Ask HN Teachers and Edu Hackers : How do you prepare educational materials?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4265529

by shotti • 14 years ago

8 11 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Do you copy and paste text books? or Do you have any system where people can share educational materials in schools? I'll really appreciate if you share your way to do it!

tokenadult• 14 years ago

United States copyright law matters where I teach. (Most countries these days have somewhat similar laws about what the United States calls "fair use" and the somewhat different concept of what teachers are licensed by law to do for preparing classroom materials, but that can vary a bit from country to country.) Because United States law is reasonably generous to teachers,

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ21.pdf

http://www.teachingcopyright.org/curriculum/hs

I do make use of copyrighted materials to prepare class handouts (especially), but because there are restrictions of reproductions of materials even for teachers, I generally prefer to use materials that have been put on the Web specifically for use by other teachers. That's because then I know there is a license from the copyright holder for the use I intend.

There are at least two organizations now for sharing classroom materials, one a commercial service that charges fees,

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/

and one coordinated as a nonprofit organization, for sharing free materials,

http://www.sharemylesson.com/

but when I visit those sites, I rarely find anything suitable for my classes, so I usually do direct searches by subject on Google, sometimes site-restricting to sites of educational institutions, to find suitable materials for my classes.

glimcat• 14 years ago

"I rarely find anything suitable for my classes, so I usually do direct searches by subject on Google, sometimes site-restricting to sites of educational institutions, to find suitable materials for my classes."

Can you clarify why they're not suitable? Or are there any patterns in your unmet needs?

Which issues are most frustrating for you, or take up annoyingly large chunks of your time?

There are lots of people here who are interested in working on educational problems, either in a commercial or non-commercial context.

japhyr4• 14 years ago

Can you clarify why they're not suitable? Or are there any patterns in your unmet needs?

Most lesson-plan sites I have seen are poorly executed. Organizing educational materials is a difficult problem:

- For example, consider Wikipedia. Wikipedia has a simple rule that there can only be one article per topic. This focuses people's thoughts around building one high-quality article for their favorite topics. You can't do that for education. There are a number of different ways to teach most skills and concepts, and we need that variety if we want to offer high-quality education to everyone.

- Once you accept that there are a number of ways to teach any one topic, you can see how hard it might be to collect "unit plans", or whatever you'd like to call them. A good approach would probably involve defining "pathways" through a series of topics.

- Many lesson plan sites are just plain incomplete as well. People see the need for improvement, build a site, and expect teachers to magically fill in all the content.

- Every lesson plan site I've seen has been poorly organized, incomplete, over-commercialized, or some combination of these.

If anyone thinks there is a site that addresses these issues effectively, I'd love to hear about it.

japhyr4• 14 years ago

I am curious why you are asking this. Are you a teacher wondering what others do, or are you a hacker looking to build something in the education field?

Education is one field where tech solutions have a long way to go. I believe copyright and cost are two issues that need to be thought about carefully in any ed-related technology venture.

For example, I am pretty sure most teachers still do all their lesson planning using word processing software, which is like architects working in MS Paint. Teachers need a well-designed lesson planning tool. That tool needs to be open-source to see widespread use, for a number of reasons.

I am excited to see where ed tech goes in the next 10 or 20 years. Tell us a little more about what you are thinking, and I'd love to share some more specific thoughts.

uvtc3• 14 years ago

When I was teaching, having a detailed lesson plan was the least of my work. Just a handful of bullet points was fine.

What takes the most time when you're teaching is grading.

Also time-consuming: documenting discipline issues and parent contact. And, when you're new: creating worksheets/problem-sets, lab handouts, quizzes, tests, and exams.

gawker• 14 years ago

Might I ask how do you go about creating those worksheets/problem-sets, etc?

I've noticed in Staples that they have paper templates for those but I'm wondering if anyone actually uses them at all.

japhyr4• 14 years ago

When I was teaching, having a detailed lesson plan was the least of my work. Just a handful of bullet points was fine.

I half-agree with this. I don't need to work from a script, but if you want to do really high-quality work with students your plans need to be laid out pretty carefully. Students should be able to produce professional-level work in high school, in their area of highest interest and ability. We need to do some pretty well thought-out planning to help students work at that level. Once the planning is done, I work from bullet points. But at some point, for consistently high-quality curriculum, we need more than bullet points.

What takes the most time when you're teaching is grading.

I disagree with this. Certainly many teachers spend a lot of time grading. But with good use of peer feedback and modeling, grading does not need to dominate a teacher's time.

Also time-consuming: documenting discipline issues and parent contact.

Yes, although education is a holistic profession. The better we plan and deliver meaningful learning experiences, the fewer discipline issues we have.

shotti• 14 years ago

We're entrepreneurs trying to improve edu with tech. >For example, I am pretty sure most teachers still do all their lesson planning using word processing software, which is like architects working in MS Paint

I love this analogy! I'd say it's like programmers working in TextEdit though. Can you tell me your opinion about lesson planning tools in detail?

japhyr4• 14 years ago

I wrote a post about this topic a while back, "Why do programmers have better tools than educators?"

http://peak5390.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/why-do-programmers-...

uvtc3• 14 years ago

Do your students have textbooks?

Regarding worksheets/quizzes/etc., you usually either write your own, or else --- to get you started --- borrow from other teachers in your school who are teaching the same subject.

Ask HN Teachers and Edu Hackers : How do you prepare educational materials?

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