How to sort the good from the bad in OER
Online resources are overflowing, but reliable means to evaluate them and help teachers use them are rare
The need for reliable evaluation has become more urgent with the flood of new, often free, online materials.
a few OER sources provide teacher support (aka professional development) in their offerings. Among them:
UnboundEd, a nonprofit created to continue the work of the Engage NY curriculum developers;
Open Up Resources, a nonprofit whose K-5 English Language Arts curriculum and middle-school math curriculum have both received top ratings from
EdReports, an evaluator;
Great Minds, which makes the highly popular Eureka Math curriculum, and
IBM Watson’s Teacher Advisor
The Learning Commons, a new, free website that will gather curated professional development resources
Both the federal Department of Education and ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) also offer information about quality resources on their respective websites.