OER

Open educational resources (OER) are digital materials that can be re-used for teaching, learning, research and more, made available free through open licenses, which allow uses of the materials that would not be easily permitted under copyright alone. They allow teacher's to find free classroom material easily and effectively. Students alike also have access to these materials and can virtually create their own classes and what they want to learn. However, I do see some scary parts about OER. First of, since the information is free, it might not be up-to-date or some material might not be that strong. On the brighter side of things, it is another cheap option for schooling, to try and gain college credits. 

As a future learner, I might look to OERs to try and find information about topics I want to know more about but, don't get a chance to learn about in my college classes. I also feel like it would be another way to look up information for papers. As a student, I'm surprised I haven't heard about this sooner. College tuition and books are so expensive but with Open Educational Resources, text books can be free or extremely cheap. Also with the link I mentioned earlier, really cheap college credits can be earned online. Lastly, as a future teacher, Open Educational Resources gives me access to all different kinds of lesson plans that I can use in my classroom. Other teachers often post classroom activity and homework ideas that I'm sure will become very helpful once I'm a teacher. Knowing that these resources are on hand, makes the stress of becoming a teacher a little less scary.