Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources or OERs are free or extemely low cost online educational materials,  and according to 7 Things You Should Know about... Open Educational Resources these include textbooks, games, quizzes, and basically any other education related material. OERs are provided by universities, professionals, and publishers. Open Educational Resources are available to everyone. They can be used by educators to help teach a class or by an individual as a refresher or just for personal interest.

I searched for some OERs that would be beneficial to me both as a student and as a future elementary educator. OER Commons was helpful and provided OERs both for the primary grades and the post secondary level. The homepage included a list of all the different subjects, grade levels and also the type (ie: lesson plans, sllyabi, games, textbooks, etc.) of open educational resources that one could search for on the site. This source, Internet Archive, was more geared to to secondary advanced or post secondary courses. It inlcuded course ware for physics, calculus and higher level history and government courses. This would be helpful to those who sometime struggle with math or science and need extra practice or explanations, which would include myself. YouTube also has many videos for the primary grades that explain many different concepts that would be helpful to teachers of the elementary students.

I have discovered some other helpful sources explaining Open Educational Resources, here they are:

The OERS- Open Educational Resources This is a YouTube video explaining open educational resources and what they are.
40 Open Educational Resources You Should Know About This site includes many resources for children or elementary school educators.
Classroom Aid An extensive list, mostly of different sites that offer free online textbooks for all levels of education.