

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

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!
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japhyr
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.

~~~
uvtc
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
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.

~~~
uvtc
You mean what tools did I use? LaTeX.

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tokenadult
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
"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.

~~~
japhyr
_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.

------
uvtc
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.

