GINO FRANSMAN

NELSON MANDELA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY (NMMU)

ACADEMIC LITERACIES AND WRITING

How to use an Open Educational Resource (OER) in

your teaching and learning practice: Writing

How to use an OER in your teaching and learning practice: Writing

by Gino Fransman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike

4.0 International License.

One example found via:

OER Commons Use OER: try this free online rubric to get students reflecting on

content you need them to engage with. http://www.oercommons.org/courses/primary-source-analysis-tool/view

Facilitates to Observe, Reflect, Question – each common instructional words encountered in academic writing

Cues to respond to under each instructional wordBuild a response one cue at a time, structures response Email the completed draft writing (to student and educator if

selected) Excellent facility to review and edit draft writing electronically, and

then to submit

The 8 wri ting p rom pts un der ‘Re fle ct’

1. What was the purpose of this text?2. Who created it?3. Who do you think was its audience?4. Can you tell anything about what was important at the

time it was made?5. What tools and materials were used to create it?6. What is the larger story or context within which this

was printed?7. What can you learn from examining this?8. If someone created this today, what would be

different?

There are other prompts under Observe and Question...

The book, The History of Mankind, looks at the evolution of man, from a scientific perspective. It is therefore strange that a Christian priest wrote this book. The intended audience may have been scientists seeking a theological perspective, it’s not clear. At the time the book was written, in 2005, severe religious tensions had begun to spread around the world. His perspective was fuelled largely by the increased popularity of using social media. The book does seem compiled through lots of research, which is intimidating at times. This was also the subject of its greatest criticism. The book tries to tell the larger human story, but fails as it appears stuck in religion, or more specifically, in Christianity. It does not even acknowledge previous religions in human history. We can all learn that perspectives are just that, perspectives. People will always have something they prioritise as the truth. It needn't always require group approval to be important to someone. If the book had been written today (2015), instead of in 2005, it would probably be written in sms spelling, and ask people to contribute their opinions while it was being written. This would have been far more relevant to what many think today, instead of what this book really is, the opinion of one man.

An example of a written submission, after following the 8 guiding questions under ‘reflect’.

1 Sentence per prompt resulted in this

Scoopit Curation Pages:

http://www.scoop.it/t/academic-literacy-development

&

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-graduate-literacies

Try it for yourself, and explore it for student writing tasks.

Gino FransmanAcademic Development Professional

 Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU)Centre for Teaching Learning and Media (CTLM)Summerstrand South CampusBuilding 10, Office -01 14Tel: +27 (0)41 504 2927Email: Gino.Fransman@nmmu.ac.zaTwitter: @ginofransman

How to use an OER in your teaching and learning practice: Writing by Gino Fransman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-

ShareAlike 4.0 International License.