. Levittown, the poster child of the new suburban America, only allowed whites to purchase homes. Thus, FHA policies and private developers increased home ownership and stability for white Americans while simultaneously creating and enforcing racial segregation. The exclusionary structures of the postwar economy prompted protest from African Americans and other minorities who were excluded. Fair housing, equal employment, consumer access, and educational opportunity, for instance, all emerged as priorities of a brewing civil rights movement. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with African American plaintiffs and, in Shelley v. Kraemer, declared racially restrictive neighborhood housing covenants—property deed restrictions barring sales to racial minorities—legally unenforceable. Discrimination and segregation continued, however, and activists would continue to push for fair housing practices. During the 1950s and early 1960s many Americans retreated to the suburbs to enjoy the new consumer economy and search for some normalcy and security after the instability of depression and war. But many could not. It was both the limits and opportunities of housing, then, that shaped the contours of postwar American society. Moreover, the postwar suburban boom not only exacerbated racial and class inequalities, it precipitated a major environmental crisis. The introduction of mass production techniques in housing wrought ecological destruction. Developers sought cheaper land ever farther way from urban cores, wrecking havoc on particularly sensitive lands such as wetlands, hills, and floodplains. “A territory roughly the size of Rhode Island,” historian Adam Rome wrote, “was bulldozed for urban development” every year.10 Innovative construction strategies, government incentives, high consumer demand, and low energy prices all pushed builders away from more sustainable, energy-conserving building projects. Typical postwar tract-houses were difficult to cool in the summer and heat in the winter. Many were equipped with malfunctioning septic tanks that polluted local groundwater. Such destructiveness did not go unnoticed. By the time Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a forceful denunciation of the excessive use of pesticides such as DDT in agricultural and domestic settings, in 1962, many Americans were already primed to receive her message. Stories of kitchen faucets spouting detergent foams and children playing in effluents brought the point home: comfort and convenience did not have to come at such cost. And yet most of the Americans who joined the early environmentalist crusades of the 1950s and 1960s rarely questioned the foundations of the suburban ideal. Americans increasingly relied upon automobiles and idealized the single-family home, blunting any major push to shift prevailing patterns of land and energy use.11 Notes - Price Fishback, Jonathan Rose, and Kenneth Snowden, Well Worth Saving: How the New Deal Safeguarded Home Ownership (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013). - Leo Schnore, “The Growth of Metropolitan Suburbs,” American Sociological Review 22 (April 1957), 169. - Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York: Random House, 2002), 202. - Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York, Basic Books, 1999), 152. - Leo Fishman, The American Economy (Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1962), 560. - John P. Diggins, The Proud Decades: America in War and in Peace, 1941–1960 (New York: Norton, 1989), 219. - David Kushner, Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America’s Legendary Suburb (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009), 17. - Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005). - Becky M. Nicolaides, My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working–Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920-1965 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 193. - Adam W. Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 7. - See also J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke, The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016); Andrew Needham, Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014); and Ted Steinberg, Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). Race and Education Older battles over racial exclusion also confronted postwar American society. One long-simmering struggle targeted segregated schooling. In 1896, the Supreme Court declared the principle of “separate but equal” constitutional. Segregated schooling, however, was rarely “equal”: in practice, Black Americans, particularly in the South, received fewer funds, attended inadequate facilities, and studied with substandard materials. African Americans’ battle against educational inequality stretched across half a century before the Supreme Court again took up the merits of “separate but equal.” On May 17, 1954, after two years of argument, re-argument, and deliberation, Chief Justice Earl Warren announced the Supreme Court’s decision on segregated schooling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The court found by a unanimous 9–0 vote that racial segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court’s decision declared, “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” “Separate but equal” was made unconstitutional.1 Decades of African American–led litigation, local agitation against racial inequality, and liberal Supreme Court justices made Brown possible. In the early 1930s, the NAACP began a concerted effort to erode the legal underpinnings of segregation in the American South. Legal, or de jure, segregation subjected racial minorities to discriminatory laws and policies. Law and custom in the South hardened antiblack restrictions. But through a series of carefully chosen and contested court cases concerning education, disfranchisement, and jury selection, NAACP lawyers such as Charles Hamilton Houston, Robert L. Clark, and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall undermined Jim Crow’s constitutional underpinnings. These attorneys initially sought to demonstrate that states systematically failed to provide African American students “equal” resources and facilities, and thus failed to live up to Plessy. By the late 1940s activists began to more forcefully challenge the assumptions that “separate” was constitutional at all. Though remembered as just one lawsuit, Brown v. Board of Education consolidated five separate cases that had originated in the southeastern United States: Briggs v. Elliott (South Carolina), Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Virginia), Beulah v. Belton (Delaware), Bolling v. Sharpe (Washington, D.C.), and Brown v. Board of Education (Kansas). Working with local activists already involved in desegregation fights, the NAACP purposely chose cases with a diverse set of local backgrounds to show that segregation was not just an issue in the Deep South, and that a sweeping judgment on the fundamental constitutionality of Plessy was needed. Briggs v. Elliott, the first case accepted by the NAACP, illustrated the plight of segregated Black schools. Briggs originated in rural Clarendon County, South Carolina, where taxpayers in 1950 spent $179 to educate each white student and $43 for each Black student. The district’s twelve white schools were cumulatively worth $673,850; the value of its sixty-one Black schools (mostly dilapidated, overcrowded shacks) was $194,575.2 While Briggs underscored the South’s failure to follow Plessy, the Brown suit focused less on material disparities between Black and white schools (which were significantly less than in places like Clarendon County) and more on the social and spiritual degradation that accompanied legal segregation. This case cut to the basic question of whether “separate” was itself inherently unequal. The NAACP said the two notions were incompatible. As one witness before the U.S. District Court of Kansas said, “The entire colored race is craving light, and the only way to reach the light is to start [black and white] children together in their infancy and they come up together.”3 To make its case, the NAACP marshaled historical and social scientific evidence. The Court found the historical evidence inconclusive and drew their ruling more heavily from the NAACP’s argument that segregation psychologically damaged Black children. To make this argument, association lawyers relied on social scientific evidence, such as the famous doll experiments of Kenneth and Mamie Clark. The Clarks demonstrated that while young white girls would naturally choose to play with white dolls, young Black girls would, too. The Clarks argued that Black children’s aesthetic and moral preference for white dolls demonstrated the pernicious effects and self-loathing produced by segregation. Identifying and denouncing injustice, though, is different from rectifying it. Though Brown repudiated Plessy, the Court’s orders did not extend to segregation in places other than public schools and, even then, to preserve a unanimous decision for such an historically important case, the justices set aside the divisive yet essential question of enforcement. Their infamously ambiguous order in 1955 (what came to be known as Brown II) that school districts desegregate “with all deliberate speed” was so vague and ineffectual that it left the actual business of desegregation in the hands of those who opposed it. In most of the South, as well as the rest of the country, school integration did not occur on a wide scale until well after Brown. Only in the 1964 Civil Rights Act did the federal government finally implement some enforcement of the Brown decision by threatening to withhold funding from recalcitrant school districts, but even then southern districts found loopholes. Court decisions such as Green v. New Kent County (1968) and Alexander v. Holmes (1969) finally closed some of those loopholes, such as “freedom of choice” plans, to compel some measure of actual integration. When Brown finally was enforced in the South, the quantitative impact was staggering. In 1968, fourteen years after Brown, some 80 percent of school-age Black southerners remained in schools that were 90 to 100 percent nonwhite. By 1972, though, just 25 percent were in such schools, and 55 percent remained in schools with a simple nonwhite minority. By many measures, the public schools of the South became, ironically, the most integrated in the nation.4 As a landmark moment in American history, Brown’s significance perhaps lies less in immediate tangible changes—which were slow, partial, and inseparable from a much longer chain of events—than in the idealism it expressed and the momentum it created. The nation’s highest court had attacked one of the fundamental supports of Jim Crow segregation and offered constitutional cover for the creation of one of the greatest social movements in American history. Notes - Oliver Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al., 347 U.S. 483 (1954). - James T. Patterson and William W. Freehling, Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 25; Pete Daniel, Standing at the Crossroads: Southern Life in the Twentieth Century (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 161–164. - Patterson and Freehling, Brown v. Board, xxv. - Charles T. Clotfelter, After Brown: The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011), 6. Civil Rights in an Affluent Society Education was but one aspect of the nation’s Jim Crow machinery. African Americans had been fighting against a variety of racist policies, cultures, and beliefs in all aspects of American life. And while the struggle for Black inclusion had few victories before World War II, the war and the Double V campaign for victory against fascism abroad and racism at home, as well as the postwar economic boom led, to rising expectations for many African Americans. When persistent racism and racial segregation undercut the promise of economic and social mobility, African Americans began mobilizing on an unprecedented scale against the various discriminatory social and legal structures. While many of the civil rights movement’s most memorable and important moments, such as the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and especially the March on Washington, occurred in the 1960s, the 1950s were a significant decade in the sometimes tragic, sometimes triumphant march of civil rights in the United States. In 1953, years before Rosa Parks’s iconic confrontation on a Montgomery city bus, an African American woman named Sarah Keys publicly challenged segregated public transportation. Keys, then serving in the Women’s Army Corps, traveled from her army base in New Jersey back to North Carolina to visit her family. When the bus stopped in North Carolina, the driver asked her to give up her seat for a white customer. Her refusal to do so landed her in jail in 1953 and led to a landmark 1955 decision, Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, in which the Interstate Commerce Commission ruled that “separate but equal” violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Poorly enforced, it nevertheless gave legal coverage for the Freedom Riders years later and motivated further assaults against Jim Crow. But if some events encouraged civil rights workers with the promise of progress, others were so savage they convinced activists that they could do nothing but resist. In the summer of 1955, two white men in Mississippi kidnapped and brutally murdered fourteen-year-old Emmett Till. Till, visiting from Chicago and perhaps unfamiliar with the “etiquette” of Jim Crow, allegedly whistled at a white woman named Carolyn Bryant. Her husband, Roy Bryant, and another man, J. W. Milam, abducted Till from his relatives’ home, beat him, mutilated him, shot him, and threw his body in the Tallahatchie River. Emmett’s mother held an open-casket funeral so that Till’s disfigured body could make national news. The men were brought to trial. The evidence was damning, but an all-white jury found the two not guilty. Mere months after the decision, the two boasted of their crime, in all of its brutal detail, in Look magazine. “They ain’t gonna go to school with my kids,” Milam said. They wanted “to make an example of [Till]—just so everybody can know how me and my folks stand.”1 The Till case became an indelible memory for the young Black men and women soon to propel the civil rights movement forward. On December 1, 1955, four months after Till’s death and six days after the Keys v. Carolina Coach Company decision, Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery city bus and was arrested. Montgomery’s public transportation system had longstanding rules requiring African American passengers to sit in the back of the bus and to give up their seats to white passengers if the buses filled. Parks was not the first to protest the policy by staying seated, but she was the first around whom Montgomery activists rallied. Montgomery’s Black population, under the leadership of local ministers and civil rights workers, formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and coordinated an organized boycott of the city’s buses. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted from December 1955 until December 20, 1956, when the Supreme Court ordered their integration. The boycott not only crushed segregation in Montgomery’s public transportation, it energized the entire civil rights movement and established the leadership of the MIA’s president, a recently arrived, twenty-six-year-old Baptist minister named Martin Luther King Jr. Motivated by the success of the Montgomery boycott, King and other African American leaders looked to continue the fight. In 1957, King helped create the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to coordinate civil rights groups across the South and buoy their efforts organizing and sustaining boycotts, protests, and other assaults against southern Jim Crow laws. As pressure built, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first such measure passed since Reconstruction. The act was compromised away nearly to nothing, although it did achieve some gains, such as creating the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Commission, which was charged with investigating claims of racial discrimination. And yet, despite its weakness, the act signaled that pressure was finally mounting on Americans to confront the legacy of discrimination. Despite successes at both the local and national level, the civil rights movement faced bitter opposition. Those opposed to the movement often used violent tactics to scare and intimidate African Americans and subvert legal rulings and court orders. For example, a year into the Montgomery bus boycott, angry white southerners bombed four African American churches as well as the homes of King and fellow civil rights leader E. D. Nixon. Though King, Nixon, and the MIA persevered in the face of such violence, it was only a taste of things to come. Such unremitting hostility and violence left the outcome of the burgeoning civil rights movement in doubt. Despite its successes, civil rights activists looked back on the 1950s as a decade of mixed results and incomplete accomplishments. While the bus boycott, Supreme Court rulings, and other civil rights activities signaled progress, church bombings, death threats, and stubborn legislators demonstrated the distance that still needed to be traveled. Notes - William Bradford Huie, “The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi,” Look (January 24, 1956), 46–50. Gender and Culture in the Affluent Society For more information about the Civil Rights Movement and Television, The Paley Center for Media: The Civil Rights Movement and Television America’s consumer economy reshaped how Americans experienced culture and shaped their identities. The Affluent Society gave Americans new experiences, new outlets, and new ways to understand and interact with one another. “The American household is on the threshold of a revolution,” the New York Times declared in August 1948. “The reason is television.”1 Television was presented to the American public at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, but commercialization of the new medium in the United States lagged during the war years. In 1947, though, regular full-scale broadcasting became available to the public. Television was instantly popular, so much so that by early 1948 Newsweek reported that it was “catching on like a case of high-toned scarlet fever.”2 Indeed, between 1948 and 1955 close to two thirds of the nation’s households purchased a television set. By the end of the 1950s, 90 percent of American families had one and the average viewer was tuning in for almost five hours a day.3 The rise of the Civil Rights Movement paralleled the growing use of television in the United States. Television provided the American public with a means to witness the struggle for civil rights nearly in real time and led a more informed society to enact social change.4 The technological ability to transmit images via radio waves gave birth to television. Television borrowed radio’s organizational structure, too. The big radio broadcasting companies—NBC, CBS, and the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)—used their technical expertise and capital reserves to conquer the airwaves. They acquired licenses to local stations and eliminated their few independent competitors. The refusal of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to issue any new licenses between 1948 and 1955 was a de facto endorsement of the big three’s stranglehold on the market. In addition to replicating radio’s organizational structure, television also looked to radio for content. Many of the early programs were adaptations of popular radio variety and comedy shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show and Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater. These were accompanied by live plays, dramas, sports, and situation comedies. Because of the cost and difficulty of recording, most programs were broadcast live, forcing stations across the country to air shows at the same time. And since audiences had a limited number of channels to choose from, viewing experiences were broadly shared. More than two thirds of television-owning households, for instance, watched popular shows such as I Love Lucy. The limited number of channels and programs meant that networks selected programs that appealed to the widest possible audience to draw viewers and advertisers, television’s greatest financers. By the mid-1950s, an hour of primetime programming cost about $150,000 (about $1.5 million in today’s dollars) to produce. This proved too expensive for most commercial sponsors, who began turning to a joint financing model of thirty-second spot ads. The need to appeal to as many people as possible promoted the production of noncontroversial shows aimed at the entire family. Programs such as Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver featured light topics, humor, and a guaranteed happy ending the whole family could enjoy.4 Television’s broad appeal, however, was about more than money and entertainment. Shows of the 1950s, such as Father Knows Best and I Love Lucy, idealized the nuclear family, “traditional” gender roles, and white, middle-class domesticity. Leave It to Beaver, which became the prototypical example of the 1950s television family, depicted its breadwinner father and homemaker mother guiding their children through life lessons. Such shows, and Cold War America more broadly, reinforced a popular consensus that such lifestyles were not only beneficial but the most effective way to safeguard American prosperity against communist threats and social “deviancy.” Postwar prosperity facilitated, and in turn was supported by, the ongoing postwar baby boom. From 1946 to 1964, American fertility experienced an unprecedented spike. A century of declining birth rates abruptly reversed. Although popular memory credits the cause of the baby boom to the return of virile soldiers from battle, the real story is more nuanced. After years of economic depression, families were now wealthy enough to support larger families and had homes large enough to accommodate them, while women married younger and American culture celebrated the ideal of a large, insular family. Underlying this “reproductive consensus” was the new cult of professionalism that pervaded postwar American culture, including the professionalization of homemaking. Mothers and fathers alike flocked to the experts for their opinions on marriage, sexuality, and, most especially, child-rearing. Psychiatrists held an almost mythic status as people took their opinions and prescriptions, as well as their vocabulary, into their everyday life. Books like Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care (1946) were diligently studied by women who took their career as housewife as just that: a career, complete with all the demands and professional trappings of job development and training. And since most women had multiple children roughly the same age as their neighbors’ children, a cultural obsession with kids flourished throughout the era. Women bore the brunt of this pressure, chided if they did not give enough of their time to the children—especially if it was because of a career—yet cautioned that spending too much time would lead to “Momism,” producing “sissy” boys who would be incapable of contributing to society and extremely susceptible to the communist threat. A new youth culture exploded in American popular culture. On the one hand, the anxieties of the atomic age hit America’s youth particularly hard. Keenly aware of the discontent bubbling beneath the surface of the Affluent Society, many youth embraced rebellion. The 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause demonstrated the restlessness and emotional incertitude of the postwar generation raised in increasing affluence yet increasingly unsatisfied with their comfortable lives. At the same time, perhaps yearning for something beyond the “massification” of American culture yet having few other options to turn to beyond popular culture, American youth embraced rock ’n’ roll. They listened to Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and especially Elvis Presley (whose sexually suggestive hip movements were judged subversive). The popularity of rock ’n’ roll had not yet blossomed into the countercultural musical revolution of the coming decade, but it provided a magnet for teenage restlessness and rebellion. “Television and Elvis,” the musician Bruce Springsteen recollected, “gave us full access to a new language, a new form of communication, a new way of being, a new way of looking, a new way of thinking; about sex, about race, about identity, about life; a new way of being an American, a human being; and a new way of hearing music.” American youth had seen so little of Elvis’s energy and sensuality elsewhere in their culture. “Once Elvis came across the airwaves,” Springsteen said, “once he was heard and seen in action, you could not put the genie back in the bottle. After that moment, there was yesterday, and there was today, and there was a red hot, rockabilly forging of a new tomorrow, before your very eyes.”5 Other Americans took larger steps to reject the expected conformity of the Affluent Society. The writers, poets, and musicians of the Beat Generation, disillusioned with capitalism, consumerism, and traditional gender roles, sought a deeper meaning in life. Beats traveled across the country, studied Eastern religions, and experimented with drugs, sex, and art. Behind the scenes, Americans were challenging sexual mores. The gay rights movement, for instance, stretched back into the Affluent Society. While the country proclaimed homosexuality a mental disorder, gay men established the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles and gay women formed the Daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco as support groups. They held meetings, distributed literature, provided legal and counseling services, and formed chapters across the country. Much of their work, however, remained secretive because homosexuals risked arrest and abuse if discovered.6 Society’s “consensus,” on everything from the consumer economy to gender roles, did not go unchallenged. Much discontent was channeled through the machine itself: advertisers sold rebellion no less than they sold baking soda. And yet others were rejecting the old ways, choosing new lifestyles, challenging old hierarchies, and embarking on new paths. Notes - Lewis L. Gould, Watching Television Come of Age: The New York Times Reviews by Jack Gould (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002), 186. - Gary Edgerton, Columbia History of American Television (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 90. - Ibid., 178. - “The Civil Rights Movement and Television.” Paley Center, 24 June 2021, https://www.paleycenter.org/education/videoconferencing/get-up-stand-up-the-civil-rights-movement-and-television/. - Christopher H. Sterling and John Michael Kittross, Stay Tuned: A History of American Broadcasting (New York: Routledge, 2001), 364. - Bruce Springsteen, “SXSW Keynote Address,” Rolling Stone (March 28, 2012), http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-the-complete-text-of-bruce-springsteens-sxsw-keynote-address-20120328. - John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 102–103. Politics and Ideology in the Affluent Society Postwar economic prosperity and the creation of new suburban spaces inevitably shaped American politics. In stark contrast to the Great Depression, the new prosperity renewed belief in the superiority of capitalism, cultural conservatism, and religion. In the 1930s, the economic ravages of the international economic catastrophe knocked the legs out from under the intellectual justifications for keeping government out of the economy. And yet pockets of true believers kept alive the gospel of the free market. The single most important was the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). In the midst of the depression, NAM reinvented itself and went on the offensive, initiating advertising campaigns supporting “free enterprise” and “The American Way of Life.”1 More importantly, NAM became a node for business leaders, such as J. Howard Pew of Sun Oil and Jasper Crane of DuPont Chemical Co., to network with like-minded individuals and take the message of free enterprise to the American people. The network of business leaders that NAM brought together in the midst of the Great Depression formed the financial, organizational, and ideological underpinnings of the free market advocacy groups that emerged and found ready adherents in America’s new suburban spaces in the postwar decades. One of the most important advocacy groups that sprang up after the war was Leonard Read’s Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). Read founded FEE in 1946 on the premise that “The American Way of Life” was essentially individualistic and that the best way to protect and promote that individualism was through libertarian economics. Libertarianism took as its core principle the promotion of individual liberty, property rights, and an economy with a minimum of government regulation. FEE, whose advisory board and supporters came mostly from the NAM network of Pew and Crane, became a key ideological factory, supplying businesses, service clubs, churches, schools, and universities with a steady stream of libertarian literature, much of it authored by Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises.2 Shortly after FEE’s formation, Austrian economist and libertarian intellectual Friedrich Hayek founded the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) in 1947. The MPS brought together libertarian intellectuals from both sides of the Atlantic to challenge Keynesian economics—the dominant notion that government fiscal and monetary policy were necessary economic tools—in academia. University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman became its president. Friedman (and his Chicago School of Economics) and the MPS became some of the most influential free market advocates in the world and helped legitimize for many the libertarian ideology so successfully evangelized by FEE, its descendant organizations, and libertarian popularizers such as the novelist Ayn Rand.3 Libertarian politics and evangelical religion were shaping the origins of a new conservative, suburban constituency. Suburban communities’ distance from government and other top-down community-building mechanisms—despite relying on government subsidies and government programs—left a social void that evangelical churches eagerly filled. More often than not the theology and ideology of these churches reinforced socially conservative views while simultaneously reinforcing congregants’ belief in economic individualism. Novelist Ayn Rand, meanwhile, whose novels The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) were two of the decades’ best sellers, helped move the ideas of individualism, “rational self-interest,” and “the virtue of selfishness” outside the halls of business and academia and into suburbia. The ethos of individualism became the building blocks for a new political movement. And yet, while the growing suburbs and their brewing conservative ideology eventually proved immensely important in American political life, their impact was not immediately felt. They did not yet have a champion. In the post–World War II years the Republican Party faced a fork in the road. Its complete lack of electoral success since the Depression led to a battle within the party about how to revive its electoral prospects. The more conservative faction, represented by Ohio senator Robert Taft (son of former president William Howard Taft) and backed by many party activists and financiers such as J. Howard Pew, sought to take the party further to the right, particularly in economic matters, by rolling back New Deal programs and policies. On the other hand, the more moderate wing of the party, led by men such as New York governor Thomas Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller, sought to embrace and reform New Deal programs and policies. There were further disagreements among party members about how involved the United States should be in the world. Issues such as foreign aid, collective security, and how best to fight communism divided the party. Initially, the moderates, or “liberals,” won control of the party with the nomination of Thomas Dewey in 1948. Dewey’s shocking loss to Truman, however, emboldened conservatives, who rallied around Taft as the 1952 presidential primaries approached. With the conservative banner riding high in the party, General Dwight Eisenhower (“Ike”), most recently North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supreme commander, felt obliged to join the race in order to beat back the conservatives and “prevent one of our great two Parties from adopting a course which could lead to national suicide.” In addition to his fear that Taft and the conservatives would undermine collective security arrangements such as NATO, he also berated the “neanderthals” in his party for their anti–New Deal stance. Eisenhower felt that the best way to stop communism was to undercut its appeal by alleviating the conditions under which it was most attractive. That meant supporting New Deal programs. There was also a political calculus to Eisenhower’s position. He observed, “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.”4 The primary contest between Taft and Eisenhower was close and controversial. Taft supporters claimed that Eisenhower stole the nomination from Taft at the convention. Eisenhower, attempting to placate the conservatives in his party, picked California congressman and virulent anticommunist Richard Nixon as his running mate. With the Republican nomination sewn up, the immensely popular Eisenhower swept to victory in the 1952 general election, easily besting Truman’s hand-picked successor, Adlai Stevenson. Eisenhower’s popularity boosted Republicans across the country, leading them to majorities in both houses of Congress. The Republican sweep in the 1952 election, owing in part to Eisenhower’s popularity, translated into few tangible legislative accomplishments. Within two years of his election, the moderate Eisenhower saw his legislative proposals routinely defeated by an unlikely alliance of conservative Republicans, who thought Eisenhower was going too far, and liberal Democrats, who thought he was not going far enough. For example, in 1954 Eisenhower proposed a national healthcare plan that would have provided federal support for increasing healthcare coverage across the nation without getting the government directly involved in regulating the healthcare industry. The proposal was defeated in the house by a 238–134 vote with a swing bloc of seventy-five conservative Republicans joining liberal Democrats voting against the plan.5 Eisenhower’s proposals in education and agriculture often suffered similar defeats. By the end of his presidency, Ike’s domestic legislative achievements were largely limited to expanding social security; making Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) a cabinet position; passing the National Defense Education Act; and bolstering federal support to education, particularly in math and science. As with any president, however, Eisenhower’s impact was bigger than just legislation. Ike’s “middle of the road” philosophy guided his foreign policy as much as his domestic agenda. He sought to keep the United States from direct interventions abroad by bolstering anticommunist and procapitalist allies. Ike funneled money to the French in Vietnam fighting the Ho Chi Minh–led communists, walked a tight line between helping Chiang Kai-Shek’s Taiwan without overtly provoking Mao Zedong’s China, and materially backed groups that destabilized “unfriendly” governments in Iran and Guatemala. The centerpiece of Ike’s Soviet policy, meanwhile, was the threat of “massive retaliation,” or the threat of nuclear force in the face of communist expansion, thereby checking Soviet expansion without direct American involvement. While Ike’s “mainstream” “middle way” won broad popular support, his own party was slowly moving away from his positions. By 1964 the party had moved far enough to the right to nominate Arizona senator Barry Goldwater, the most conservative candidate in a generation. The political moderation of the Affluent Society proved little more than a way station on the road to liberal reforms and a more distant conservative ascendancy. Notes - See Richard Tedlow, “The National Association of Manufacturers and Public Relations During the New Deal,” Business History Review 50 (Spring 1976), 25–45; and Wendy Wall, Inventing the “American Way”: The Politics of Consensus from the New Deal to the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). - Gregory Eow, “Fighting a New Deal: Intellectual Origins of the Reagan Revolution, 1932–1952,” PhD diss., Rice University, 2007; Brian Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement (New York: Public Affairs, 2007); and Kim Phillips Fein, Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade Against the New Deal (New York: Norton, 2009), 43–55. - Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets Since the Depression (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012); Jennifer Burns, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). - Allan J. Lichtman, White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008), 180, 201, 185. - Steven Wagner, Eisenhower Republicanism Pursuing the Middle Way (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2006), 15. Conclusion The postwar American “consensus” held great promise. Despite the looming threat of nuclear war, millions experienced an unprecedented prosperity and an increasingly proud American identity. Prosperity seemed to promise ever higher standards of living. But things fell apart, and the center could not hold: wracked by contradiction, dissent, discrimination, and inequality, the Affluent Society stood on the precipice of revolution. Primary Sources During the labor shortages of World War II, the United States’ launched the Bracero (“laborer”) program to bring Mexican laborers into the United States. The program continued into the 1960s and brought more than a million workers into the United States on short-term contracts. Undocumented immigration continued, however. Congress held hearings and, in the selection below, a migrant worker named Juanita Garcia testifies to Congress about the state of affairs in California’s Imperial Valley. Beginning in 1954, Dwight Eisenhower’s administration oversaw, with the cooperation of the Mexican government, “Operation Wetback,” which empowered to the Border Patrol to crack down upon illegal immigration. Pete Hernandez, a migrant worker, was tried for the murder of his employer, Joe Espinosa, in Edna, Texas, in 1950. Hernandez was convicted by an all-white jury. His lawyers appealed. They argued that Hernandez was entitled to a jury “of his peers” and that systematic exclusion of Mexican Americans violated constitutional law. In a unanimous decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Mexican Americans—and all “classes”—were entitled to the “equal protection” articulated in the Fourteenth Amendment. 3. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) In 1896, the United States Supreme Court declared in Plessy v. Ferguson that the doctrine of “separate but equal” was constitutional. In 1954, the United States Supreme Court overturned that decision and 4. Richard Nixon on the American Standard of Living (1959) As Cold War tensions eased, exhibitions allowed for Americans and Soviets to survey the other’s culture and way of life. In 1959, the Russians held an exhibition in New York, and the Americans in Moscow. A videotaped discussion between Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev, the so-called “Kitchen Debate,” won Richard Nixon acclaim at home for his articulate defense of the American standard of living. In the following extract from July 24, 1959, Nixon opened the American Exhibition in Moscow. 5. John F. Kennedy on the Separation of Church and State (1960) American Anti-Catholicism had softened in the aftermath of World War II, but no Catholic had ever been elected president and Protestant Americans had long been suspicious of Catholic politicians when John F. Kennedy ran for the presidency in 1960. (Al Smith, the first Catholic presidential candidate, was roundly defeated in 1928 owing in large part to popular anti-Catholic prejudice). On September 12, 1960, Kennedy addressed the Greater Houston Ministerial Association and he not only allayed popular fears of his Catholic faith, he delivered a seminal statement on the separation of church and state. 6. Congressman Arthur L. Miller Gives “the Putrid Facts” About Homosexuality (1950) In 1950, Representative Arthur L. Miller, a Nebraska Republican, offered an amendment to a bill requiring background checks for employees of the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA). Miller proposed to bar homosexuals from working with the ECA. Although his amendment was rejected, his views of homosexuality revealed much about postwar American views. 7. Rosa Parks on Life in Montgomery, Alabama (1956-1958) In this unfinished correspondence and undated personal notes, Rosa Parks recounted living under segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, explained why she refused to surrender her seat on a city bus, and lamented the psychological toll exacted by Jim Crow. In 1959, photographer John Bledsoe captured this image of the crowd on the steps of the Arkansas state capitol building, protesting the federally mandated integration of Little Rock’s Central High School. This image shows how worries about desegregation were bound up with other concerns, such as the reach of communism and government power. Redbook made this film to convince advertisers that the magazine would help them attract the white suburban consumers they desired. The “happy go spending, buy it now, young adults of today” are depicted by the film as flocking to the suburbs to escape global and urban turmoil. Redbook Magazine, “In The Suburbs” (1957). Via The Internet Archive. Reference Material This chapter was edited by James McKay, with content contributions by Edwin C. Breeden, Aaron Cowan, Elsa Devienne, Maggie Flamingo, Destin Jenkins, Kyle Livie, Jennifer Mandel, James McKay, Laura Redford, Ronny Regev, and Tanya Roth. Recommended citation: Edwin C. Breeden et al., “The Cold War,” James McKay, ed., in The American Yawp, eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018). Recommended Reading - Boyle, Kevin. The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945–1968. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995. - Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988. - Brown, Kate. Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. - Brown-Nagin, Tomiko. Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. - Cohen, Lizabeth. A Consumer’s Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. New York: Knopf, 2003. - Coontz, Stephanie. The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. New York: Basic Books, 1993. - Dudziak, Mary. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002. - Fried, Richard M. Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. - Grisinger, Joanna. The Unwieldy American State: Administrative Politics Since the New Deal. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012. - Hernández, Kelly Lytle. Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. - Horowitz, Daniel. Betty Friedan and the Making of the Feminine Mystique: The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998. - Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. - Jumonville, Neil. Critical Crossings: The New York Intellectuals in Postwar America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. - Levenstein, Lisa. A Movement Without Marches: African American Women and the Politics of Poverty in Postwar Philadelphia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. - May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. New York: Basic Books, 1988. - McGirr, Lisa. Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001. - Ngai, Mae. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. - Patterson, James T. Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. - Roberts, Gene, and Hank Klibanoff. The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation. New York: Knopf, 2006. - Self, Robert. American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. - Sugrue, Thomas. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. - Von Eschen, Penny. Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. - Wagnleitner, Reinhold. Coca-Colonization and the Cold War: The Cultural Mission of the United States in Austria After the Second World War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994. - Wall, Wendy. Inventing the “American Way”: The Politics of Consensus from the New Deal to the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. - Whitfield, Stephen. The Culture of the Cold War. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.028913	02/28/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/90496/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit American History II, Times of Change, The Affluent Society", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/82543/overview	WY.SCI.1.LS1.1 Wyoming Science Content and Performance Standards Grade 1 Learning Domain: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures & Processes Standard: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs. WY.SCI.1.LS1.2 Wyoming Science Content and Performance Standards Grade 1 Learning Domain: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures & Processes Standard: Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive. WY.SCI.1.LS3.1 Wyoming Science Content and Performance Standards Grade 1 Learning Domain: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits Standard: Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents. WY.SCI.2.LS2.1 Wyoming Science Content and Performance Standards Grade 2 Learning Domain: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics Standard: Plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to grow. WY.SCI.2.LS4.1 Wyoming Science Content and Performance Standards Grade 2 Learning Domain: Biological Unity and Diversity Standard: Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats. Learning Domain: Engineering, Technology, & Applications of Science Standard: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool. WY.SCI.K.ESS3.1 Wyoming Science Content and Performance Standards Kindergarten Learning Domain: Earth and Human Activity Standard: Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live. WY.SCI.K.LS1.1 Wyoming Science Content and Performance Standards Kindergarten Learning Domain: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures & Processes Standard: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. Science Domain: Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science Topic: Engineering Design Standard: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool. Science Domain: Earth and Space Sciences Topic: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Animals, Plants, and Their Environment Standard: Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live. [Clarification Statement: Examples of relationships could include that deer eat buds and leaves, therefore, they usually live in forested areas; and, grasses need sunlight so they often grow in meadows. Plants, animals, and their surroundings make up a system.] NGSS.K.LS1.1 Next Generation Science Standards Kindergarten-K Science Domain: Life Sciences Topic: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Animals, Plants, and Their Environment Standard: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. [Clarification Statement: Examples of patterns could include that animals need to take in food but plants do not; the different kinds of food needed by different types of animals; the requirement of plants to have light; and, that all living things need water.] Science Domain: Life Sciences Topic: Structure, Function, and Information Processing Standard: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of human problems that can be solved by mimicking plant or animal solutions could include designing clothing or equipment to protect bicyclists by mimicking turtle shells, acorn shells, and animal scales; stabilizing structures by mimicking animal tails and roots on plants; keeping out intruders by mimicking thorns on branches and animal quills; and, detecting intruders by mimicking eyes and ears.] Science Domain: Life Sciences Topic: Structure, Function, and Information Processing Standard: Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive. [Clarification Statement: Examples of patterns of behaviors could include the signals that offspring make (such as crying, cheeping, and other vocalizations) and the responses of the parents (such as feeding, comforting, and protecting the offspring).] Science Domain: Life Sciences Topic: Structure, Function, and Information Processing Standard: Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents. [Clarification Statement: Examples of patterns could include features plants or animals share. Examples of observations could include leaves from the same kind of plant are the same shape but can differ in size; and, a particular breed of dog looks like its parents but is not exactly the same.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include inheritance or animals that undergo metamorphosis or hybrids.] Science Domain: Life Sciences Topic: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems Standard: Plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to grow. [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to testing one variable at a time.] Science Domain: Life Sciences Topic: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems Standard: Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the diversity of living things in each of a variety of different habitats.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include specific animal and plant names in specific habitats.]	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.080003	Environmental Science	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/82543/overview", "title": "Using Your Schoolyard (for K-2 Educators)", "author": "English Language Arts" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11378/overview	Who's Counting: An Interactive Introduction to Accounting Overview Have you ever thought about Accounting as a career choice? With a refreshing, funky approach, this course will introduce you to the basic concepts, principles and techniques of being an accountant. You will learn about the importance of accounting in modern societies and have the opportunity to explore two different Accounting specialisations- Financial Accounting and Management Accounting. This course is a MOOC that runs twice per year and is being offered partially in Chinese (Mandarin) and fully in English as a partner project between Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia and Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, China. "Who's Counting: An Interactive Introduction to Accounting" by Charles Darwin University is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless individual parts labelled otherwise. Preparation This course can be run on it's own or used to supplement your own programs.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.092683	Karin Pfister	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11378/overview", "title": "Who's Counting: An Interactive Introduction to Accounting", "author": "Module" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107793/overview	Prompt Engineering and ChatGPT Prompt Engineering and Visual Generative AI Tools Prompt Engineering and AI Tools Overview These resources are shared to help students navigate prompt engineering and AI tools in a responsible, ethical manner. Prompt Engineering and ChatGPT (and other text generators) This document was used in English Composition courses in Fall 2023 semester at the College of Southern Idaho to encourage students to use ChatGPT and other text generators responsibly. The first and third parts of the document is shared under CC BY NC 4.0 International. The second section is shared under CC BY SA 2.0 International. Prompt Engineering and Visual Image Generators This document has not been used in a course yet, but is a supplement to the first. The current edition was edited on October 30, 2023. GenAI Tools This document contains free or open-access multimodal and single-medium generative AI tools. The quotes at the top condition the document user to think of Generative AI tools as tools rather than replacements for their own critical thinking and creativity skills.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.112462	Reed Hepler	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107793/overview", "title": "Prompt Engineering and AI Tools", "author": "Student Guide" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107707/overview	3.1.2 Knowledge check (with solutions) 3.1.3 Bonus Assignment - Team Contract 3.1.4 Team Contract Worksheet Build team. Overview This learning module (Lesson 1 of Unit 3) is part of a course called Project Management Fundamentals and may either be completed individually as a stand-alone topic, or part of a trio of learning modules on internal management, or as part of the course. Learning outcomes. If you want to include a nice team building exercise, the Marshmallow Challenge provides a 20-minute exercise that engages students and causes them to rethink how teams work. Here's a nice overview of the Marshmallow Challenge: Teams offer a diversity of talent that makes the collective more powerful than the sum of its parts. In project management, teams can leverage member's strengths to achieve a common, shared goal. Upon successful completion of this module, you'll be able to: - Describe factors of high performing teams. - Explain motivation theories. - Demonstrate effective leadership (e.g., EQ). What is the role of the team on a project? \| 8 minute read Porf. Christianson considers his Project Management Fundamentals textbook a work-in-progress (version 0.5). It is available at OER Commons as PDF download. He also provides a nice companion student workbook also available as a PDF download. For each chapter, the workbook provides a skeletal outline and knowledge checks (with answer keys). In many chapters, there are exercises and examples. It may be provided to students as a whole workbook or subsections may be provided with each chapter. Read sections 1 and 2 of chapter 2 (Project Management Roles) of Christianson's Project Management Fundamentals text (PDF resource attached). FYI: J. Scott Christianson is a professor at the University of Missouri and has an interesting website about technology (from AI to blockchain to crypto and everything in between). What are the stages of team development? \| 2 minute watch How are we motivated? \| 11 minutes watch What makes a team high-performing? \| 10 minute watch Test your knowledge. - Check all of the major characteristics of high performing teams. - Defined roles and responsibilities - Top talent - Trust and respect - Understanding of bigger picture - Understanding of strengths and weaknesses - Works hardest - T/F: In addition to forming, storming, norming, and performing; some include adjourning as one of the stages of Tuckman's team stage model. - True - False - Which of the following is NOT one of the pillars of Pink's "drive" theory of motivation? - Autonomy - Mastery - Purpose - Psychological safety This has its roots in Deci & Ryan's self-determination theory. BONUS: Putting what you learned in action. If you are using the Project Management Fundamentals course over the course of a semester, it is often effective to engage students in teams on a term project. I have had students work with for-profit, governmental, and non-profit (i.e. NGO) organizations to plan events, create digital products, and also prepare strategic initiatives. To support this idea of a project that allows students to apply what they've learned on an actual project, I have created a series of five transparent assignments: - External Management - charter creation and stakeholder analysis - Internal Management - team contract and RACI chart creation - Scope Management - work breakdown structure and disctionary creation - Schedule Management - Network analysis to identify critical path and Gantt chart creation - Risk Management - Risk identification and analysis, creation of risk register I have omitted the Cost Management competency group because often student projects do not have a budget, other than that of the students time. Project Work 2 > Internal Management For a project you and your team are currently working on, try creating a team contract and a RACI chart. These two project management tools will help you and your team be even more high-performing. A set of transparent assignment instructions (resource attached) have been provided that includes the following: - the purpose of the assignment, - the knowledge and skills that will be developed by the assignment, - the task involved, - a checklist of what will need to be accomplished, - a rubric of how to assess your work, and - a sample of finished work. Transparent assignments are a way for you to get clarity on expectations (see the "Unwritten Rules"). >>>Additional Resource: Westminster College has provided an excellent worksheet for developing team charters. It is also provided as a resource at the end of this section.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.147129	08/14/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107707/overview", "title": "Project Management Fundamentals, Internal Management, Build team.", "author": "Paul Szwed" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107711/overview	4.1.2 Knowledge check (with solutions) 4.1.3 Bonus Assignment - WBS and dictionary Define scope. Overview This learning module (Lesson 1 of Unit 4) is part of a course called Project Management Fundamentals and may either be completed individually as a stand-alone topic, or part of a trio of learning modules on scope management, or as part of the course. Learning outcomes. Defining and managing your project scope enables your team to deliver projects efficiently in accordance with the original requirements, rather than letting them continue to grow, creep, and otherwise snowball. Upon successful completion of this module, you'll be able to: - Define scope and scope creep. - Explain the scoping process. - Distinguish between issues, constaints, and assumptions. What is project scope? \| 3-5 minute read Porf. Christianson considers his Project Management Fundamentals textbook a work-in-progress (version 0.5). It is available at OER Commons as PDF download. He also provides a nice companion student workbook also available as a PDF download. For each chapter, the workbook provides a skeletal outline and knowledge checks (with answer keys). In many chapters, there are exercises and examples. It may be provided to students as a whole workbook or subsections may be provided with each chapter. Read section 1 chapter 6 (Project Scope) of Christianson's Project Management Fundamentals text (PDF resource attached). FYI: J. Scott Christianson is a professor at the University of Missouri and has an interesting website about technology (from AI to blockchain to crypto and everything in between). How do I define scope? \| 3 minute watch What is a statement of work? \| 3 minute watch What is scope creep? \| 11 minute read Read this article "7 Steps to Deal With Scope Creep" by Jory McKay of Planio (2019). Test your knowledge. - In the first video (Project Management in Under Five), scope is simplified defined as what is contained within which shape? - Circle - Square - Triangle - Polygon - Why is scope so difficult to manage? - Can't please everyone - Stakeholders change priorities - Need to balance among various interests - All of the above - Which of the following are alternate names for a project charter? Check ALL that apply. - Statement of Work - Estimate of Resources Document - Business Case - Quote - T/F: The basic function of a charter is to establish formal authority by defining scope, schedule, budget, and team. - True - False - T/F: Scope creep is when project requirements, goals, or vision changes beyond what was originally agreed upon. - True - False BONUS: Putting what you learned into action. If you are using the Project Management Fundamentals course over the course of a semester, it is often effective to engage students in teams on a term project. I have had students work with for-profit, governmental, and non-profit (i.e. NGO) organizations to plan events, create digital products, and also prepare strategic initiatives. To support this idea of a project that allows students to apply what they've learned on an actual project, I have created a series of five transparent assignments: - External Management - charter creation and stakeholder analysis - Internal Management - team contract and RACI chart creation - Scope Management - work breakdown structure and disctionary creation - Schedule Management - Network analysis to identify critical path and Gantt chart creation - Risk Management - Risk identification and analysis, creation of risk register I have omitted the Cost Management competency group because often student projects do not have a budget, other than that of the students time. Project Work 3 > Scope Management For a project you are planning (or one your currently executing), try decomposing the project into work packages and creating a work breakdown structure (and dictionary). A WBS is a compact way to represent the project work at the appropriate level of detail, while ensuring nothing is missing. A set of transparent assignment instructions (resource attached) have been provided that includes the following: - the purpose of the assignment, - the knowledge and skills that will be developed by the assignment, - the task involved, - a checklist of what will need to be accomplished, - a rubric of how to assess your work, and - a sample of finished work. Transparent assignments are a way for you to get clarity on expectations (see the "Unwritten Rules").	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.182431	08/14/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107711/overview", "title": "Project Management Fundamentals, Scope Management, Define scope.", "author": "Paul Szwed" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107824/overview	7.3.2 Moon's Reflection Rubric Conduct procurements. <+Closure> Overview This learning module (Lesson 3 of Unit 7) is part of a course called Project Management Fundamentals and may either be completed individually as a stand-alone topic, or part of a trio of learning modules on risk management, or as part of the course. Learning outcomes. While not precisely specific to risk management, procurements are an essential part of what makes project work flow. Upon successful completion of this module, you'll be able to: - Describe various procurement methods. - Audit procurements. - Document procurements. What is project procurement? \| 5 minute read BONUS Course Reflection - Learning outcomes Often as one of the culminating experiences of the course, I have students complete a Post Mortem reflection of their learning and their project experience. Some resources for reflection have been provided and a general prompt for the reflection has been included. You may or may not wish to include this as part of the course. Upon successful completion of this bonus portion of the module, you'll be able to: - Describe the DIEP reflective writing model. - Describe the DIVE reflection model. - Practice reflection on the course. What is reflective writing? \| 6 minute watch What is the DIVE model of reflection? \| 15 minute learning module Complete this 5-part learning module about reflection. What have I learned a result of this course? \| 60 minute reflection - Find a quiet place to reflect back upon the course. - Using the prompt (resource provided), reflect back on the course and write down your thoughts. - Evaluate the depth of your reflection using the rubric (resource provided). - Have a conversation with a trusted friend or colleague about your reflection and learning.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.207569	08/17/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107824/overview", "title": "Project Management Fundamentals, Risk Management, Conduct procurements. <+Closure>", "author": "Paul Szwed" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/98291/overview	Visual Storytelling: Activity 4 Design Matrix Overview The Visual Storytelling lesson plan is a series of four learning ladder activities designed around mobile/digital technology for use by intermediate art and design students. It is a framework for concept ideation, visual design planning, and production. Activity 4: Design Matrix introduces students to production planning for multiple types of media. Design Matrix Summary National Core Arts Standards - VA: Cr3.1, Pr4.1, Pr5.1, Pr6.1 Instructor Step by Step: - Provide lecture notes and/or video. - Provide customized instructions as needed. - Publish an example ‘design matrix’. - Technology Support: Include relevant links for tech tutorials as needed. - App Limitations: Include instructional parameters for image resolution and file size based on forum limitations as needed. Additions: Extend this lesson by assigning students to groups. Each group collaboratively creates a visual Kanban board with multiple examples of how production process works behind the scenes to support a visual arts project. Video Resource: Kanban for Artists: Supercharge Your Productivity by Evergray Media Prompts: How many different types of media could be used in visual storytelling? What types of equipment would be needed for producing an art project? Highlight the differences between exhibiting and interaction. How can viewers experience and/or engage with the story? Students will use the Design Matrix to manage a production plan for every asset needed to achieve their storytelling outcomes. They will take into account the types of media used, what equipment is required to produce that media, the order of each item, how final art assets will be published and shared with viewers, and any ongoing interaction or follow-up that might be required. STUDENT OBJECTIVES Student Goals - Compose a plan for developing story content. - Describe the different modes of delivering content. - Create a design matrix spreadsheet. *final artifact SUGGESTED TECHNOLOGY Primary: Any table and text editing app or spreadsheet tool. (Word) (Google Docs) (Google Sheets) Alternate: Students can utilize a Kanban style organizer app to list items by cards, which allows for multiple arrangement osf options. (Trello) Design Matrix Read & Watch Creative development incorporates visual design elements with an order and method for how the audience will view them. This process takes engagement into consideration before, during, and after production. Suggested Presentation Suggested Content: Create a walk-through example of using the design matrix spreadsheet. Highlight the hurdles of creative project planning and production. The video below is a great example which discusses how preparation, procrastination and lack of priority can cause huge issues. Video: The ART of the START (Beginning a Creative Project Successfully) Angrymikko https://youtu.be/nodH462nQaI Suggested Video Content & Prompts Video: How to Make a TV Show Bible [with Template and Examples] by StudioBinder Video: Introduction to Transmedia Storytelling by The Future of Storytelling StoryMOOC Video: How to come up with Artwork Ideas and Original Art [My Creative Process] by ImportAutumn https://youtu.be/pCZARwBFtI0 Design Matrix Activity Student Step by Step: This project builds on the previous Framework activities which covered the following: - Exploring visual design elements - brainstorming story ideas - selecting a theme and related message(s) - creating a visual style storyboard PART 1 Using the Design Matrix template as an example, create a spreadsheet or text table file. This will be your production plan outline. Breakdown each step of what will be required to produce and publish your visual storytelling project. Suggested production steps: - Scene artwork - Mediums used for each scene - Equipment needed for production - Media Output file type - Location of final published artwork - Delivery / Display instructions - Followup Maintenance or Pickup instructions PART 2 Create a list of potential problems for each item that might cause a delay or change in production plans.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.243681	Activity/Lab	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/98291/overview", "title": "Visual Storytelling: Activity 4 Design Matrix", "author": "Visual Arts" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/26290/overview	Political Ideology Overview Political Ideology Introduction Introduction This section explores ideology and its distribution in Texas. Learning Objectives By the end of this section, students will be able to: - Define Political Ideology - List the predominant ideologies - Understand the distribution of political ideologies in Texas By the end of this section, students will be able to: - Define Political Ideology - List the predominant ideologies - Understand the distribution of political ideologies in Texas Definition Definition A political ideology is a certain set of ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, myths or symbols of a social movement, institution, class or large group that explains how society should work and offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order. Predominant Ideologies Predominant Ideologies Political ideologies in the United States (and as a subset, Texas) refers to the various ideologies and ideological demographics in the United States. Citizens in the U.S. generally classify themselves as adherent to positions along the political spectrum as either liberal, progressive, moderate, or conservative. Modern liberalism aims at the preservation and extension of human, social and civil rights as well as the government guaranteed provision of positive rights. Conservatism commonly refers to a combination of economic liberalism and libertarianism, and to an extent, social conservatism. It aims at protecting the concepts of small government and individual liberty while promoting traditional values on some social issues. Liberalism Liberals advocate strong civil liberties and social progressivism according to which societal practices need to be changed whenever necessary for the greater good of society or the benefits of those who wish to engage in those social arrangements. They believe that government action is needed in order for people to be as free as possible. The government must thereby ensure the provision of positive rights, protect civil liberties and ensure equality. Liberals commonly reject both laissez-faire capitalism and socialism as a means to distribute economic resources. A mixed economy, that is a capitalist free market economy with limited government regulation and intervention is seen as the ideal. Conservatism The word “conservative” comes from “conserve,” hence describing those who generally wish to conserve the status quo, conserve morality, or conserve money. Views on individual policies vary among different sub-groups. Overall, a majority of conservatives support tax-cuts and other laissez-faire (reduced governmental interference) policies, oppose same-sex marriage, oppose abortion, oppose stricter gun control laws on the grounds of the Second Amendment and public safety, and favor increased military spending as opposed to other federal expenditures. Conservatives tend to favor (racial) color-blindness and oppose affirmative action/positive discrimination quotas. Conservatives tend to favor state governments over the federal, reserving the federal for matters of national security. Moderates Moderate is a general term for people who fall in the center category between Liberals and Conservatives. Moderates incorporate different aspects from liberalism and conservatism into their personal perspective. Moderates are commonly defined by limiting the extent to which they adopt liberal and conservative ideas Ideological Distribution in Texas Ideological Distribution in Texas The Texas Politics Project based at the University of Texas at Austin in partnership with the Texas Tribune conducts statewide public opinion polls each year to assess the opinions of registered voters on upcoming elections, public policy, and attitudes towards politics, politicians, and government. In February of 2018, the University of Texas / Texas Tribune Poll surveyed 1200 registered voters and asked respondents to self identify on a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 is extremely liberal, 7 is extremely conservative, and 4 is exactly in the middle. As you can see in the image below, Texas is a “center right” state.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.262750	07/26/2018	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/26290/overview", "title": "Texas Government 1.0, Political Learning, Political Ideology", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/86835/overview	Education Standards ICT-AID Competency Framework Overview The main objective of the MADA ICT-AID competency framework is to provide the community with a framework that can be used as a template to assist educational institutions, organizations and individuals in delimiting the required relevant competencies in the ICT accessibility and inclusive design field. This framework can help in creating learning resources and teaching materials on ICT accessibility and inclusive design, and also to make other courses accessible. D1. Becoming Familiar with Disability and Accessibility The main objective of the MADA ICT-AID competency framework is to provide the community with a framework that can be used as a template to assist educational institutions, organizations and individuals in delimiting the required relevant competencies in the ICT accessibility and inclusive design field. This framework can help in creating learning resources and teaching materials on ICT accessibility and inclusive design, and also to make other courses accessible. D2. Describing the legal landscape of Disability and Accessibility D2. Describing the legal landscape of Disability and Accessibility	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.291205	Syllabus	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/86835/overview", "title": "ICT-AID Competency Framework", "author": "Student Guide" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/56407/overview	Accessibility Checklist from the guide Guide for Accessible Congregations Guide for Accessible Congregations Including Individuals with Disabilities in a Faith Community: A Framework and Example Inclusion of People with Disabilities Our Doors Are Open Guide for Accessible Congregations (Accessible PDF) Our Doors Are Open Guide for Accessible Congregations (Online) Theology and Disability: Changing the Conversation The Task of Christian Education in Creating an Inclusive Worldview Video Training for Accessible Congregations Welcoming without Reserve? A case in Christian Hospitality What is Inclusion? Our Doors Are Open - Welcoming People with Disabilities at Places of Worship Overview About 15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability. Many are not having their needs met because of barriers to participation in rituals, worship and faith community activities at their places of worship. To truly empower people with disabilities to become agents of positive change in their local communities, we recognize that everyone has a role to play. Our Doors Are Open seminar helps all faith communities to understand how to open their mind, hearts, and doors to people with all kinds of abilities. Traditionally, faith communities position people with disabilities as recipients of care and not as givers. Most faith communities do not have proper representation of people with disabilities throughout their activities despite a desire to be open and inclusive. This disparity is often the result of lack of understanding of how to think about disability differently. In this seminar, students will learn the social model of disability, which positions disability as a function of exclusively designed environments rather than a lack of ability. Our Doors Are Open Seminar will guide students on how to see their activities and situations through an inclusive lens as well as how to take actions to improve inclusion and achieve the welcoming goals of congregations. Introduction Our Doors Are Open Our Doors Are Open helps faith communities across Ontario to welcome people with all abilities by creating communities that: - Recognize barriers for people with disabilities to participate fully; - Brainstorm simple and creative solutions to remove these barriers; and - Welcome and fully include people with disabilities in their community. Video "Inclusion of People with Disabilities" The video is a good general introduction and it is on Resources. What is Inclusive Thinking? - Inclusive thinking means keeping the diversity and uniqueness of each individual in mind. The needs of individuals with disabilities are more diverse than those of people of able body. A mass solution does not work well for us. - Inclusive thinking means changing habits and behaviours. Your community may need to consciously bring inclusive thinking into all activities before these inclusive habits are developed. Getting to know what you need to think about to be inclusive can be easier than you expect. - We recommend as a first strategy a very simple approach: Just ask. Just listen. Description About 15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability. Many are not having their needs met because of barriers to participation in rituals, worship and faith community activities at their places of worship. To truly empower people with disabilities to become agents of positive change in their local communities, we recognize that everyone has a role to play. Our Doors Are Open seminar helps all faith communities to understand how to open their mind, hearts, and doors to people with all kinds of abilities. Traditionally, faith communities position people with disabilities as recipients of care and not as givers. Most faith communities do not have proper representation of people with disabilities throughout their activities despite a desire to be open and inclusive. This disparity is often the result of lack of understanding of how to think about disability differently. In this seminar, students will learn the social model of disability which positions disability as a function of exclusively designed environments rather than a lack of ability. Our Doors Are Open Seminar will guide students in how to see their activities and environments through an inclusive lens as well as how to take actions to improve inclusion and achieve the welcoming goals of congregations. Objectives - Present simple and creative ideas to help increase inclusion and accessibility for people with disabilities in worship services, events and all activities of a community. - Introduce a series of clear and straightforward suggestions in order to promote inclusive thinking in your community. - Share current approaches to understanding and explaining accessibility and inclusion. Learning Outcomes Knowledge Students will: - Reflect critically that people with disabilities should be able to enjoy their spiritual beliefs and actively participate alongside other members of their faith communities. - Learn how to truly empower people with disabilities to become agents of positive change in their local communities, by recognizing that everyone has a role to play. - Understand how to help all faith communities to understand how to open their mind, hearts, and doors to people with all kinds of abilities through development of resources that support the Guide for Accessible Congregations. Competence Students will be: - Able to identify unmet needs for people with disabilities within faith-based communities. - Able to understand how a faith community can become more accessible. - Able to help people with disabilities be able to practice their spiritual beliefs and actively participate alongside other members of their faith communities. - Able to understand how inclusive design thinking can remove barriers to inclusion. Evaluation Methods - In the first three sections, students will be asked to carry out or plan specific activities from the Guide for Accessible Congregations within their faith communities and to report on it in written format (e.g. essay, how to guide, infographic) that demonstrates an understanding of the reading or key concepts. - Students will discuss topics related to the assignment including challenges or questions that they may have about how to implement the activity within their faith community. - In the final section, students will create a pastoral activity or resource based on a new activity or an activity from sections1-3, that can be freely shared by Our Doors are Open Project as an open education resource under a creative commons license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ca/) with attribution to the student author. Getting Started Topics for Debate Forum - Discuss your experience implementing or planning the activity in your community - Share and/or resolve challenges experienced when implementing or planning the activity in your community - Ask questions to the instructor who has experience in implementing the program Evaluation - Review the “Have You Tried These Things” list on p. 11 of Guide for Accessible Congregations: - Establish procedures for welcoming new members, including members with disabilities. - Ask the new member what they most want to get from the community. - If you know that a person with a disability is planning to visit your place of worship, ask before their first visit if they will want any help during their visit. - Review the community’s ability to provide accessibility accommodations for new members, such as large print books, wheelchair access, and interpreting. - If a person with disabilities is going to participate in one of your groups, focus on discovering their different skills and identifying ways they could contribute those gifts. Carry out one of the activities or create a plan for how you could implement the activity in your congregation. Prepare a document or multimedia object (e.g. report, how-to guide, infographic, video) about your actions/plan that demonstrates an understanding of the reading and key concepts. If the student is going to have a meeting in his/her community you can suggest ideas to break the ice, before starting such as: Ask questions until most of the group joins in [* you can get the audience to clap, stand up, raise the hand, etc.]: “how many of you have a disability?” “how many of you have a family member with disability?” “how many of you have a friend with disability?” “How many of you have a co-worker or neighbour with disability?” “How many of you know someone who has a close family/friend with a disability?” Video Find a video highlighting the values of inclusion/accessibility. After watching the video, ask audience for comments. Make sure that the video is captioned. Option 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SnXBKEfr2s Singing Choose a song that fits the presentation. Use multiple instruments if possible. Learn to sign a song Ask participants : "How were you welcomed on your first day in this community? What keeps you coming back?" - and to write them on post-its. Highlight welcoming qualities and emphasize that the workshop is about extend these welcome to people with disabilities. Following the first question, ask participants - "What does disability mean to you?" to get the group to define "disabilities". Learning Goals - To understand concepts, definitions, and expressions of disability - To learn about issues of inclusion and exclusion in church and community Required Readings - Inclusive Design Research Centre. Guide for Accessible Congregations. Toronto: IDRC, 2018. Pages 1-11. - Goldstain, Penina and Melinda Jones Ault, “Including Individuals with Disabilities in a Faith Community: A Framework and Example.” Journal of Disabilities & Religion, 19:1, 1-14. 2015. Evaluation - Review the “Have You Tried These Things” list on p. 11 of Guide for Accessible Congregations: - Establish procedures for welcoming new members, including members with disabilities. - Ask the new member what they most want to get from the community. - If you know that a person with a disability is planning to visit your place of worship, ask before their first visit if they will want any help during their visit. - Review the community’s ability to provide accessibility accommodations for new members, such as large print books, wheelchair access, and interpreting. - If a person with disabilities is going to participate in one of your groups, focus on discovering their different skills and identifying ways they could contribute those gifts. Carry out one of the activities or create a plan for how you could implement the activity in your congregation. Prepare a document or multimedia object (e.g. report, how to guide, infographic, video) about your actions/plan that demonstrates an understanding of the reading and key concepts. Video What is Inclusion? The video is a good general introduction on the topic. It is on resources. Getting Organized Evaluation Review the checklists on pp. 14-16 and complete them alone or with a committee in your congregation if available. Select one or two items marked “not yet” and create a plan for addressing those barriers. Topics for Debate Forum - Discuss your experience completing the checklists and/or planning solutions to barriers in your community - Share your experience when completing the checklist or planning the solution in your community - Ask questions to the instructor who has experience in implementing the program Learning Goals - Understand barriers to accessibility within your congregations and the steps required to mitigate them. Required Readings - Inclusive Design Research Centre. Guide for Accessible Congregations. Toronto: IDRC, 2018. Pages 12-17. - David W. Anderson, “The Task of Christian Education in Creating an Inclusive Worldview,” a resource provided by the Christian Educators’ Journal. Evaluation Review the checklists on pp. 14-16 and complete them alone or with a committee in your congregation if available. Select one or two items marked “not yet” and create a plan for addressing those barriers. Getting Down to Work Evaluation - Review the “Have You Tried These Things” list: - Set up the space to be generous to users of wheelchairs and scooters. - Provide accessible seating areas in the front, middle, and back. - Reserve seating for people with disabilities and their companions to sit together. - Included adjustable lighting in your worship space. - Promote a fragrance-free environment. and “Progress Checklist” on p. 27 of Guide for Accessible Congregations: - We recognize the way physical space can support or remove a person’s feeling of welcome. - We have considered the setup of the room and how people with disabilities will interact with the environment. - Everybody in our community knows that service animals are welcome in all public spaces, with few exceptions (e.g., food preparation areas), and can be dogs or other animals. - We provided guidance to congregants on not petting or interacting with service animals who are working (e.g., wearing a harness). - We have an indoor or outdoor relief area for service animals and provide them with a water bowl. - We accommodate transportation when possible (e.g., arrange carpool). - We completed the accessibility checklist as a launching point into promoting a culture of accessibility. - We have used and promoted technology and apps to report back on how well we are doing in terms of inclusion and accessibility - We now have more items that are checked “yes” under Architectural or Structural Barriers on the Brief Accessibility Checklist. Carry out one of the “have you tried this” activities or create a plan for how you could implement the activity in your congregation or consider how your congregation exemplifies/met/embodies an item from the “progress checklist.” Prepare a document or multimedia object (e.g. report, how to guide, infographic, video) based on your activity/thinking that demonstrates your understanding of the reading and key concepts. Topics for Debate Forum - How can a faith community become more accessible? Learning Outcomes - Critical thought on the church’s practice of mission to, with, and alongside of people with disabilities Required Readings - Inclusive Design Research Centre. Guide for Accessible Congregations. Toronto: IDRC, 2018. Pages 18-27. - Thomas E. Reynolds, “Theology and Disability: Changing the Conversation.” Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, 16:33-48. 2012. Evaluation - Review the “Have You Tried These Things” list: - Set up the space to be generous to users of wheelchairs and scooters. - Provide accessible seating areas in the front, middle, and back. - Reserve seating for people with disabilities and their companions to sit together. - Included adjustable lighting in your worship space. - Promote a fragrance-free environment. and “Progress Checklist” on p. 27 of Guide for Accessible Congregations: - We recognize the way physical space can support or remove a person’s feeling of welcome. - We have considered the setup of the room and how people with disabilities will interact with the environment. - Everybody in our community knows that service animals are welcome in all public spaces, with few exceptions (e.g., food preparation areas), and can be dogs or other animals. - We provided guidance to congregants on not petting or interacting with service animals who are working (e.g., wearing a harness). - We have an indoor or outdoor relief area for service animals and provide them with a water bowl. - We accommodate transportation when possible (e.g., arrange carpool). - We completed the accessibility checklist as a launching point into promoting a culture of accessibility. - We have used and promoted technology and apps to report back on how well we are doing in terms of inclusion and accessibility - We now have more items that are checked “yes” under Architectural or Structural Barriers on the Brief Accessibility Checklist. Carry out one of the “have you tried this” activities or create a plan for how you could implement the activity in your congregation or consider how your congregation exemplifies/met/embodies an item from the “progress checklist.” Prepare a document or multimedia object (e.g. report, how to guide, infographic, video) based on your activity/thinking that demonstrates your understanding of the reading and key concepts. Welcoming New People into Your Community Evaluation - Revisit one of your activities from sections 1-3 or select a new activity and prepare a resource that will assist other congregations in understanding key concepts from the reading or in implementing pastoral activities in their communities. Topics for Debate Forum - How we can help a congregation to understand how to open their mind, hearts, and doors to people with all kinds of abilities? Learning Goal - Learn to reach all people in relevant and accessible ways. - Be able to prepare concrete guidance for other congregations on how to be more inclusive. Required Readings - Inclusive Design Research Centre. Guide for Accessible Congregations. Toronto: IDRC, 2018. Ppages28-30. - Thomas E. Reynolds, “Welcoming without Reserve? A case in Christian Hospitality.” Theology Today, 63: 191-202. 2006 Evaluation - Revisit one of your activities from sections 1-3 or select a new activity and prepare a resource that will assist other congregations in understanding key concepts from the reading or in implementing pastoral activities in their communities. Note: Your contribution may become an open education resource (OER) licensed under Creative Commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ca/ and shared freely by Our Doors are Open project with attribution to the student author.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.380944	Vera Roberts	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/56407/overview", "title": "Our Doors Are Open - Welcoming People with Disabilities at Places of Worship", "author": "David Pereyra" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/83091/overview	Evidence-based Inclusive Instructional Strategies for Supporting Students with High-incidence Disabilities Overview This product was developed with preservice teacher needs in mind. Preservice teachers are often nervous about working with students with disabilities. The resources shared here are ideas that can be generalized to multiple classroom settings, for all different ages. Unit Introduction This course is currently scheduled online with asynchronous weekly modules throughout the semester. The class will meet synchronously five times throughout the semester, with two of those meetings during these three units. Our insitution uses Canvas for the LMS, and students will be accessing google docs, slides, etc. through our class canvas page. Some of the apps such as flipgrid or jamboard are accessible through canvas, while others will be accessed directly online. . Introduction: This module introduces strategies to support students with high-incidence disabilities in the inclusive classroom, while students are working to master state standards. These units will be in the Learners with Exceptionalities course that is a required course of all preservice teachers at our institution. Students with high-incidence disabilities have a wide variety of academic, behavioral, and organizational challenges, with no two students identical in their needs. After completing these three units, the preservice teachers will have a number of strategies to implement in their future classroom. Audience: The intended audience are preservice teachers in a university Educator Preparation Program. Length of course: Each unit will be for one week of a fifteen week course. Students will have previously studied special education laws, as well as all of the disability categories. The three units will be supplemental to the material from the course text. Unit-level outcomes: Preservice teachers will: 1. Investigate strategies to support academic, behavioral, and organizational needs of students will high-incidence disabilities. 2. Identify strategies they feel will be appropriate for the age of students, and the certification area, they are seeking to work with in schools. 3. Select strategies in each unit that would enhance instruction and a supportive, inclusive environment in their certification area. Technology requirements: Students in this course will need access to a computer with internet access. Students will need to be able to use Word or Google Docs to submit some assignments. Students will use the internet to access different apps for assignment completion. Time requirements: Students will need about an hour a week to collaborate with peers online. Students will have two synchronous meetings during these three weeks, as per course schedule. Meetings will be one hour in length. Course Key Assignment: The Key Assignment for all sections of this course is the Characteristics of an Individual with a Disability paper. Preservice teachers select one of the disability categories to research in more depth, being encouraged to select a category they will encounter in their certification area. One section of this assignment is for the students to create a case study with a hypothetical student in the category. Then they are to research and select strategies for working with that student. The units two and three will provide an opportunity to overlap with this key assignment as students study the strategies. Unit 1 Content: Differentiation in the Inclusive Classroom Unit Introduction: Differentiated instruction and learning activities are a key piece of students with disabilities being successful in the general education inclusive classroom. In this unit, we will study differentiation in more detail. The above graphic illustrates each pair of students working differently, yet productively. The core principles explain differentiation can be to the content, process, or product, or any combination. Teachers make these decisions based on the content to be mastered, and the individual students interests and needs. The readings and videos in this unit's content will explain and demonstrate this in more detail. Unit Objectives: Preservice teachers will study and demonstrate knowledge of the core principles of differentiated inclusive classrooms. Preservice teachers will identify and explain three ideas, from the unit resources, that will facilitate content mastery in their future classroom. Unit Content: According to the Association for Curriculum and Development (ASCD (Links to an external site.)) (Links to an external site.), there are many reasons why differentiation works. MacKenzie Masten stated that differentiation has many benefits including: - Differentiation of instruction is proactive - Differentiation of instruction is more qualitative than quantitative - Differentiation of instruction has its foundation in assessment - Differentiation of instruction is taking multiple approaches to content, process, and product - Differentiation of instruction is student-centered - Differentiation of instruction is a blend of whole class, group, and individual instruction - Differentiation of instruction is organic and dynamic --Masten, M. (2017). 7 reasons why differentiation of instruction works. ASCD InService. Retrieved from: http://inservice.ascd.org/7-reasons-why-differentiated-instruction-wo Watch: Watch: View the instructor narrated slides for key information for this unit. Read and Study Strategies: Strategies That Differentiate Instruction Teacher Tested Strategies for Differentiated Instruction Read Chapter 1 of: - Leadership for Differentiating Schools and Classrooms (Links to an external site.)by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Susan Dimersky Allan - *Tomilnson, C. & Allan, S. (2000). Leadership for differentiating schools & classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development - Chapter 1: Understanding Differentiated Instruction Read: Culturally Responsive Differentiated Instructional Strategies Unit 1 Activities: Differentiation Watch: IRIS Module for study: Differentiated Instruction: Maximizing the Learning of All Students You will be answering the 5 Assessment Questions in the next section. Unit 1 Assessment: Differentiation Unit Assessment Activities: 1. Upon completion of the IRIS Module on differentiation, use the link provided to go to our Padlet wall. You will find space for you to respond to the five assessment prompts found at the end of the module. Paraphrase your responses in your own words. 2. Create an infographic, using a tool of your choice, to define or illustrate the following: Supportive Learning Environments, Continuous Assessment, High Quality Curriculum, Respectful Tasks, and Flexible Grouping. 3. With the assigned peers of similar certification areas, discuss strategies that would be helpful and enhancing in your future classroom. As a small group, create a word document that identifies a minimum of three strategies from this unit, and provide examples of each. Assessments 2 and 3 will be submitted on Canvas. Unit 2 Content: Inclusive Instructional Strategies Unit Introduction: The TEKS drive all instruction and assessment in the Texas classrooms. The TEKS identify what is to be taught in each class or course. If you study several grade levels of the TEKS closely, you will be able to see how the content and skills spiral through the years, becoming more complex and involving more higher level thinking. For students with high-incidence disabilities to be successful in the inclusive classroom, teachers must identify the instructional strategies that will match the needs of each of these learners. Each district has a Scope and Sequence for each grade level/course that is vertically and horizontally aligned. This Scope and Sequence is the "road map" for the content/standards that are to be covered in that grading period. The district is directing what is going to be covered each grading period to make sure all students are ready for the standardized assessments. The teachers at the campus level decide how they are going to teach the content and what assessments they will use to determine student success. This is where we typically see a lot of authentic assessments with student products and participation, and learning activities and strategies that engage the learner so they are not sitting passively. Many districts have curriculum staff that create materials and resources for teachers to use, as well as identify appropriate technology. This is where we target our efforts for the students with disabilities, so that we are ready to provide inclusive strategy options to individualize for the students. Of the high-incidence disability categories, specific learning disabilities is the largest group. However, we may have students in other high-incidence categories that need this same instructional strategies to be successful in the inclusive classroom.The Legal Framework of Texas defines as: "Specific learning disability (SLD) is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language that is spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations: 1) The term includes conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia; and 2) The term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of an intellectual disability, or emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage." More information can be found at The Legal Framework of Texas. SLDs are the most common of the high-incidence disabilities in the classroom. Students wil SLDs may also be identified as gifted learners. Students in inclusive classrooms may be in other disability categories as well. These students are most frequently in the general education classroom and following the instruction on the TEKS. As identified in their IEP, they may or may not receive accommodations or services from a specialist. Unit Objectives: Preservice teachers will examine, discuss, and utilize identified strategies in simulated activities, individually and with peers. Preservice teachers will identify three strategies to support the content and age of their intended students. Unit Content: Watch: The instructor created and narrated slides on key unit information. Read: Read chapters 1 and 5 in the following book. This information helps the teacher understand the importance of authentic and formative checking for understanding continually throughout the school day. Through this CfU, the teacher will be able to make decisions about differentiation and instructional strategies. Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom For students to be successful on summative assessments, teachers need to carefully select the formative assessments and strategies that they will use to scaffold for the students with disabilities to master the content. The differences between formative and summative assessment infographic Bloom's Taxonomy is a critical tool for teachers to use in the classroom as they plan instructional activities and strategies, as well as assessments. The examples of different types of student engagement in the levels is another tool for the teacher to use to select instructional strategies. Often a student with disabilities will need to work on a concept in more than one format, and Bloom's provides many examples and options. The Best Resources for Helping Teachers Use Bloom's Taxonomy in the Classroom Unit 2 Activities: Inclusive Instructional Strategies 1. Synchronous Class Meeting: This week we will have a class meeting via zoom to discuss differentiation and instructional strategies. 2. IRIS Modules on Study Skills Strategies: Unit 2 Assessment: Inclusive Instructional Strategies Unit Assessment Activities: 1. With your assigned partner, You are going to create your own Graphic Organizer to present your information. Here are some examples of GOs that are popular in K-12 settings. Graphic Organizers. There is also a resource in the content section for GOs.You are free to choose an existing style of GO or create one of your choice. You will use your GO to identify, define and illustrate 5 instructional strategies from Unit 1 or 2 materials, that will support the inclusive classroom. 2. Flipgrid video - After completing the two IRIS modules on Study Skills Strategies, select 2 assessment prompts from each, four total, and respond with your understandings in a Flipgrid video. Use the Flipgrid tab on our Canvas page. 3. Participate in synchronous class meeting. Unit 3 Content: Inclusive Behavioral Strategies Students with emotional and/or behavioral disabilities can be found in any of the disability categories. Often times, students who are struggling with their academics and self-esteem later develop behavioral problems as well. There are categories that are specific for students with emotional and behavioral issues. They are: 1. Emotional Disturbance 2. OHI - ADD and ADHD 3. Autism Unit Objectives: Preservice teachers will examine, discuss, and utilize identified strategies in simulated activities, individually and with peers. Preservice teachers will identify three inclusive behavioral strategies for the age level(s) of their certification area. View instructor narrated slides on unit content. Read: Dodging the Power-Struggle Trap: Ideas for Teachers 72 Accommodations That Can Help Students with ADHD Unit 3 Activities: Inclusive Behavioral Strategies 1. Synchronous Class Meeting: Using the tool, Nine Questions to Ask When Prioritizing Target Behaviors, students will participate in a small group discussion, through zoom, to discuss example behaviors using these prompts. 2. View the following videos: Unit 3 Assessment: Inclusive Behavioral Strategies Unit Assessment Activities: 1. Participation in Synchronous class meeting. 2. Creating a T-chart or table, identify 3 problem behaviors for the ages of your certification area, and then identify a behaivor strategy to use for each behavior. Explain why you selected that strategy.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.416539	Assessment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/83091/overview", "title": "Evidence-based Inclusive Instructional Strategies for Supporting Students with High-incidence Disabilities", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/99273/overview	Accessibility in OER - Webinars 1-6 Overview This resource contains all of links and materials for the Accessibility in OER Webinars One through six that were co-facilitated by CAST and ISKME. Resources from Webinar One CAST and ISKME are pleased to co-faciliate a 6-webinar series that explores the synergy between Accessibility and OER. This resource includes all of the links to the tools that are used. Slide Deck Materials for 101, Part 1 101 Part 1 Slide Deck (see below for the recording) Facilitators & Participants (editable by Team Leads and others can comment) Game-changing Technology Video excerpt on AEM Center YouTube channel Definitions of “accessibility” and “AEM” on AEM Center website Resources from Webinar Two CAST and ISKME are pleased to co-faciliate a 6-webinar series that explores the synergy between Accessibility and OER. This resource includes all of the links to the tools that are used in Webinar Two. Slide Deck Links for 101, Part 2 101.11 101 Part 2 Slide Deck 101.12 Definition of “accessible” on AEM Center website 101.13 Intro to Accessibility video on AEM Center website Additional Resources for 101, Part 2 101.14 Tyler and His Science Book - video from Maine CITE/Maine Learning Technology Initiative 101.15 Physical access with switch technology - video from Georgia Tech Access4Kids 101.16 Attendance 101.17 Feedback survey Resources from Webinar Three CAST and ISKME are pleased to co-faciliate a 6-webinar series that explores the synergy between Accessibility and OER. This resource includes all of the links to the tools that are used in Webinar Three. Part 1: October 11, 2022 Slide Deck Links for 201, Part 1 201.1 201 Part 1 Slide Deck 201.2 Facilitators & Participants (editable by Team Leads and others can comment) 201.3 OER Commons 201.4 Attendance 201.5 Feedback survey Additional Resources for 201, Part 1 201.6 Definitions of “accessibility” and “AEM” on AEM Center website 201.7 Designing for Accessibility from the Beginning video excerpt on AEM Center YouTube channel 201.8 Designing for Accessibility with POUR on AEM Center website 201.9 Creating Accessible Documents on AEM Center website 201.10 Protocol for Creating Accessible OER on AEM Center website 201.11 SLIDE into Accessibility on OER Commons 201.12 Getting Started with Document Accessibility PDF Handout from AEM Center 201.13 Getting Started with Presentation Accessibility PDF Handout from AEM Center 201.14 SLIDE Playlist on AEM Center YouTube channel 201.15 Accessible University Demo Site from University of Washington 201.16 Module 2 of AEM Center Online Learning Series - includes practice files for Google Docs and Microsoft Word. 201.17 Accessible Drag and Drop Examples from Salesforce Resources from Webinar Four CAST and ISKME are pleased to co-faciliate a 6-webinar series that explores the synergy between Accessibility and OER. This resource includes all of the links to the tools that are used in Webinar Four. Part 2: October 18, 2022 Slide Deck Links for 201, Part 2 201.19 201 Part 2 Slide Deck 201.20 Facilitators & Participants (editable by Team Leads and others can comment) 201.21 OER Commons 201.22 Attendance 201.23 Feedback survey Additional Resources for 201, Part 2 201.24 Protocol for Creating Accessible OER on AEM Center website 201.26 WebAIM: Alternative Text 201.27 An alt Decision Tree from the W3C 201.28 Image Description Guidelines from the DIAGRAm Center 201.29 Colour Contrast Analyser from TPGi 201.30 Headings Hierarchy Resource from Australian Government Resources from Webinar Five CAST and ISKME are pleased to co-faciliate a 6-webinar series that explores the synergy between Accessibility and OER. This resource includes all of the links to the tools that are used in Webinar Five. 301 Curating Accessible OER Part 1: October 25, 2022 Slide Deck Links for 301, Part 1 301.1 301 Part 1 Slide Deck 301.2 Facilitators & Participants (editable by Team Leads and others can comment) 301.3 OER Commons 301.4 Attendance 301.5 Feedback survey Additional Resources for 301, Part 1 301.7 Introduction to Political Science on OpenStax 301.8 WebAIM: Alternative Text 301.9 W3C: An alt Decision Tree 301.11 tota11y from Khan Academy 301.12 ANDI from Social Security Administration 301.13 Colour Contrast Analyser from TPGi 301.14 No Mouse Challenge Resources from Webinar Six CAST and ISKME are pleased to co-faciliate a 6-webinar series that explores the synergy between Accessibility and OER. This resource includes all of the links to the tools that are used in Webinar Six. 301 Curating Accessible OER Part 2: November 1st, 2022 Slide Deck Links for 301, Part 2 301.16 301 Part 2 Slide Deck 301.17 Facilitators & Participants (editable by Team Leads and others can comment) 301.18 OER Commons 301.19 Attendance 301.20 Feedback survey 301.21 Protocol for Creating Accessible OER on AEM Center website 301.22 Protocol for Curating Accessible OER on AEM Center website Additional Resources for 301, Part 2 301.23 Hemingway App 301.24 Readability Analyzer 301.25 Plain Language Guidelines 301.26 WAVE from WebAIM 301.27 For Blind Internet Users, the Fix Can be Worse Than The Flaws - discussion of accessibility overlays in New York Times 301.28 Overlay Fact Sheet	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.451483	Lecture Notes	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/99273/overview", "title": "Accessibility in OER - Webinars 1-6", "author": "Special Education" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100258/overview	Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Special Education in the United States and South Korea: Exploring Current Practices and Recommendations Cultural Disadvantage or Special Needs? Deficit Thinking in Diagnosis and Placement for Special Education Students Culturally Responsive Teaching in Special Education Educational Psychology This is Equity Cultural Competence in Special Education Overview This resource is to educate others on the importance of cultural competence in special education and the lack of cultural awareness that is currently in special education classrooms. It includes history of special education and the laws surrounding it, the importance of cultural awareness and competence, what the current system is doing and why it does not work and what the future will hopefully look like for culture in special education. Introduction The goal of this is to provide resources for cultivating a culturally competent special education classroom. This reviews the past, present and future of cultural competence in special education. It also reviews what the ideal special education classroom looks like. History of Special Education Brown v. Board of Education paved the way for changes to be made in the education system. Segregation of schools were unequal and deprived the equal rights of students. Students should be able to have an equal education free from discrimination. Once people had seen how segregation can discriminate and how everyone deserves a chance of a equal education it led to parents speaking out about children with disabilities. They too deserved an equal education that met their needs. (Public Law 94-142) Education for All Handicapped Children Act; protects the rights of meeting the individual needs and improving the results for children who have disabilities. Before congress enacted EHA children with disabilities were denied the access to an education. They were secluded from a learning environment with peers their age. Some were sent to institutionalized facilities where their needs were being being met at the bare minimum. EHA ensured that students with disabilities had access to a free public education that met their needs. Students who are bilingual have a harder time being assessed for special education. "The field has not yet adequately determined how to distinguish between disabilities and normal second- language learning development." Assessing students who are bilingual can affect their scores by their lack of understanding the questions, and their lack of familiarity with the second language. Resources: https://www.wrightslaw.com/law/art/history.spec.ed.law.htm Importance of Cultural Integration Culture is the foundation on which we build our identity. It is the system of our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. While there is no right or wrong thing to make up one's cultural identity, culture can be built upon elements such as language, traditions, rituals, holidays, food, religion, and art. It is important that culture is respected and recognized because doing so allows for someone to be seen and accepted. When accepting the cultural differences of children, you are encouraging diversity and giving the opportunity for them to thrive in a safe environment. Not only is it important to acknowledge culture but to integrate it into the curriculum and make accommodations if needed. Recognizing and accommodating a child's culture and needs allows the child to build a positive self-image and feel validated in their background. Children should feel safe, accepted, and most importantly secure in their identity. All these key components are relevant for a culturally responsive teaching. Cultural Deficits in Special Education Cultural and linguistic diversity play a crucial role in a child’s development and educational needs. As they continue to learn, children need someone to model positive, culturally accepting behavior. This is why it is so vital for teachers to receive proper training on how to be accepting and responsive to the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of their students. Though it is desperately needed in every classroom, providing the proper training for teachers and implementing a multicultural curriculum is not a simple task. Teachers do not represent the range of cultural, ethnic, and racial diversity of their students. They instead represent the background of the current teacher population, which is predominantly white, monolingual, and female. Leaving no room for others’ individuality and uniqueness to be seen. The lack of representation in current classrooms can lead to feelings of self-doubt in children. They do not see themselves and therefore begin to believe that something is wrong with them and begin to feel alienated. Classrooms are lacking content integration and do not include the student’s needs in the curriculum. Teachers tend to be those who are able and do not take into account accommodations for those who might have disabilities. Getting to know students’ backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives can help to improve the lack of representation both in and out of the classroom. “Content integration uses examples and information from different cultures to illustrate various concepts or ideas already contained in the curriculum” Integrating the children’s culture into the classroom and curriculum allows for the children to feel seen and not like they have been disregarded or pushed to the back. In that classroom, they matter and are accepted, whereas, in other areas of their life, they might not be. Ultimately, a child’s self-esteem and self-image are strongly influenced by culture and how it is integrated into the classroom. If a child can see themselves represented and see their peers represented, there is a greater chance they will be accepting of the different backgrounds and cultures of others. Integration of culture can also promote social and emotional skills by including linguistic diversity and presenting a multilingual education. However, in the current state of education, cultural deficiencies in the classroom are limiting the possibilities and opportunities for all students. Future Students have always been diverse. Whether in the past, future or in the present day, students learn at unique paces, show unique personalities, and learn in their own ways. In recent decades, though, the forms and extent of diversity have increased. Now more than ever, teachers are likely to serve students from diverse language backgrounds, and to serve more individuals with special educational needs. To include every child, our classrooms must be diverse; this is especially true for special education classes. The classrooms of the future will be diversified and cutting edge. collaborating with students from various backgrounds and giving them all the assistance they require to establish an equitable classroom. Takeaway Key takeaways The history of rights for special education children and the laws that protect those rights Respecting a child's cultural background ensures they feel secure in their identity. How culture is not accurately represented in current day education and the drawbacks of the system. The future special education classroom with changes in cultural representation	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.483784	Special Education	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100258/overview", "title": "Cultural Competence in Special Education", "author": "Elementary Education" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/98134/overview	Accessibility in OER - Webinar 4 Overview This resource contains all of links and materials for the Accessibility in OER Webinar Four that is co-facilitated by CAST and ISKME. Resources from Webinar Four CAST and ISKME are pleased to co-faciliate a 6-webinar series that explores the synergy between Accessibility and OER. This resource includes all of the links to the tools that are used in Webinar Four. Part 2: October 18, 2022 Slide Deck Links for 201, Part 2 201.19 201 Part 2 Slide Deck 201.20 Facilitators & Participants (editable by Team Leads and others can comment) 201.21 OER Commons 201.22 Attendance 201.23 Feedback survey Additional Resources for 201, Part 2 201.24 Protocol for Creating Accessible OER on AEM Center website 201.26 WebAIM: Alternative Text 201.27 An alt Decision Tree from the W3C 201.28 Image Description Guidelines from the DIAGRAm Center 201.29 Colour Contrast Analyser from TPGi 201.30 Headings Hierarchy Resource from Australian Government	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.499951	Lecture Notes	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/98134/overview", "title": "Accessibility in OER - Webinar 4", "author": "Special Education" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97573/overview	Accessibility in OER - Webinar 1 Overview This resource contains all of links and materials for the Accessibility in OER Webinar One that is co-facilitated by CAST and ISKME. Resources from Webinar One CAST and ISKME are pleased to co-faciliate a 6-webinar series that explores the synergy between Accessibility and OER. This resource includes all of the links to the tools that are used. Slide Deck Materials for 101, Part 1 101 Part 1 Slide Deck (see below for the recording) Facilitators & Participants (editable by Team Leads and others can comment) Game-changing Technology Video excerpt on AEM Center YouTube channel Definitions of “accessibility” and “AEM” on AEM Center website	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.515202	Lecture Notes	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97573/overview", "title": "Accessibility in OER - Webinar 1", "author": "Special Education" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107816/overview	5.1.2 Knowledge check (with solutions) 5.1.3 Bonus Assignment - Gantt chart Schedule Estimate activity durations. Overview This learning module (Lesson 1 of Unit 5) is part of a course called Project Management Fundamentals and may either be completed individually as a stand-alone topic, or part of a trio of learning modules on time management, or as part of the course. Learning outcomes. Estimation of time is an essential tool in creating a project schedule. In this module, you'll learn about various techniques for time estimation, as well as learn about several of the common biases which may influence those estimates. Upon successful completion of this module, you'll be able to: - Demonstrate estimation techniques. - Estimate time for each activity. - Classify common cognitive biases. What is time estimation? \| 15 minute read Read chapter 7 (Time Resource Estimation) of Christianson's Project Management Fundamentals text (PDF resource attached). FYI: J. Scott Christianson is a professor at the University of Missouri and has an interesting website about technology (from AI to blockchain to crypto and everything in between). How do I estimate time? \| 7 minute read Read this article about techniques for estimating time by SimpliLearn (2023). How might my mind fool me when estimating? \| 7 minute watch What is the Monkey Business Illusion? \| 2 minute watch What are some other cognitive biases? \| 5-15 minute activity Explore this amazing codex of 188 cognitive biases, grouped into categories. Use "find" function (Ctrl+F) to locate the following cognitive biases: - Overconfidence, - Anchoring and adjustment, and - Availability. Click on the links in the codex to launch a Wikipedia page devoted to the cognitive bias. Then, explore several other biases on different parts of the codex. Test your knowledge. - Which of the following are among the most common estimation techniques? Check ALL that apply. - Analogous - Intuitive - Parametric - Three-point - T/F: The construction of the world we have in our mind is objective and accurate. - True - False - T/F: There are literally over a hundred cognitive biases that make our estimates of time inaccurate. - True - False BONUS - Putting what you learned into action. To support this idea of a project that allows students to apply what they've learned on an actual project, I have created a series of five transparent assignments: - External Management - charter creation and stakeholder analysis - Internal Management - team contract and RACI chart creation - Scope Management - work breakdown structure and disctionary creation - Schedule Management - Network analysis to identify critical path and Gantt chart creation - Risk Management - Risk identification and analysis, creation of risk register I have omitted the Cost Management competency group because often student projects do not have a budget, other than that of the students time. Project Work 4 > Time Management On a project you are planning or currently executing, create a Gantt chart schedule. A set of transparent assignment instructions (resource attached) have been provided that includes the following: - the purpose of the assignment, - the knowledge and skills that will be developed by the assignment, - the task involved, - a checklist of what will need to be accomplished, - a rubric of how to assess your work, and - a sample of finished work. Transparent assignments are a way for you to get clarity on expectations (see the "Unwritten Rules").	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.549217	08/17/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107816/overview", "title": "Project Management Fundamentals, Time Management, Estimate activity durations.", "author": "Paul Szwed" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/16449/overview	Education Standards "Putting Environmental Infographics Center Stage: The Role of Visuals at the Elaboration Likelihood Model's Critical Point of Persuasion" by Allison Lazard and Lucy Atkinson. "A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures" by New London Group. A combined model of information inquiry "Annotate Your Way into Academic Discourse" by Ellen C. Carillo (WAC Clearinghouse OER) Bringing Heat (Purpose Statement) Chart Maker - BEAM Circle of Viewpoints Common Visualization Errors Comparison of Displays: Coca-Cola Sizes, Sugar and Calories (example using Google Sheets and Chart Maker) Comparison of Displays: Sugar (example using Venngage BEAM Chart Maker) Creating Data Literate Students Documenting my inquiry (matrix) Documenting My Inquiry (matrix) Do Your Worst! (Zombie Fallacies activity) "Elements of Information Inquiry, Evolution of Models & Measured Reflection" by Daniel Callison and Katie Baker. Evaluate "Fit" Flipgrid (Click on the first panel on the left to add your clip) Flowcharts, Org charts \| Drawing, Slides, Sheets \| The Apps Show Google Drawing Google Sheets and Chart Maker How to Teach Expository Text Structure to Facilitate Reading Comprehension Imagining a Metaphor: Tracing the Food Chain From Farm to Table" Information Search Process and Guided Inquiry Design Process Inquiry Question Matrix (make a copy) Literacy Rates Continue to Rise from One Generation to the Next (UNESCO Fact Sheet No. 45 September 2017 FS/2017/LIT/45) Lucidchart Nobel: No Degrees (Purpose Statement) Nutrition: Sugar Nutrition: Sugars (WHO) Sales Fall Again in Mexicos Second Year of Taxing Soda (NY Times article) Sugar and Sweeteners Yearbook Tables Taxing Sugar Instead of Soda Prompts Healthier Food Purchases (Journalist's Resource) Teaching Data Contexts: An Instructional Lens Test Your Understanding of Infographic Structures (Multiple Choice Test) The Truth About T-Rex (Purpose Statement) Venngage BEAM Chart Maker Visual Rough Draft of My Infographic What a Fastball Looks Like (Purpose Statement) What is Data Literacy (diagram) What is the Difference between Data and Statistics? Teaching Infographics as Multiliteracy Arguments Overview From "The Spectrum of Apple Flavors" to "We are all Zebras: How Rare Disease is Shaping the Future of Healthcare," we find colorful visual displays of information and data used to persuade, inform and delight their audience-readers. Most infographic assignments result in loose collections of related facts and numbers, essentially a collage or poster. Student create displays of unrelated factoids and spurious data correlations and they "ooh" and "ahhh" at beautiful nothings. However, the visual and textual elements of an infographic can culminate in a coherent multimodal argument which prompts inquiry in the creator and the audience. In order to teach infographics as a claim expressed through visual metaphor, supported by reasoning with evidence in multiple modes, instructors employ a sequence of interventions to invoke the relevant skills and strategies at appropriate moments. Composing and critiquing infographics can enhance understanding of both the content and rhetoric, since people analyze, elaborate and critique information more deeply when visual and textal modes are combined (Lazard and Atkinson 2014). This pedagogy of reading and writing multiple literacies can be adapted to other multimodal products. For an overview, refer to "Recipe for an Infographic" (Abilock and Williams 2014) which is also listed in the references for this module. We recommend that you experience this process yourself as you teach it to students. Understanding Inquiry in an Infographic This task explores how inquiry emerges from reading. First students read and annotate an article about inquiry research, then reflect on their own cognitive processes. Their annotations are most easily done on print copies of the text. Then students can copy and use the matrix provided to record and reflect on their evolving understanding of inquiry research. In the article from Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association of School Librarians, the authors propose five common elements (reworded here as verbs) which interact during any information inquiry process: - Questioning which becomes more "focused, relevant and insightful" during an inquiry process. - Exploring resources and ideas driven by one's need to satisfy curiosity or answer questions. - Assimilating and reconciling new and conflicting information and ideas with one's prior knowledge, beliefs and assumptions. - Inferencing from information in order to build one's case with evidence for conclusions - Self-reflecting to both enable flexible shifts during the inquiry process (formative) and to surface insights from one's choices and decisions that might apply to a future inquiry process (summative). As you read the article "Elements of Information Inquiry, Evolution of Models & Measured Reflection," annotate the text (see note) when you notice that you are engaging in any of these core cognitive functions. Then explain what you were doing and why - either in the journaling space specified by your instructor or on a copy of the "Documenting My Inquiry" matrix provided. Note: If you need a refresher on annotating a text, read "Annotate Your Way into Academic Discourse" by Ellen C. Carillo," a chapter from A Writer's Guide to Mindful Reading, one of the 80+ open-access books on writing across the curriculum from the WAC Clearinghouse at Colorado State University. Comprehending an infographic involves orchestrating multiple literacies including visual, news media and information literacy, yet these are not always parsed or explicated in the classroom. By repeating this reading and annotation process with a visual, one notices that analogous reading and writing processes are used in service of comprehension. Again, either provide journaling instructions or have students use the matrix to record and reflect on their own evolving understanding of inquiry reading and visual arguments. From Apples to Zebras, we find colorful visual displays of information and data used to persuade, inform and delight their audience-readers. These infographics (information graphics) make a claim to an audience by arranging text and data in an interesting, economical and easily-navigable visual design that communicates ideas and reveals patterns in data. For the creator and the audience, this can be lively and thoughtful process: - When an author feels genuine curiosity about an idea or problem and creates an infographic to express that fresh understanding to oneself and an audience who has reason to care, then the writer-creater experiences an inquiry research process. - When an audience arrives at a fresh understanding of a question or problem while "reading an infographic," then the reader-viewer experiences an inquiry learning process. As you "read" and annotate the visual comparison of "Information Search Process and Guided Inquiry Design Process," notice when you engage in the inquiry processes you learned about in Callison and Baker (2014): - Questioning which becomes more "focused, relevant and insightful" during an inquiry process. - Exploring resources and ideas driven by one's need to satisfy curiosity or answer questions. - Assimilating and reconciling new and conflicting information and ideas with one's prior knowledge, beliefs and assumptions. - Inferencing from information in order to build one's case with evidence for conclusions - Self-reflecting to both enable flexible shifts during the inquiry process (formative) and to surface insights from one's choices and decisions that might apply to a future inquiry process (summative). Now use your journaling space or your matrix to explain when and how you noticed yourself engaging in these core inquiry processes. Infographic visualizations are best learned incrementally. This step asks students to experiment communicating data and reflecting on visual communication and inquiry using one tool. By asking students to visualize data in various formats to determine what design best conveys the content, it targets the misconception that one creates an infographic by gathering interesting data bits into an attractive display rather than selectively visualizing data in order to build evidence for an argument. Read through the UN Fact Sheet on global literacy and extract some statistics in order to make a single claim about literacy. Experiment with the best way (pie, bar or line graph) to visualize your data using BEAM's Chart Maker. When you're satisfied that the visualization best conveys your claim, share it with the class. Notice and record in your journaling space or matrix what inquiry processes you used and why you selected one visualization over the others to present your selected data. Shifting from Question to Reasoned Argument Infographics are often used in social media communication as forms of advertising. A creator begins with a predetermined conclusion, then selects and shapes evidence in order to persuade a targeted audience of a claim. However, if we are asking students to engage in inquiry, we want them to be open-minded during early exploration as they assimilate background information. An open mind welcomes alternative viewpoints and expects to reason through multiple sources of evidence to arrive at a reasoned argument or thesis. Initially students briefly evaluate sources for relevance. Later they shift to selecting the most compelling logic and evidence. Their thinking evolves inductively until they arrive at a focus. In our inquiry model this "Formulation" stage, according to Carol Kuhlthau, is a critical zone for teaching intervention. For an overview of the Information Search Process see this OER module by Carol Gordon. Students represent their understanding of this process using a graphical organizer called a flowchart which shows a sequence of steps and decisions. Popular infographics are advertisements targeted to particular audiences. It is unlikely that the author-designer has experienced genuine curiosity or engaged in an inquiry process. Indeed authors tends to omit or distort evidence if it undermines their preconceived claim. In contrast, inquiry research for an infographic begins with an open mind. The researcher-creator welcomes diverse and even conflicting information because s/he know that this early exploration and initial gathering of information is an inquiry process from which a valid claim will emerge. Brainstorming guides early wonderings and wanderings. In the diagram of the combined models of the Information Search Process and Guided Inquiry Design Process, this exploratory stage is shown in green. Once you have a better grasp of the topic, you'll want to "play your hunches" and shift your thinking toward a tentative focus. You'll continue to refine this into a working claim which will be refined until it can be stated in unambiguous language. In the diagram of the combined models of the Information Search Process and Guided Inquiry Design Process, the focus stage is shown in blue. Eventually you'll arrive at a thesis statement that can guide both the design and content of your infographic. A thesis is a clear, logical and specific statement of the author's position. Unlike a science hypothesis which predicts a relationship that is tested through observation and experimentation, a thesis states what you intend to conclude about selected evidence. Use Google Drawing (see note) or Lucidchart to represent the process of shifting from questions (green) to a claim (blue) as a sequence of steps. Use a flowchart to graphically represent the sequence using shapes and lines. Use an oval to start and end the process. Use a rectangle for main steps in the process. Use a diamond to show a decision point in the process. Use arrows to show the direction of the process between shapes. Note: How to use Google Drawing is explained in the video clip "Flowcharts, Org charts \| Drawing, Slides, Sheets \| The Apps Show." Students brainstorm questions or wonders individually, then continue to reflect and refine their opinions and attitudes by explaining (central route processing) and evaluating (slow thinking) their ideas within a group. The process is modeled with the topic sugar but you can substitute another topic using following types of sources: An overview source that contains both data and facts Two sources with conflicting arguments about one aspect of the topic. Require individual brainstorming to encourage initial buy-in and to provide you with a basis for accountability. As students share and organize clusters together, they will notice that many versions of inquiry research can be imagined within the same topic. You are going to learn about "sugar" from three sources: a World Health Organization overview article on sugar and two views of sugar taxation policies: a resource for journalists and a newspaper article on the effectiveness of Mexico's soda tax. Individual brainstorming Read these resources quickly to identify their scope and claim. Select something that interests you and reread the relevant section(s) of the sources more thoroughly. Brainstorm individually for 5 minutes silently, writing each wonder statement ("I wonder...") or question on separate physical or digital (e.g., Padlet) sticky notes. Group sharing Read your questions aloud to the group. Post your notes on a table, a wall or in a communal digital space so that everyone in your group (or class) has access to them. Discuss everyone’s ideas and work together to organize them into possible clusters. The Circle of Viewpoints is a thinking routine that invites students to step into another's shoes, to recognize that their ideas and questions are both unique and shared. That paradox forms the basis for empathy, a powerful tool for understanding history, culture and society. Using the skeleton script provided in this routine, students imagine and record several options for the Inquiry Matrix. After selecting one from their matrix, it becomes a plan for their infographic in which: The student/creator takes the perspective of a particular stakeholder/reader To communicate various credible, reasonable and even inspirational solutions To an audience who is expected to wrestle with their options It's time to claim a cluster and shape your inquiry. Review one or more clusters that intrigue you and select and rework your wonderings and questions until you feel like you have settled on one you care about. It is likely that there are others who share your questions, who wonder about this problem: Who is affected? Who is involved? Who might care? By seeking relevance and putting yourself in other's shoes, you're likely to become more deeply engaged in this inquiry. Use the Circle of Viewpoints thinking routine to brainstorm who, besides yourself, would be interested in finding answers or solutions to these questions. Now test several of your ideas in the Inquiry Matrix by filling in answers for several perspectives and audiences you've brainstormed: You are both the creator of the infographic and a particular stakeholder with reason to care about the answers to these questions. Who will you be? What perspective will you take? Why do you care? Your infographic communicates to an audience. Who is that audience and why do they care? What options or possible solutions might be acceptable to you and to your audience? (Don't try to force-fit one solution - everyone needs a range of choices.) Role-playing, in the form of a first-person monologue, builds embodied authenticity, helping your students empathize with how their intended audience might react. As a rehearsal for the role you will adopt in the infographic, speak to your intended audience, outlining their choices and trade-offs. You may use these sentence starters: I am a stakeholder because [your role]... I have been thinking about [the question/problem]... From your view [as the audience]... I think that you might consider some options like... And other solutions like... But these choices have trade-offs such as... My hunch is that [our better options] might be... Of course, a question I have... or revise them to develop your own monologue in Flipgrid. A Thesis Statement for an Infographic This task addresses the misconception that data and facts are neutral “truths” rather than selective, contextual evidence for a claim. See "How Do I Teach Students to Think of Numbers as Evidence Rather than Answers." One hones, deletes and narrows to select information that best “fits” the claim. The selection process initially mirrors the “editing out” process used in curriculum curation. However, it goes further, because one must synthesize evidence, make inferences and negotiate conflicting ideas to craft a reasoned argument that also "fits" the audience. Scholarship is a conversation The less one knows, the simpler a topic seems. When you started researching your topic, chances are that you assumed you'd be able to find the single answer from the best authority. You expected facts to be neutral information which could be used in only one way. However, the more you learned, the less you looked for a single right answer or authority. You begin to read around the evidence to see how it's being used by the author. No one expert has all the right answers. Rather, each authority brings a valuable perspective to the problem. General information, used previously for develop background and identify possible options to investigate, recedes in value as your focus becomes clearer. You are becoming an expert among experts, learning to enter the scholarly conversation about this issue. An infographic reasons to an audience Novices think that infographic are dolled-up digital posters - eye-candy displays of loosely related bits, directed to everyone - or no one. They usually let their own preferences determine which evidence to use - a personal story or a statistic, a photograph or a chart. However you have been thinking about your audience for some time and have probably realized that they may have different preferences about formats they learn from best and strongly held beliefs about what evidence is convincing. What counts as strong evidence depends on your audience and claim An infographic is an economical, condensed communication. You will carefully weigh each piece of evidence - a statistic, a quote, an image - for "best fit" with your audience and the claim you're advancing. There is no room for extraneous visual decorations, marginally relevant data, and catchy but vague captions in oddball fonts. As a stakeholder-author, you want to select what your audience will find credible and important. You hope to surprise them with new insights - a fresh understanding - of their options and opportunities. Use the handout "Evaluate the fit of your evidence to the claim" to assess the evidence you choose. A thesis is a clear, logical and specific statement of what you intend to conclude about selected evidence. It serves as your roadmap for the infographic's design and content. A thesis is not a statement of opinion, summary of the facts or description of the paper’s purpose. Ask students to play with non-examples using Fletcher's "Zombie Fallacies." Then have them use a sentence stem to craft a working thesis statement. Once they've revised their working thesis statement, make a copy of this padlet to begin class posting and commenting. A thesis is not a statement of opinion, summary of the facts or description of the paper’s purpose. To help you craft a statement that will provide a roadmap for creating an infographic as reasoned argument, you will do a series of revision activities. First you're going do an activity called "Zombie Fallacies" to create the worst thesis statements with vague or extreme language and indefensible assertions that would be difficult to support. By "Doing Your Worst," you may gain insights on how to revise your own work claim/thesis and help others rework theirs. Use "Do Your Worst!" handout to write examples of Zombie Fallacies on your topic. Then fill in the sentence stem to restate your argument fully. Revise your thesis to eliminate extreme language, vague generalizations and unsupported opinions Post your revised thesis anonymously in Padlet (get URL from your instructor) so the class can discuss and provide feedback. Finally return to the "Evaluate the Fit" handout from Step 1 and add or subtract evidence based on your revised thesis. Data Literacy Since this module uses a compressed simulation of inquiry research to teach the thinking process of creating a multimodal argument, data selection has been limited to the three sugar resources from Task 2. Of course you can use a curated set matched to your curriculum. This task provides a brief introduction to data literacy evaluation. For a more in-depth understanding of data literacy, access these OER resources (webinars, scroll down for archive, and books) which were created as part of an IMLS grant to support teachers and librarians in combining data literacy skills with information literacy instruction. One webinar available for playback that directly relates to this topic is "Infographics: An Instructional Lens: Rationale and Framework for Teaching Infographics, Parts I & II. "Every designer makes moral and intellectual choices in the creation of an infographic." (from Edward R. Tufte, Beautiful Evidence. Cheshire, Conn.: Graphics Press, 2006.) Almost all infographics use numerical information. An infographic designer selects statistics and visualizes data to create what Tufte calls "beautiful evidence." Comparing, evaluating and interpreting data as evidence is an important part of inquiry research, so you'll need to learn some data literacy skills to become a thoughtful designer. For a quick definition of data literacy, please refer to the diagram "What is Data Literacy." To clarify the difference, please read "What is the Difference between Data and Statistics?" For more substantive background, consult chapters in Creating Data Literate Students, an OER ebook created to support teachers and librarians in adding data literacy skills to information literacy instruction. Finding, Evaluating and Visualizing Data Data, the raw input for statistical analysis and visualization, is growing exponentially. There is no single source of OER data sets but we've suggested to students how to locate the type of data that they need. For infographics, novices will be using either curated sets or "data in the wild," that is, statistics found embedded in everyday communication and publications. Context questions ( e.g., Who collected the data? How was it collected? For what purpose?) can help students assess the quality of the data they find and how truthfully it reflects the "world" it represents. Finally, after students experiment with different visualizations of the same data, they are asked to reflect in the journaling space on what they're discovering about data visualization. “The numbers have no way of speaking for themselves. We speak for them. We imbue them with meaning.” (from Nate Silver.The Signal and the Noise: Why so Many Predictions Fail--but Some Don't. Penguin Press, 2012. Finding Data Since data collection and dissemination is expensive and time consuming, it is often carried out by large entities like the United States, the United Nations, intergovernmental agencies and private non-governmental agencies with the budget and need for the information. Many OER data sets are in the public domain or licensed for free use, adaptation, and distribution. To help students find OER datasets, many college and university libraries have LibGuide portals (e.g., University of Nevada, Northwestern). Tip: Search for specific subjects or topics with the phrase [data and statistics]. Peruse reference books and articles that describe free data sets around the globe. Evaluating Data While large data sets may, in fact, be truthful reflections of the real world, the purpose and method of gathering this data is always "touched" by people who are making choices. Be aware that all data sets are a slice of life – a certain time, a certain section, a certain group. And all visualizations of data communicate a perspective on those statistics. To think about various contexts and their impact, read "Teaching Data Contexts: An Instructional Lens." Using Data There are always choices in how to present the data visually. Before you begin using data in a visualization, view "Common Visualization Errors." - Use a simple chart maker like BEAM or Google Sheets to experiment with visualizations of the same data from "Nutrition: Sugar." (See two examples called "Comparison of Displays" using BEAM and Google Sheets). - Or, use a spreadsheet like Excel to download a data set from "Sugar and Sweeteners Yearbook Tables" and create a visualization with a subset of this data. Share your visualization within the common class workspace and use the journaling space your instructor has provided to reflect on what you're discovering about visualizing statistics. Storyboarding the Structure of your Infographic Arguments contain one or more rhetorical structures. Identifying the structure or structures being used facilitates reading comprehension. For an infographic, plotting the rhetorical structure in a storyboard results in clear and effective communication. Argument Structure Literacy researchers identify recurring patterns that organize reading and writing. These expository text structures assist clear thinking and communicating: - Compare-Contrast Evaluation - Similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses - Cause-Effect Analysis - Causal relationship between an specific event, idea, or concept and what follows from it - Describe, Define - Detailed description, definition, parts, types - Problem-Solution Structure - Problem or issue, explains the solution, then discusses the consequences - Sequence Structure - Chronology, timeline, steps, order of importance, A-Z Read "How to Teach Expository Text Structure to Facilitate Reading Comprehension" and then check your understanding of these structures using the multiple choice test "Test Your Understanding of Infographic Structures." - Check your infographic thesis statement to see if it reflects the structure of your argument. - Then make a visual plan* of the order of the images that reflects your rhetorical structure. A visual plan, called a storyboard, is used by creators to plot the order of elements for a video, photo shoot, multimedia news story, puppet show or other type of storytelling. You may use Google Drawing ("Structure of My Argument") or sticky notes on paper connected by lines, arrows, circles, etc. to storyboard the structure of your argument. An Infographic Storyframe combines storyboarding and wireframing to plot the design of the argument both rhetorically and visually. The "Information Design Matrix" can help students practice relating the argument's structure to the visual design of their infographic (Abilock and Williams 52). Visual Structure An Infographic Storyframe uses a combination of storyboarding and wireframing to plan or sketch out the graphic design of the final visual argument. You have already used a storyboard to plot the order of the images. Now you will wireframe that order to display the metaphorical relationship among elements. Examine the infographic,"Tracing the Food Chain From Farm to Table," which shows the order (a sequence) within the outlines of a cow (a visual metaphor). Practice brainstorming infographic metaphors for rhetorical arguments using the "Information Design Matrix" handout. Ask Yourself: What visual metaphor could shape my argument in a way that would would enlighten and suprise my audience? [An infographic is] “…the combination of creating a beautiful piece of design that attracts viewers --- with the ability to deliver some insights or knowledge along with it.” *Quote from Christopher Cannon. "Bloomberg Visual Data." Infographic Designers' Sketchbooks. By Steven Heller and Rick Landers. Princeton Architectural, 2014. 52. Infographic Creation and Artist's Statement A variety of digital options from Google or PowerPoint slide to infographic-specific tools (these are listed for the student) can be used to create the final product. - If you hope students will develop a metaphor to contain the structure, hand drawn visuals are the best option. - If students' infographic arguments contain more than one claim and a variety of rhetorical structures, the "Information Design Matrix" will help them think through the design. An "Artist's Statement" is a potent and relevant way for students to self-assess their understanding of infographic inquiry and visualized auguments. Schedule a gallery walk for students to view the infographics and read the creator's purpose statement. Summative assessments you can use to evaluate their infographics include: Creat Your Infographic If you use a digital infographic creator, some current options are listed below. Note that others emerge regularly and features change, so you should evaluate them yourself based on your needs: PiktoChart (www.piktochart.com): Free tools with simple and advanced features and a variety of templates with more "canned" options that some others. InfoGram (www.infogr.am): Simple no cost tool for designing both information and data visualizations with interactive content. Has the usual charts and visualizations you expect and also some less commonly used ones like Treemap, Bubble, Hierarchy. Big bonus: Pictorial Easelly (www.easel.ly): Free tool for designing infographics from pre-designed templates. Easier learning curve than other infographic tools. Venngage (www.venngage.com): A great infographic design that captures audience analytics. Canva (https://www.canva.com) Has large number of templates and graphical elements but not pictorials. Visually (www.visual.ly): A professional design marketplace with examples of infographics in all subjects. Visible (iPhone/iPad) and Tableau Public (https://public.tableau.com): Free versions of powerful visualization software. Google Drawing (https://docs.google.com/drawings): Instructions for using basic drawing techniques to draw infographics Self-Assessment: Your Purpose Statement One form of self-assessment is an artist's purpose statement. It is a public reflection that unpacks your thinking, clarifies your intentions, describes your process and acknowledges your inspirations. Examples are given below. Attach your purpose statement to your infographic. Your instructor will determine any additional summative evaluation.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.637299	08/25/2017	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/16449/overview", "title": "Teaching Infographics as Multiliteracy Arguments", "author": "Debbie Abilock" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114950/overview	Student-Teacher Relationships Overview This is a module discussing Student-Teacher Relationships. Topics discussed in this module include, How to build student-teacher relationships, benefits of student-teacher relationships, and examples of appropriate and innapropriate student-teacher relationships. Introduction We will be diving into the topic of student-teacher relationships. The purpose of this is to help further our knowledge on this topic, and to also be used as a resource for others wanting to know more about student-teacher relationships. We will cover: - How to Build Student-Teacher Relationships - Benefits of Student-Teacher Relationships - Examples of Appropriate and Innapropriate Student-Teacher Relationships How to build Student-Teacher Relationships: How to build Student-Teacher Relationships: Student-Teacher relationships are incredibly important as it will help create a safer and more engaging learning environment for both the student and the teacher. Doing so can be quite challenging if there is no knowledge of where to start. This section will go over some great ways to build student-teacher relationships in the classroom. “Building Rapport” In the article,”Welcome to Our Class! Building Classroom Rapport to Support the Development of Social and Emotional Learning Skills”, a large part of building relationships is to build a rapport with the students in the classroom. Rapport is described as a feeling about a relationship. Rapport in a classroom can increase the good attitude in a classroom and create some motivation. To do this, the article suggests welcoming activities, engaging practices and optimistic closures. Welcoming activities are “..explicitly taught series of actions or events that take place as a signal to the start of school” (Baily, Benner, Michael, Sanders 2023). These activities will create routines such as individual greetings to every student, a morning routine for the whole class, and a whole class greeting to start the day off in a positive way. Engaging practices will include verbal and nonverbal transitions, and emotion checks. These help students to process and reflect. Optimistic closures help end the lesson as well as “.. offer opportunities to reflect on learning, identify next steps, or make connections to a students’ individual work’’ (Baily, Benner, Michael, Sanders 2023). “Authenticity in Relationships” Building an authentic relationship with students can be done by using proximity, callbacks, and asking for help according to the article,”Building Authentic Relationships With Students” by Andrew Fultz. As a teacher, we spend many hours a day with the students, but this can come in handy when creating a positive relationship. This allows us to learn about our students especially when the teacher actually engages with the students. Having similarities or the same interests as your students can create a positive authentic outcome. The term callbacks in this article refers to talking to the students about shared experiences that they remember and is said that it “..humanizes everyone involved and helps students associate positivity with the school experience.”(Fultz, 2023). Asking students to help in the classroom such as having a student bring things to the office, also creates authentic relationships. “Positive Connections” Last, another important aspect to building a positive relationship will include engaging with the students’ families. Building a relationship with the families of the students can help further engage and motivate the students in the classroom. To do this the article, "Building Positive Connections With All Students" by the Australian Education Research Organization gives many tips such as, a teacher should try to introduce themselves to the families before the school year begins to give them the much needed information like how they will be contacted and how to contact the teacher and some class rules or expectation that will be held in the class. Another recommendation is to encourage the families to communicate to the teacher and to plan culturally responsive practices that students and their families can do. (AERO, 2023) Benefits of Student-Teacher Relationships Benefits of Student-Teacher Relationships: Having a strong Student-Teacher Relationship is almost essential when it comes to having a successful learning environment. When students feel connected and comfortable with their teachers they are more likely to have a successful academic journey. In this section we will explore the numerous benefits of student-teacher relationships. The College of Education and Human Development at the University of Mississippi released an article titled “Positive teacher-student relationships lead to better teaching” In this article they discussed that prior research has shown that positive student-teacher relationships further student academic achievement. However, a recent study done by the University of Mississippi shows that teacher-student relationships also lead to better teaching as well. (College of Education & Human Development 2022) This article does a phenomenal job reiterating the importance of how student-teacher relationships not only have a positive impact on the student but also on the way the teacher teaches. Click on the link to this article to read more about this topic.https://cehd.missouri.edu/2022/03/positive-teacher-student-relationships-lead-to-better-teaching/ In a video titled “Student-teacher relationships in action” by UQx LEARNx Deep Learning through Transformative Pedagogy they discuss how high quality relationships between teachers and students set the social tone of a classroom. They even go as far as asking viewers to think back to their early childhood school days and to think about what memories stood out. If we enjoyed going to school every day. If we felt belonged when we walked into the classroom. As I watched this video I thought back to my early school years and realized that I never experienced close relationships with my teachers like the video talks about. As a teacher I think it can be easy to build relationships with certain students and maybe put others on the backburner. In my experiences as a student I noticed that all of my teachers tended to be closer to the “smarter kids''. I always wondered why the teachers seemed to be closer to the children that were easier to teach over the students that struggled but it was just because students like myself made the teachers job harder. As a teacher we have to put our best foot forward and try our best to treat all of our students equally and work to build close relationships with each student individually. The benefits of student-teacher relationships are unmeasurable. We have research that proves that these positive relationships don’t just emotionally impact people but also physically. And not only does it impact students for the better but it also allows the teacher to become a better, more effective teacher. As a teacher it is essential to your student’s academic success that you not just teach them the content but that you put your best efforts into connecting and building relationships with each of your students. By building these relationships you are positively impacting the future. Appropriate and Inappropriate Student-Teacher Relationships Examples of Appropriate Relationships: - getting to know your students - taking an interest in their personal lives - strives to keep relationships conflict-free - value the individuality of each student - personalized morning greets chosen by the students (hugs, handshake, high five) Examples of Inappropriate Relationships: - texting, calling, or emailing the student about anything not school-related - over affectionate - flirtatious behavior - follwing students/teachers on social media - sexual relationships There is a fine line between appropriate and inappropriate relationships. When building relationships with your students, please make sure to set clear boundaries and follow through with them. Final Conclusion In conclusion, in order to maintain a positive classroom environment for your students, you must seek to build relationships with not just each and everyone of your students but also their parents and guardians. There are many different ways to go about building these positive relationships but it is important to find the ones that work best for you as a teacher and your students. The benefits of having these positive relationships are endless and they will not only help the students academically grow but will also help you as a teacher become better. It is important to keep in mind the differences of appropriate and inappropriate student-teacher relationships. Positive student-teacher relationships play a huge role in a successful learning environment Bibliography Reference List Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO). (2023). Building positive connections with all students. https://www.edresearch.edu.au/sites/default/files/2023-12/building-positive-connections-with-students-aa.pdf Fultz, A. (2023, October 6). Building authentic relationships with students. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/building-strong-relationships-with-students/ Michael, E., Bailey, P., Benner, G. J., & Sanders, S. (2023). Welcome to our class! Building classroom rapport to support the development of social and emotional learning skills. Beyond Behavior, 32(1), 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/10742956221145951 YouTube. (2017, November 30). Learn055 student-teacher relationships in action. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPi9mHv5JMo&t=2s College of Education & Human Development. Positive teacher-student relationships lead to better teaching – College of Education & Human Development. (2022a, March 7). https://cehd.missouri.edu/2022/03/positive-teacher-student-relationships-lead-to-better-teaching/ Zarra, III, E. J. (2016). Addressing Appropriate and Inappropriate Teacher-Student Relationships: A Secondary Education Professional Development Model. Journal for Leadership, Equity, and Research, 3(2). Retrieved from https://journals.sfu.ca/cvj/index.php/cvj/article/view/26	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.662342	Sulley Sanchez	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114950/overview", "title": "Student-Teacher Relationships", "author": "Module" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/72759/overview	Trainers' Toolit (Spanish) Trainers' Toolkit (English) Trainers' Toolkit (Greek) Trainers' Toolkit (Portuguese) IlluminatED Trainers’ Toolkit for Teacher Workshops Overview IlluminatED Trainers’ Toolkit for Teacher Workshops is a resource kit for organising continuing professional development workshops for school educators that introduce educators to the Science of Learning and provides them with tips on how to align their teaching practices with the science on how student learning happens. The main sections of the toolkit are: - Two continuing professional development workshops for school education teachers - A Facilitator’s Guide: Introduction IlluminatED Trainers’ Toolkit for Teacher Workshops is a resource kit for organising continuing professional development workshops for school educators that introduce educators to the Science of Learning and provides them with tips on how to align their teaching practices with the science on how student learning happens. Whether you are an educational trainer, school teacher, or researcher, the toolkit has been built to support your delivery of the workshops. The content is geared toward secondary school teachers but is also useful for primary school teachers, and educators at vocational, higher education, and professional institutions. The main sections of the toolkit are: - Two continuing professional development workshops for school education teachers - Workshop A: A Science of Learning Primer for Educators – The cognitive processes underlying student learning - Workshop B: Designing Learning with the Science of Learning – Cognitive principles applied to the design of learning’ - A Facilitator’s Guide: - Slides: Google Slides and PowerPoint files for the workshops. - Student activity sheets: paper-based worksheets for workshop participants - Script: An example script to guide explanation of the slides - Activity materials: Spaced learning activity materials, group activity sheets - Questionnaires: pre- and post- knowledge measures and workshop quality evaluations - Poster/abstract: promotional materials for the workshops - Attendance sheets & Certificates: templates for attendance and completion certificates - Venue requirements: Letter to venue for required equipment and ideal room and seating arrangements - Resources: articles, references related to the toolkit content How was the IlluminatED Trainers’ Toolkit developed? The initial workshop content is based on multi-disciplinary research in cognitive neuroscience and was evaluated by domain experts to ensure its quality. The content of the workshops was tested and validated in teacher pilot workshops that were delivered in Finland, Portugal, Spain, Greece, and Egypt. Nine sets of pilots were held with over 400 participants from the start of 2018 to the middle of 2019. The holding of pilots allowed the project team to collect direct and continuous feedback from experts (cognitive neuroscience: Cicero Learning, University of Helsinki; and for teacher development Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona and the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki); and from both in-service and pre-service educators. Key contributors - Marc Beardsley, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona: Content creation, Learning design, Pilot lead (Spain) - Mari Tervaniemi, CICERO Learning, University of Helsinki: Content validation, Pilot lead (Finland) - Tanja Linnavalli, CICERO Learning, University of Helsinki:: Content validation, Pilot lead, Translations (Finland) - Davinia Hernández-Leo, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona: Pilot lead, Translations (Spain) - Judit Martìnez Moreno, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona: Pilot lead, Translations (Spain) - Ana Barroca, Advancis: Pilot lead, translations (Portugal) - Ana Silveira, Advancis: Pilot lead, translations (Portugal) - Dr Tharrenos Bratitsis, University of Western Macedonia: Pilot lead, Translations (Greece) - Michalis Ioannou, University of Western Macedonia: Pilot lead, Translations (Greece) About the project Illuminated IlluminatED: illuminating effective teaching strategies with the science of learning. Project IlluminatED (PROJ: 2017-1-ES01-KA201-038220) is a project funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme that strives to empower school education teachers with cognitive neuroscience informed practices in an effort to facilitate more durable student learning. A key output of the project is continuing professional development workshops for school educators that introduce educators to the Science of Learning and provides them with tips on how to align their teaching practices with the science on how student learning happens. The project brings together experts in education technology, teacher development and cognitive neuroscience and runs from December 2017 to June 2020. The IlluminatED partnership is led by Universitat Pompeu Fabra and comprises 6 institutions: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona (Spain); CICERO Learning (www.cicero.fi), University of Helsinki (Finland); Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland); University of Western Macedonia (Greece); and Advancis Business Services and Boon (Portugal). IlluminatED key objectives are: - to support the improvement in quality of teaching and learning in school education, - to foster collaboration among teachers, - to facilitate the use of pedagogy matching technology, - to contribute to the formation of professional expertise in teaching and learning. More about IlluminatED can be found on the official website and Facebook page:	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.691065	Hannu Markkanen	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/72759/overview", "title": "IlluminatED Trainers’ Toolkit for Teacher Workshops", "author": "Teaching/Learning Strategy" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/98062/overview	AudioEditExample-IntroBreakOutro Beethoven5thSymphonyMozartBorrowing Learning Audacity - Recording and Editing Basics Overview This OER is meant to teach those new to Audacity and audio editing the basic skills of the open-source software, as well as provide some basic narration tips. Though an introduction, this resource will allow those interested in podcasting, audio editing, video making, music creation, and more to apply these skills to larger projects. No required knowledge of Audacity or audio editing skills required. Though skills in an operating system (Windows, OSX, Linux) is highly reccomended. Learning Audacity - Recording and Editing Basics If you're new to Audacity this resource is for you! This lesson will cover what is Audacity is and how to install it, the UI of Audacity, and the basics of recording, playing, and editing an audio file. No prior knowledge of Audacity is needed, but knowledge of an operating system (OSX, Windows, or Linux) and basic computer skills are recommended. This lesson is best suited for those new to Audacity who wish to record their own voice for voice overs, or those new to audio editing who wish to increase their skillset for creating videos or podcasts. The skills taught in this lesson are beginner level but will create the foundation for further development of: - audio or video editing - creating podcasts - narrating videos or podcasts - recording music - and more This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Learning Objectives By the end of this course, you will be able to: - understand the purpose and use of Audacity - install Audacity onto your computer - record, playback, and import and export audio files in Audacity - understand the difference between exporting and saving files in Audacity - edit audio files using various tools such as trim, history, zoom, and noise reduction Now let's get started! What is Audacity? (Image of the UI of Audacity) Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, and GNU/Linux. You can use Audacity to: - Record live audio; - Cut, Copy and Paste, Delete, Duplicate, and Split audio files; - Change the speed, pitch or volume of a recording; - Apply effects to any part of the sound; - Align audio segments. Audacity is a popular Open Source tool for creating and editing podcasts; it is freely available to download, install and modify, and is relatively easy to use. Best of all, it is free and open source software (licensed under the GNU GPLv2) so you can use, copy, and share it freely. This invites conversations about copyright and Creative Commons licensing. "Using Audacity/What is Audacity" by WikiEducator is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Students and teachers can explore sound effects, and Audacity makes it easy to cut, copy, and paste music tracks, and to create new versions of songs. Students use Audacity to interview teachers, each other, and parents and grandparents, incorporate these recordings into their classroom activities, and upload them to streaming web servers. They learn about the best audio file formats to use. For example, Audacity projects should be saved in two different formats: as Audacity project .aup files to allow for future editing and revision, and exported to a final playback format such as MP3 or WAV. "A quick introduction to Audacity for teachers" by Don Watkins, OpenSource is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 How accessible is Audacity for motion- or visually-impaired users? Audacity has numerous keyboard shortcuts which can be customised in the Keyboard Preferences. Most of Audacity can be wholly or partially used without a mouse, with excellent keyboard navigation of the selection. A few features currently have no keyboard alternatives, notably clips, Time Tracks and the Tools Toolbar tools except Selection Tool. Audacity works well with most screen-reader applications on Windows (including Jaws, Window-Eyes and NVDA). However a few features, notably Label Tracks, are not read. We still have to improve screen-reader support for Linux. For more information, see Accessibility. There are useful links to free screen readers and support resources for the blind on our Wiki page Audacity for blind users. "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 You can also view the following video for an overview of Audacity: "Audacity Review for Educators" by EDUC 592A, YouTube is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Setting up Audacity In this section you will learn: - how to download and install Audacity - what FFPMEG is and how to install it - how to install and use your microphone in Audacity In order to use and learn Audacity we'll need to download the software. Luckily its available for most platforms (Windows, OSX, and Linux) and is easy to install. And even better - its open source and absolutely free! This section will also cover downloading the FFPMEG Library that is essential to have when using Audacity. As well, this section will cover setting up your microphone so you are able to record your voice. Downloading and Installing Audacity Windows For detailed system requirements for a Windows installation see this page on the Audacity Website Go to the Windows Download page of the Audacity site and follow the instructions there. "Installing and updating Audacity on Windows" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 OSX Audacity for Mac is for OS X 10.7 Lion and later. Audacity runs best with at least 1 GB RAM and a 1 GHz processor (2 GB RAM/2 GHz on OS X 10.7 and later). For lengthy multi-track projects, we recommend a minimum of 2 GB RAM and 2 GHz processor (4 GB RAM on OS X 10.7 and later). Go to the Mac Download page of the Audacity site. - On the download page, left-click the "installer" link, the .dmg file. This takes you to the FossHub site where our downloads are hosted. - On the FossHub Audacity page left-click the Audacity macOS DMG link. This will start the download. - Once the download has completed to your Downloads folder, double-click the DMG file to mount it. (Some browsers may offer the option to automatically open the DMG file for you.) - Drag the Audacity.app icon rightwards onto the Applications folder shortcut. - You can also drag Audacity.app out of the DMG to any other location. You need the administrator password to copy Audacity to Applications. - Launch Audacity.app from Applications or from your chosen location. Depending on your Finder Preferences, the Audacity icon may be titled "Audacity" or "Audacity.app". "Installing and updating Audacity on Mac" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Linux We recommend using the latest version of GNU/Linux from your distribution that is compatible with your hardware specifications. Audacity will run best with at least 1GB RAM and a 2 GHz processor. The recommended way to install software for most GNU/Linux and Unix-like Desktop distributions, is to install from the official distribution repository using a package manager. Most distributions provide Audacity packages. Alternatively you can build the latest Audacity tagged release from our source code. "Installing and updating Audacity on Linux" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Installing FFPMEG The optional FFmpeg library allows Audacity to import and export a much larger range of audio formats including M4A (AAC), AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA and also to import audio from most video files. Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include the FFmpeg software or distribute it from its own websites. Instead, use the following instructions to download and install the free and recommended FFmpeg third-party library. It is recommended that you exit Audacity before installing FFmpeg. Use the following links to download the FFmpeg Library and install it: - Windows install instructions : use the FFmpeg v2.2.2 INSTALLER (.EXE) - Mac install instructions : use the lame_64bit_osx.pkg - Linux install instructions After you have installed the FFmpeg Library, close Audacity if you have it open and relaunch the application Select ‘Edit’ from the main menu Then click on ‘Preferences’ In the Preferences window select ‘Libraries’ in the menu on the left Windows: OSX: Linux: Click the “Locate” button Audacity should automatically locate the FFmpeg libraries. You can select ‘No’, to not locate them manually and continue using the application with a larger array of file types. Once the FFmpeg Library has been installed, you can import video files and strip the audio from them. This can be very useful for editing videos in the future, because Audacity is has much better tools for audio editing than most video editors. Text source: "FFmpeg Library" by David Kwasny & Matthew Humphries, Open Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Images source: "FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plugins" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 / highlights added Setting Up Your Microphone You can view this video for an overview of setting up your microphone in Audacity [timestamps: 3:00 to 5:00]: "How To Set Up Your Microphone In Audacity Beginners Guide Ep 2" by Logan D, YouTube is licensed under CC BY 3.0 What if you don't have a microphone (AUX) port? If your computer does not have a microphone input port Do not plug a microphone into the line input port on your computer. The volume will be way too low (the line input port does not apply the needed amplification to boost the very quiet signal from the microphone). You will not break anything, but you will be very frustrated with the results. Option 1 - Buy a microphone to USB adapter These devices plug into a USB port on your computer, and have a microphone input jack (usually 1/8"). You will still need a compatible microphone. Be sure to carefully read the specifications of any adapter you are considering and make sure you get a microphone that will work with that interface. Option 2 - Buy a USB microphone These microphones are becoming more common. They combine a microphone and the USB adapter all in one package. Models are available by Logitech, Samson, Nady and Audio-technica, among others. "Connecting audio equipment" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Audacity Interface In this section you will learn: - the main UI of Audacity - the playback tools - the tools toolbar - the editing toolbar The interface to Audacity can be intiminating at first. This section will help to explain the different sections of Audacity and what they're used for. This is the main screen of Audacity when you open the software: 1 Menu Bar 9 Unpinned Play/Recording Head 10 Timeline 13 Audio Track 14 Label Track 16 Time Toolbar 18 Status Bar "Guide to the Audacity Project Window" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 What are the blue lines on screen? They're called waveforms and are a visual representation of an audio signal. Audacity Waveforms show you overall loudness best. They are the default view in Audacity. - You might see the danger of imminent clipping. - Precision in cutting and splicing is also best performed in Waveform view. "Audacity Waveform" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Playback Control Toolbar moves the cursor to the start of the project. plays your project from the position of the cursor. Use to listen to the audio in your project. pressing the record button will record a new track from your computer's sound input device. pause playback or recording. Press again to unpause. stops playback or recording. moves the cursor to the end of the project. Tools Toolbar The Selection Tool use to select sections of an audio track to work on. The Envelope Tool this tool allows you to control how tracks fade in and out. The Draw Tool allows you to draw on the waveforms of individual tracks. The Zoom Tool zooms in or out of a specific part of the audio. The Timeshift Tool allows you to change the positioning of tracks relative to one another in time Edit Toolbar Cut removes selected audio data and places it on the clipboard. Copy copies the selected audio data to the clipboard without removing it from the track. Paste pastes whatever is in the clipboard into the track at the position of the selection cursor. Trim deletes all of the track except the current selection. Silence replaces the current selection with silence instead of removing it completely. Undo undo the last editing operation performed. Redo redo any editing operations that were just undone. Zoom In zooms in on displayed tracks displaying less time and giving a more detailed view of the track. Zoom Out zooms out displaying more time and a less detailed view of tracks. Fit Selection fits selected audio into the width of the screen to show the selection in more detail. Fit Project shows entire project in one screen. "Using Audacity/The Interface" by WikiEducator is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 You can watch the following video from the beginning to 3:16 to see the UI of Audacity and some explanations too: "Using Audacity" by Tony Vincent, YouTube is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Knowledge Check When you feel comfortable with the Audacity UI, feel free to test your knowledge using the following knowledge check: Audacity Basics In this section you will learn: - recording your voice - playing audio - how to save and export and the difference between them - importing audio How to Record Your Voice Select the red circle button to begin recording. Record for as long as you would like. And then select the black square button (the stop button) when you want to finish. Recording Best Practices There are some simple and easy best practices to keep in mind when recording. Following these will provide you with better quality recordings as well as make it easier to do any editing later. - Practice rehearsing your script out loud on your own and with a colleague to make the appropriate edits before you record. - Always leave a 10 second silence buffer before recording to ensure you are able to collect the noise profile and edit out the background noise. This also helps to reduce chances of you cutting off your audio - When recording, try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6 dB or 0.5 if you have your meters set to linear rather than dB. - Record all of your audio at once. If you make a mistake in your recording, stop and take a breath and then try saying the sentence again. This can be tweaked in the editing phase. - Be aware of the pace of your speech. Intentionally speak slower than you normally would, so your voiceover can be understood. - Smile when you're recording the audio.This helps to make you sound more energetic and happy. "Record Audio with Audacity" by University of Guelph Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / added text and explanations Playing Audio The easiest way to control Audacity playback and recording is with Transport Toolbar: Clicking Play plays from the cursor point to the end of the project, or from the start of the selection region to the end of that region. "Playing and Recording" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Saving and Exporting It is important to know the difference between Saving and Exporting while working in Audacity. If you are working on a project but wish to close Audacity in order to continue working on the project at a later date it is important that you save your work. Audacity saves your project into a folder which will include all the separate audio tracks that you have either recorded or imported into your project. Audacity project files (.aup) let you save everything you're working on exactly as it appears on the Audacity screen. Most other audio programs cannot open Audacity project files. If you want to save your project into a file that can be opened by other programs you will need to select the export option. "Using Audacity/Saving" by WikiEducator is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Saving To save a project you are still working on, it is recommended to: File -> Save Project -> Save Project or “Ctrl +S” You might get this warning. But, as you can tell, it states this is not the file you would play for others. Exporting To export an audio file to distribute or share, it is recommended to: File -> Export -> Export as MP3 You might get this warning. This means it is reducing your project into one track. This is okay. It needs to be in this format to distribute, and we already saved the project, if it needs to be edited again. "Saving & Exporting" by David Kwasny & Matthew Humphries, Open Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / text added You can also view this video as a recap of saving and exporting [timestamps: 10:13 onward]: "Audacity Basics: Recording, Editing, Mixing" by Kyle Stedman, YouTube is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Importing an Audio File You don't always start with a blank recording, but instead you may wish to do edits on an existing audio file. For this, we'll need to import the audio file into Audacity. - Click File in the menu bar at the top of your screen. - Click Import from the dropdown menu. - Select Audio. - Select your file from your device to import. "Record Audio with Audacity" by University of Guelph Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / text added You may also watch the following video for a video explanation of importing audio [timestamps: 10:25 to 13:24]: "Using Audacity" by Tony Vincent, YouTube is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Editing Basics In this section you will learn: - selecting specific pieces of audio - copying, cutting, and pasting audio - deleting audio - amplifying audio volume - zooming in and out of waveforms in Audacity Selecting Audio Almost all editing in Audacity will require you to select specific audio you want to work with. You may sometimes wish to change all the audio in a file, but more often than not you'll want to edit a specific section. We will go into how to select audio in Audacity here. Note that you can select the entire length of all tracks on screen with Select > All or use the shortcut Ctrl + A (or ⌘ + A on a Mac). To select audio, first choose the Selection Tool. Now click the left mouse button anywhere inside of an audio track, and click and drag to the other edge of your selection, and release. "Selecting Audio" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 /text and explanations added Copying, Cutting, and Pasting Audio Copying and pasting audio works just like other software. For example, copying text in Microsoft Word allows you to paste that text in other areas of the document. This is the same as Audacity - copying audio allows you to paste it anywhere within an audio file. Copying Use the Selection Tool to select a section of audio from the source track with click-and-drag (the source and target tracks are labeled SOURCE and TARGET in the examples.) Copy the selected audio to the Audacity clipboard by clicking on Edit > Copy or press the shortcut Ctrl + C or ⌘ + C on Mac). Conversely, you can also cut a selected audio. This will remove the audio from the waveform but keep it in your clipbaord to be pasted. This is akin to moving a piece of audio rather than copying it. Cut the selected audio to the Audacity clipboard by clicking on Edit > Cut or press the shortcut Ctrl + X or ⌘ + X on Mac). Pasting To make the paste select Edit > Paste from the Edit Menu or press the shortcut Ctrl + V or (⌘ +V on Mac). "Copy and Paste a section of audio" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 /text added and section on cutting added Deleting Audio Often, one of the most common edits you will want to do with audio is to remove aspects of it. This could be bad takes, mistakes, or maybe even some silence where you paused when talking. Deleting audio in Audacity is very easy! Click and drag your mouse to select the portion of audio you would like to delete. Click the play button to listen to your selected portion and confirm that you have selected the correct time. Select Edit > Delete, or press the delete/backspace button on your keyboard. The selected audio is removed from the track, and the rest of the audio moves to fill the space left after the delete. Listen back to each edit to make sure it sounds natural. If not, choose Edit > Undo Delete and try again. "Record Audio with Audacity" by University of Guelph Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / text removed to condense steps Amplify Audio Amplyfing audio is raising the amplitude of an audio file. Amplitude refers to the level or magntitude of a signal. Audio signals with higher amplitude will sound louder. "Glossary" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Amplify always preserves the relative volumes of the tracks and/or channels. 1. Select Effect > Amplify from the menu bar at the top of your screen. 2. In the input box, type a value for the amount of amplification you would like to apply. Positive values make the sound louder, negative values make it quieter. As you type, the New Peak Amplitude input box will be updated. 3. If you take the negative of the value shown in the Amplification (dB) box, this will give you the current peak amplitude of the selection. 4. Drag the slider right to make the sound louder, or to the left to make it quieter. As you drag, your selected value will be updated in the input box, and the New Peak Amplitude input box will be updated. "Record Audio with Audacity" by University of Guelph Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Zooming In and Out It is often helpful to be able to zoom in to see the individual parts of the audio clip waveform in order to edit out sections or remove undesirable noises or pauses Zooming in shows you more detail about the waveform. This can be useful for editing out imperfections. Zooming out shows less detail but is useful to get a wider overview of your project. "Using Audacity/Zooming" by WikiEducator is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 How to Zoom There are five ways to zoom horizontally: View > Zoom submenu: use the four commands in this submenu to: - View > Zoom > Zoom In: double the current zoom level. - View > Zoom > Zoom Normal: reverts back to Audacity's default zoom, where you can see 5 - 10 seconds at a time - View > Zoom > Zoom Out: cuts the current zoom level in half - View > Zoom > Zoom to Selection: zooms and scroll so that the selection just fits in the window - View > Zoom > Zoom Toggle: toggles between two pre-defined zoom levels, these are user selectable in Tracks Preferences. Defaults are normal Default Zoom level and 4 Pixels per Sample (which shows a fraction of a second of audio as samples) Five of the view commands have equivalent buttons on the right of the Edit Toolbar: - Zoom In - Zoom Out - Fit Selection (to Width of the Window). aka 'Zoom to Selection' - Fit Project (to Width of the Window). - Zooms between two preset levels. These can be set using Tracks preferences. "Editing Audio" by David Kwasny & Matthew Humphries, Open Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Activity: Recording and Editing a File With all the skills you've learned thus far, let's put them into practice by editing an existing audio file. Instructions Recording You will need a partner for this first section. Have them record themselves in Audacity (with your assistance) the following: - 1. Please state your name. - 2. In 30 words, 15 seconds or less, please summarize why you came today. Next, record yourself saying the following: - 1.. [Intro]: You are about to hear a shockingly brief interview with ____________ [say the name of your partner for this exercise, whom you just interviewed]. - 2. (pause) - 3. [Break]: You are listening to a shockingly brief interview with _____________ [say the person's name again]. - 4. (pause) - 5. [Outro]: You have been listening to a shockingly brief interview with ___________ [say the person's name again]. This is ______________ [say your name], reporting for 90.1 FM, KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio. [NOTE: The “90.1 FM, KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio” in KKFI's official legal ID. If you say “Kansas City's Community Radio” on KKFI's Program Associate's exam, you will flunk, because it's “Kansas City Community Radio”, NOT “Kansas City's Community Radio.] The first part is a toy interview. The second part is Intro, Break and Outro, used to make that a complete piece, editing together with Audacity. Deleting Unneeded Portions To delete a portion of a recording, First select what you want to delete by specifying start and end of selection and discussed above. Verify that's what you want to delete. You can do this in multiple ways, e.g., first selecting a larger segment, then listening to it by playing it or part of it, and using the scroll bar at the bottom. Then select Edit > Delete (or <ctrl>+K or <cmd>+K on a Mac). Amplify a portion of a recording that may be quieter than other parts Select a portion of the recording that you want to amplify. Then Effects > Amplify. In contrast to when you want to push down a peak, you probably want to accept the default amplification by clicking “OK”. As before, if you don't like that, use <ctrl>+Z (or <cmd>+Z on a Mac) to revert your changes and restart. Cut pieces from different recordings and paste them together Using Cut and Paste tools, put the audio in an order that makes sense given the context. It might be easiest to open a new track and have it available to you as a blank slate to use rather than moving around existing audio. Export as MP3 Once you have what you want, it's wise to listen to it (or at least listen to parts of it) to make sure it's what you want. Then in the composite window, File > Export > “Export as MP3”. Again before you click “Save” you need to change the directory to what you want, because Audacity by default stores it in the last place it stored an export file, which is probably NOT where you want it. Click “Save”. Exercise adapted from: "Grassroots media training/KKFI/Audacity" by Wikiversity is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / text and instructions added, text removed for brevity If you do not have access to a microphone or partner, you can use the attached audio instead. Audio provided by: DavidMCEddy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Activity: Editing an Existing Audio File It's important to be able to edit existing audio files. In this activity, we will use multiple tools previously discussed to create short 10-second version of an audio file. Instructions Find an Existing Audio File Audacity can import many common audio file formats, including WAV, AIFF, and MP3. If the optional FFmpeg library is installed, a larger range of formats, including WMA and the audio content of most video files, can be imported. Audacity cannot import copy-protected music files. If you want to edit music that you have on an audio CD, you need to "rip" the music into an audio file. See the Audio CDs page for information on getting the audio off of CDs and into Audacity. No audio files handy? You can use the audio file attached to this section. Import the file into Audacity First launch Audacity, then import an audio file by selecting File > Import > Audio Look at the waveform This image above shows a stereo waveform. The left channel is displayed in the top half of the track and the right channel in the bottom half. The track name takes the name of the imported audio file ("No Town" in this example). Where the waveform reaches closer to the top and bottom of the track, the audio is louder (and vice versa). The ruler above the waveform shows you the length of the audio in minutes and seconds. Listen to the imported audio The image above shows Transport Toolbar. Click the Play button to listen to the audio. Click the Stop button to stop playback. If you do not hear anything, see Audacity Setup and Configuration. You can use the Space key on the keyboard as a shortcut for Play or Stop. Click on Selection Tool then click on the waveform to choose a place to start, then click the Play button . Click and drag to create a selection, and then when you click Play button only the selection will play. Create a 10-second clip from your audio To cut this audio file down to exactly 10 seconds, use these following steps. - With playback stopped, click near the point where you want the 10-second piece to begin. - Zoom in until the Timeline shows 10 seconds or more before and after the cursor. - While holding down the Shift key, click 10 seconds to the right of the cursor. 4. Press Space to listen to the entire selection. Playback will stop when the end of the selection is reached 5. Adjust the start and end of the selection with the mouse as follows. - Move the pointer over the start of the selection - the cursor will change to a left-pointing hand. - Click and drag to adjust the beginning of the selection. - You can adjust the end of the selection in a similar manner. 6. Press Space to listen to the adjusted selection. You do not have to listen to all of it; press Space again at any time to stop playback You have now selected the portion of the audio that you want to keep. Make sure you have pressed Space to stop if the track is still playing, then to delete everything except the selected audio, click on Edit > Remove Special > Trim Audio. Export the resulting file When you save an Audacity project with File > Save Project > Save Project you are doing just that - saving an Audacity project. Audacity projects can be opened only by Audacity. If you want other applications (such as Apple Music/iTunes or Windows Media Player) to be able to open this file you need to export it. Before we export this 10 second clip to a separate file we are going to simplify things a bit. Go to the Import / Export Preferences, and under When exporting tracks to an audio file uncheck "Show Metadata Editor prior to export step". Metadata Editor adds extra information about the speech or music into the file - see For More Information below to learn more. You can go back to the Import / Export Preferences at any time to re-enable Metadata Editor. Exporting a WAV file - Click on File > Export > Export Audio... - the standard "Save" dialog for your operating system appears. - Give the file a different name. Audacity always suggests a name for the file that is the same as the name of your Audacity project. It is always best to alter this so you do not confuse your exported file with your Audacity project. - Choose a location to save the file in the usual manner. - At the bottom of the Save dialog is a dropdown menu labeled "Format". From this menu choose "WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM". - There are no options for the WAV file format, so there is no need to click the Options button. - Click the Save button to complete the export of your project to a WAV file. Exporting an MP3 file The steps for exporting a file in MP3 format are the same as for a WAV file, except: - In the Save dialog, from the "Format" menu, choose "MP3 files" - Then click the Options button to set the bit rate and other options for the MP3 file. Exercise adapted from: "Tutorial - Editing an Existing Audio File" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 / text and instructions added Editing Tools in Audacity In this section you will learn: - trimming audio to any length - adding silence to audio - remove unwanted background noise from audio - utilize the history tool to reverse mistakes Recall this is the toolbar menu in Audacity "Editing Audio" by David Kwasny & Matthew Humphries, Open Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 We have previously discussed copy, cut, paste, and zooming in and out. Now we will delve into silence and trim. Trimming Audio The ‘Trim’ tool works in the opposite way of the ‘Cut’ tool, and can also be found on the Edit Toolbar. Using ‘Trim’ you will be left with the selected area, and the unselected parts of the clip will be removed. Be careful when using this tool on large audio clips, you might remove more than you intended. Adding Silence Silence does exactly what it sounds like it would do, it silences audio. You can use this as an alternative to cutting parts of your clip, if you would like. It is also a good way of reducing unwanted background noise between dialogue clips. "Editing Audio" by David Kwasny & Matthew Humphries, Open Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Noise Reduction What is Noise Reduction? Noise Reduction can reduce constant background sounds such as hum, whistle, whine, buzz, and "hiss", such as tape hiss, fan noise or FM/webcast carrier noise. It is not suitable for individual clicks and pops, or irregular background noise such as from traffic or an audience. To use Noise Reduction, you need a region in the waveform that contains only the noise you want to reduce. Be aware that it may be impossible to get a satisfactory removal when the noise is very loud, when the noise is variable, when the music or speech is not much louder than the noise or when the noise frequencies are very similar to those of the music or speech. "Noise Reduction" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 How to Perform Noise Reduction Audacity has a great built-in noise reduction tool. To get it to do its job properly, you need to get your hands a bit dirty. So, first you need to get a noise profile which lets Audacity recognize what noise in the file actually is. The profile gives Audacity a baseline from which to work. To get a good noise profile, you need to find a section of the audio file in which there's no talking. This appears as a flat line in Audacity. Several seconds worth of dead air is best. If you don't have that much, use what you can. "How to clean up digital recordings using Audacity" by Scott Nesbitt, OpenSource.com is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 1. Leave a 10 second silence buffer at the beginning or end of your recording to capture the room noise. 2. Click and drag your mouse to highlight a section of dead air. 3. Click Effect > Noise Reduction and then select Get Noise Profile 4. Once you’ve captured the Noise Profile, press CRTL/COMMAND + A to select the entire audio clip. 5. Go back to Effect > Noise Reduction. Leaving the default settings, click Okay and it will remove the background noises from the entire audio track. 6. If you only want the noise reduced for a particular section, only highlight that part with your mouse instead of highlighting your entire track. 7. You can also select a section of audio and press CTRL+L to silence that section of audio. This can also be done using the silence audio button in the toolbar. "Record Audio with Audacity" by University of Guelph Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 History Tool Audacity is a forgiving application. If you are afraid of messing up, relax, because Audacity is designed to let you try something and then undo it if you do not like it, or redo it if you like your first idea after all. This is really the only way to work with audio because it is often hard to judge an effect or other change in context of the entire project until you do it. - Undo/Redo is fast, irrespective of how long the original action took. Use it to listen easily to "before" and "after" versions of your work. - As you apply more actions, the disk space needed to allow Undo/Redo of those actions grows. - The Undo/Redo space usage is discarded on closing the project. - Undo/Redo steps for an open project can be managed in the History window. Only changes that modify the project data can be undone. Changes that cannot be undone include: - Saving or exporting - Changing the track height or the selection or cursor position (these are saved when you save a change that is recorded by Undo/Redo) - Changing preferences settings. he History dialog lets you view and manage all of the actions you have taken since you opened a project. Accessed by View > History... the History dialog window can be resized by clicking and dragging on its borders. Manage History The History list has two columns: - "Action" shows a list of all project states that you can go back or forward to, earliest state first. - "Used Space" shows for each action in the list the amount of disk space that that action used. Space Used - Total space used: Displays the total disk space currently used by the project, which is the total of all the "Used Space" values shown in the History list. - Clipboard space used: This indicates the amount of disk space currently used by the Audacity Clipboard. Buttons - OK button: Accepts the changes made in the History window, if any, and closes the window. - help button, brings you to the appropriate page in the Manual, this page. "History - Undo and Redo" by Audacity 3.3 Manual is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Glossary of Terms and Conclusion Congratulations on reaching the end of the Audacity lesson! We have covered a lot of different terminology, tools, and actions within the software. If you need to ever refresh your understanding of terminology used in Audio Editing, the Audacity Manual has a fantastic glossary of terms: As well, if you need a refresher on best practices for audio narration the following is a useful, short guide: Tips for Recording Audio at Home You've reached the end of Learning Audacity - Recording and Editing Basics. Thank you for reading and good luck!	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.780061	David McNulty	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/98062/overview", "title": "Learning Audacity - Recording and Editing Basics", "author": "Module" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/85677/overview	Library Orientation 5: Credo Reference Overview Part 5 of 15. Introduces Credo Reference. Includes outlines for an assignment and a quiz. Welcome You may want to put your contact information under "Resources." Introduction Credo Reference is a database that houses over 750 full-text reference titles as well as reference media files covering a wide range of general academic topics. Users are particularly fond of the excellent illustrations. This is a great place to start your research and can provide you with overviews that are appropriate to cite in a paper. Objectives - Successfully use Credo Reference to find an appropriate resource. - Create a single annotated bibliography entry based on a resource obtained from Credo Reference. Resources - Library eResources Web page: https://www.sheltonstate.edu/instruction-workforce-development/library-services/eresources/ Readings and Videos Credo Reference is an online database of general reference works provided by Shelton State. It covers everything from art to zoology. To get to Credo Reference: - From the library's main web site, select eResources from the tiled menu or the left-hand menu. - Select Credo Reference from the list. - You will need your MyShelton credentials to use this resource. Searching Credo Reference will provide you with reference book articles, diagrams, artwork, video and audio clips, mind maps, and other resources related to your topic. Searching is easy. Credo also provides their own video content to illustrate the full functions of the tools they provide. Once you are logged in to Credo Reference, scroll to the bottom of the page and there will be a rotating menu of resources that are tool-specific. Two important points: - If you are planning to share an item, be sure to use the share option and not the URL from the address bar, which will expire. - The works cited options contain all of the information you will need to make a citation; however, check the suggested option against whatever resource your instructor wants you to use for citation. There may be some slight differences and your instructor is always right. Assignment Restricting the student to the assignment submission module in your course management software is a second option. Introduction - This assignment will illustrate your ability to utilize Credo Reference to find an appropriate academic research resource. - Completing this assignment will give you one piece of your final annotated bibliography. Submissions will be graded and corrected versions can be used in your final assignment. Objectives - Create an annotated MLA or APA citation for a resource you found on Credo Reference. Instructions - Watch the videos and read the documentation in this module related to Credo Reference. - Navigate to Credo Reference and search using the topic you chose in the discussion from Module 2. - Select a resource that fits your topic and read or watch it. - Using the citation tools provided, select the MLA or APA citation format and copy and paste the citation into the assignment. MLA or APA can be utilized, but be consistent. Use either MLA or APA consistently throughout this class. - Write a brief paragraph that summarizes the resource. - If you have trouble finding a resource, don't hesitate to contact your instructor. Submission Requirements - This assignment can be submitted via email in the text of the message or as a PDF or MS Word attachment. - This assignment is worth 5 points. - 2 points: Proper Citation Format - 3 points: Annotation (spelling and grammar count) Example In your final document, the citation should have a hanging indent, as per the example of the final project. Different databases provide different citation styles, even within the database. Projects for subject-level courses will require you standardize your entries to suit the format that the instructor requires. For this project, you need only copy and paste the citation from the database. MLA: "knitting." World of Art: The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers, Georgina O'Hara Callan, Thames & Hudson, 2nd edition, 2008. Credo Reference, https://sheltonstate.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/thfashion/knitting/0?institutionId=8650. Accessed 18 Aug. 2021. This brief article defines the knitting process. Especially useful are the links to articles that talk about specific knit types and some knitwear. APA: knitting. (2008). In G. O. Callan, World of art: The Thames and Hudson dictionary of fashion and fashion designers (2nd ed.). Thames & Hudson. Credo Reference: https://sheltonstate.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/thfashion/knitting/0?institutionId=8650. This brief article defines the knitting process. Especially useful are the links to articles that talk about specific knit types and some knitwear. Quiz Change the instructions to fit your needs. Use the quiz module of your course management software to ask questions. Here are mine, but you will have to modify them to suit your own library requirements: - Credo Reference is a collection of journal articles. FALSE - You cannot use images from Credo Reference in an academic presentation. FALSE - Credo Reference provides citation help for all of its materials. TRUE - Credo Reference is less reliable than Wikipedia. FALSE - Credo Reference is a collection of reference books. TRUE Introduction This quiz will test your knowledge of Credo Reference. Objectives - Confirm that you have retained key information about Credo Reference. Instructions - There are 5 true-false questions. - You have 15 minutes for this quiz. - Please use the Chrome browser for best performance. - Once you start the quiz, you must complete it; there are 2 attempts. You cannot save to return to later. If you log out, you cannot return to the quiz. - The attempt with the highest score will be graded.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.804439	Homework/Assignment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/85677/overview", "title": "Library Orientation 5: Credo Reference", "author": "Full Course" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/128363/overview	What were people from the past like? Overview Set of three illustrations that encourage students to ask questions about the past and to carry out a process of inquiry to give a broad and reflective response to it. It is structured in three phases based on the three figures that make up the resource: a first one for detecting prior ideas (illustration 1); a second one for developing the investigation (illustration 2); and a third one for conclusion and closure (illustration 3). For further suggestions and tips about how to implement the cases selected in this itinerary, we encourage you to consult the kit for teachers that can be found here: https://www.letheproject.eu/toolkit/ Infographs and helpful materials are provided. A specific teaching itinerary is presented for the development of several history lessons from an active learner who seeks to initiate a reflection in the classroom on the past and its social and cultural characteristics. For this purpose, an itinerary marked by three phases is offered: 1. Figure 1. Starting from initial motivation questions [How do you imagine the people of the past?] and the request for a specific action by the student [Try to recreate a scene from any given day on this street in a city from the Roman era. You can draw or on the Internet, print and cut out, the different people who could have passed through that street] the student is asked to recreate how he imagines the society of the past. The result is usually a homogeneous, masculine, exclusive image, where numerous voices and key social groups are excluded. 2. Figure 2. The student is offered the exploration of different historical cases (8 in particular) developed within the framework of the LETHE project (https://www.letheproject.eu/) which presents the student with 8 situations that show how the past can be diverse and integrate the action of characters that usually do not appear prominently in the historical narratives that appear in textbooks and curricular materials. These cases are developed from a historical research strategy where the student reflects on the past based on the sources and supporting questions that are established. The idea is for the student to reach his or her own conclusions and for the teacher to act as a mediator in the process (more advice on how to apply the pedagogy proposed by LETHE can be found in its manual). 3. Figure 3. Once the students have carried out the various inquiry processes and have reached their own conclusions, we propose an alternative image of what the people of the past could have been like, exemplified in a street in a city during the Roman era. Students will be able to discuss the results of their research and the reasons for the lack of knowledge about the groups represented here.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.823982	03/11/2025	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/128363/overview", "title": "What were people from the past like?", "author": "Laura Arias-Ferrer" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/122968/overview	ENGL 2860: Introduction to Film Course Common Cartridge Overview This resource contains a downloadable common cartridge file for ENGL 2860: Intorduction to Film. The entire course is a true OER remix, containing original OER materials as well as OERs adopted or adapted from other authors. The course includes links to films via Motlow's Kanopy Collection as well as videos, lectures, gloassries, assessments, and rubrics.. The course is an overview of film history using selected works from world cinema and introduces the basic elements of film expression and analysis while also examining how films reflect their cultural and historical context and the extent to which films reflect the diversity of human experience across multiple time periods and cultural perspectives. Project Planning Our OER Goals & Purpose: Why are you doing this OER Project and what are you hoping to accomplish? Our Audience: Who are you designing this OER Project for and what are their learning needs and preferences? Our Team: Who is on your OER Project Team and what are their roles and responsibilities? Existing Resources: What existing resources can you utilize for your OER Project? You can curate these resources in our Group Folders New Resources: What new resources will you need for your OER Project? Supports Needed: What additional supports do you need to complete your OER Project? Do you need to gather more research and data to inform the design of your OER Project? Our Timeline: What deadlines do you have for your OER Project deliverables? OER Project needs to be piloted by Spring 2025 term and uploaded to the TBR Group on the Tennessee Open Education Hub by January 15, 2025 Tennessee Open Education Planning We aim to add a General Education Core Humanities option at Motlow through the creation of an Introduction to Film course. This course will leverage students' existing knowledge and experience with film, a Fine Art, to provide a Humanities option that engages students and offers practical, real-world applications. We anticipate this will enhance student excitement and positively impact retention and progression. Our course targets incoming freshmen who must complete learning support requirements and need general education core courses without prerequisites to register as full-time students. It offers an additional Humanities option that builds on students' familiarity with film, making it potentially more appealing. The course will be designed to accommodate students in learning support courses by including assessments that do not require extensive experience with academic writing. The team collaborated on course outcomes. Team leader, Wes Spratlin, is responsible for the selection of the primary and secondary texts in the course. Dr. Will Murphy is responsible for the creation of unit and module objectives as well as ensuring that assessments align with module, unit, course, and TBR Fine Arts/Humanities Outcomes. Our existing resources include the following: Sharman, Russell, Moving Pictures: An Introduction to Cinema, https://uark.pressbooks.pub/movingpictures/ Moss, Yelizaveta and Candice Wilson, Film Appreciation, https://alg.manifoldapp.org/projects/film-appreciation Various resources available via YouTube In terms of new resources, we are creating weekly module Terms/Concepts Glossaries that will provide the module’s major terms and concepts along with definitions and examples in the form of still pictures or brief videos. As much as possible, these examples will feature stills and clips form the primary film featured in the module for that week. For example, Module 5 focuses on Truffaut’s, The 400 Blows, and introduces the concept of camera movement, so the definition of a Tracking Shot in the weekly glossary will feature the famous low-angle tracking shot that opens The 400 Blows Regarding needed support, our Dean of Libraries is using her budget to subscribe to Kanopy, a widely-used subscription service for academic and public library patrons. Kanopy will not provide the students with the 12 primary films we will cover in the class, but it’s clip feature will allow us to create clips from those films for use in our module Terms/Concepts Glossaries. In addition, we will need the help of various Motlow State departments and offices to promote the course and to educate students, faculty, Success Coaches, and Advisors regarding the course before pre-registration for the spring semester. In terms of course design/delivery assessment, we will rely on guidance and assistance from Motlow’s Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we are relying on TBR’s General Education Core Committee to provide guidance toward the acceptance of the course as a Humanities option at Motlow for the 2025-2026 catalog. Our Timeline: Aug. 30 Meet with Nancy Stano for update/consultation Sept. 5 Meet with Academic Technologies regarding Kanopy app and Motlow Hub Sept. 10 Meet with Academic. Affairs to ensure 2024-25 catalog is correct Sept. 15 Submit application to TBR for Humanities designation Oct. 1 Meet with Student Success to discuss how to advertise course for spring Oct. 7 Submit application for Global Awareness HIP designation Oct. 15 All course materials finished and added to shell Oct. 15 Present course to Nancy Stano for feedback Oct. 15 Present course to select ENGL and Humanities faculty for feedback Dec. 1 Upload course to TN Open Ed Programs & Projects site Jan. 13 Formally present course to Languages and Humanities faculty Course Description This course provides an overview of film history using selected works from world cinema. The course introduces the basic elements of film expression and analysis while also examining film’s social impact as a medium and demonstrating the diversity of human experience across multiple time periods and cultural perspectives. Reflection Please reflect and share any observations and insights you noticed as a result of this OER Project, such as student engagement and impact.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:39:49.854697	Wes Spratlin	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/122968/overview", "title": "ENGL 2860: Introduction to Film Course Common Cartridge", "author": "Full Course" }

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