For the past few weeks, we’ve been having the conversations on Open Education Repositories (OERs) and Digital Literacy/Citizenship. In terms of OERs, I’ve not done my best in terms of searching for and through OERs for lesson resources. The little bit of research I have done, has revealed a huge need for high-quality materials relevant to my field of instruction. I found myself getting frustrated with how little was out there that I would create my own materials.

In terms of digital literacy, I annually commit to teaching Digital Literacy/Citizenship to all of my students as my first unit of lessons. The conversations we start continue throughout the year and my aim is for my students to grow with the topics we explore so that they are competent in navigating technology, but are also cultivating an online community with their peers where they feel safe and respected. I am in a position of privilege in the sense that I am the technology teacher at our school, and I have time to teach these lessons. What about the everyday classroom teacher who is trying to juggle multiple courses? I see my colleagues and other teachers from different schools struggling to tackle the issues with a long-term goal in mind, or find the appropriate resources for them to use that are both age appropriate and topical.

Considering the intersectionality of OERs and Digital Literacy, where do we go from here? Where should a teacher go looking for Digital Literacy/Citizenship resources in an OER, especially when teachers will often default to accessing places like Teachers Pay Teachers?

Below are a few open educational resources on Digital Literacy/Citizenship that teachers can access and utilize in their classroom:

Despite the small collection listed, there is a lot of effective lessons available to suit a myriad of grade levels. I have been using these websites more and more to inform my practice. In terms of where I can go moving forward, I would like to find more OERs that are rich in high quality resources for many different contexts, and are appealing to access for teachers. I would like to move away from places like Teachers Pay Teachers, and rely/contribute to OERs. My commitment lies with expanding my horizons to digital spaces where teachers can share resources freely, rather than through subscriptions and pay walls.