Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

This guest blog has been kindly contributed by Professor Neil Morris, Chair in Educational Technology, School of Education, University of Leeds. He can be found at @NeilMorrisLeeds

The Unbundled University research project, funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC grant number ES/P002102/1) and the National Research Foundation in South Africa (NRF grant number 105395), explored a range of issues in relation to the expansion of online education in universities in the UK and South Africa, including partnerships with private companies and the disaggregation of learning and teaching materials for delivery online (‘unbundling’).

Data were collected from interviews with senior leaders, academics, students and private companies in both countries. The data are being written up for publication in academic journals, but given the rapid shift to focus on online education as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is evident that some of the headlines from the research need to be put in the public domain rapidly.

Back with another excellent resource from OER Commons. This is basically a collection featuring over 4000 free resources aligned to the Common Core. Teachers can use, share and even design their own materials to share with others. 

Instructables is an educational website and mobile app where you can have access to a treasure trove of instructional videos and how-to guides covering a wide variety of topics from science experiments to amazing inventions. If you need some new ideas for your next classroom maker project, Instructables offers a library of over 100k of do-it-yourself projects created and shared by members of the community which amount to 2 million members. 

Every teacher needs good quality resources they can use to cover course material effectively. With so many online lesson planning options out there, it can be hard to know which ones to use. The following sites provide easy-to-find lesson plans for teachers that are entertaining, engaging and informative, so teachers can save time planning and spend more time individualizing lessons for their students!

The DRL collects high quality texts in philosophy written by authors from under-represented groups. Our aim is to make it easier for you to find such texts and use them in your teaching. Browse, search, include, and help make philosophy a discipline of equal opportunity! Read more on our About page

Search thousands of free and paid learning resources across hundreds of sites. Whether you're homeschooling or supplementing your child's education, search our database of free and paid education resources to find the right one for you, your kids, and your budget.

An amazing selection of maths resources, including printables, interactives and tools on a full range of topics.

Look at the reference list for your latest few articles or presentations. How many of the people you are citing are people like you, how many people different from you? How many are dominant (white, male, straight, you name it) and how many are marginal in some way? If you’re active there, look at your recent Twitter interactions, how diverse are those? Now look at your blogroll, the authors you follow regularly (if you don’t read blogs). How diverse are they? Why does this matter?

Find Lesson Plans created by teachers like you! These innovative, tech-rich lesson plans combine great digital tools and inspiring teaching practices. Watch our video to learn more, or click "Create Your Own Lesson Plan" below to get started.

Not every performance challenge needs to be answered with an e-learning course. Here are some creative alternatives to a standard e-learning course.

The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and too many others are forcing the country to reconcile with the injustices that plague our systems. As educators, it’s our responsibility to educate students about systemic racism. It’s also our job to give students a place to talk about how it affects their lives.

In response to the murder of George Floyd, my nonprofit, Teaching Matters, organized three webinars for educators to discuss how to talk about racism in the classroom. As an Afro-Cuban education consultant, I wanted to address the varied concerns both white and non-white teachers held. In leading the webinars, I was joined by fellow education consultants at Teaching Matters.

Teachers may sometimes feel overwhelmed by the multitude of resources available online. It might take one a tremendous amount of time to sift through and locate required materials to use in class, which is a taxing task for the already overburdened teacher. To this end, and to help teachers make better use of their time and resources we have curated for you some of the best free websites that provide a treasure trove of educational content most of which is created and shared by fellow teachers and educators. From ready-made lesson plans and study guides to practice exercises and EdTech tools, the websites below provide you with the resources you need to enhance your teaching/learning and grow professionally. This work is also available for free download in PDF format.

Thanks to Esther Grassian for highlighting Media Literacy Resources: A collection of resources to support media literacy in the classroom which "was compiled in conjunction with the California School Library Association (CSLA) and KQED in fulfillment of the requirements set forth in Senate Bill 830: to ensure that young adults are prepared with media literacy skills necessary to safely, responsibly, and critically consume and use social media and other forms of media.

We have recently received a few requests from teachers asking about websites where they can search for and access educational documentaries. Here is our updated list of what we would recommend in this regard. YouTube, which is not featured here, is also another great resource for educational documentaries and there are several channels created by teachers for teachers which can be used for this purpose, check out this page to learn more.

When it comes to locating educational content for a PC-powered VR headset like a Vive, Rift or WMR, it can be a little tricky for three main reasons:
1. There are multiple app stores to find content and some of the content can only be found in certain app stores.

2. Not all the stores have an easy to find Education section.

3. Some content which would be great in the classroom isn’t actually tagged as educational.

Get free K-12 video lessons; mobile apps; audiobooks, ebooks and textbooks; foreign language lessons; test prep materials; and web resources for kids!