VIENNA, Va., Feb. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) will host a webinar on Thursday, February 16, guiding online teachers on how to implement open educational resources (OER) in the classroom.

The webinar, "Easy as 1,2,3: A Primer on Using Open Education Resources to Create Lessons, Activities and Courses," will address best practices in using OER, which are learning materials that are produced and vetted by experts to be made available online for free through open licenses, allowing for the content to be easily accessed and shared for the purpose of personalizing instruction for students.

"In an iNACOL survey of institutional members, 100 percent of district online and blended learning programs responding used a combination of open educational resources and digital content to better individualize instruction for students," said Susan Patrick, President and CEO of iNACOL.  "Teachers are interested in personalizing instruction for student learning and expanding resources beyond traditional textbooks.  States, districts and schools have successfully implemented OER and are finding significant benefits, including personalization of learning, creating engaging and relevant resources and building upon collaborative knowledge to help students succeed."

"It is our hope that this webinar will serve as a useful resource for both new and experienced educators to gain a better understanding of OER as an important building block for curriculum," said Patrick.

The webinar will provide online teachers with insights and lessons learned from their peers at Open High School of Utah, a 400-student public charter school, which has successfully developed and shared open courses over the past three years.

Open High School of Utah faculty sharing their OER experiences during the webinar will include: DeLaina Tonks, Director; Sarah Weston, Curriculum Director; Crystal Van Ausdal, geometry and precalculus teacher; and Sara Layton, English 12, AP English literature & composition and ACT/SAT prep teacher.

The webinar will be held Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.  To register, please visit: http://www.inacol.org/events/webinar/teacher_talk.php.

About iNACOL

iNACOL is the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a non-profit 501(c)(3) membership association based in the Washington, DC area with more than 3,800 members. iNACOL is unique in that its members represent a diverse cross-section of K-12 education from school districts, charter schools, state education agencies, non-profit organizations, colleges, universities and research institutions, corporate entities and other content and technology providers (www.inacol.org). iNACOL is host to the annual Virtual School Symposium (VSS). VSS 2012 is scheduled for Oct. 21-24, 2012, in New Orleans, LA (www.virtualschoolsymposium.org).

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.
Susan Patrick
ProfNet - http://www.profnetconnect.com/susanpatrick

SOURCE The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL)

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