Windward Fund – The Mosaic Initiative

The Mosaic Initiative, a project under the Windward Fund, is focused on enhancing the environmental sector’s infrastructure. This project aims to build stronger connections within the community by investing in critical areas such as communication strategies, leadership development, essential tools and training, industry insights, and fostering partnerships among organizations and local communities.

Open Educational Resources

One of the most rewarding aspects of my role is engaging with dedicated individuals who passionately support educators and students. Often, I connect with grantees who have been involved in Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives for years, and I gain valuable insights from their experiences and the evolution of their work. This year, as part of an update to our OER strategy, I’ve also made a deliberate effort to listen to those who are new to open education or are curious yet cautious about OER’s potential to address key educational challenges. These interactions have helped identify ways we can better support and strengthen efforts in advancing open education.

Across my discussions, one recurring message is clear: the goals of effective teaching and learning should drive the adoption of OER.

While increasing student access to resources has consistently motivated our work, we haven’t always succeeded in equipping educators or students to use OER in ways that maximize learning. Our ultimate goal is to work with communities and educators to ensure that every student—regardless of location, background, or financial status—has the resources and support needed to succeed in today’s society and economy. OER is one approach to make sure access to learning materials isn’t a barrier, and open educational practices can integrate the social and academic supports that foster adaptive and inclusive instruction. Only then will students see themselves as capable problem-solvers.

In conversations with colleagues, it’s also apparent that we still have progress to make to reach this goal. Although we’ve supported the development of OER content and platforms, access alone isn’t enough. Effective and equitable use of OER requires investment in people as much as content. Changing culture and practices among educators isn’t sufficient; we also need evidence-based strategies to understand how, and under what circumstances, open education resources and practices truly improve outcomes for students. Furthermore, we need transparency in our approach, such as ensuring that any technical infrastructure supporting OER provides “learning analytics” that foster collaborative, data-driven teaching while protecting student data.

Data-Driven Teaching

While we are drawing early conclusions about the challenges in the field, our task is to determine how we, as a foundation, are uniquely positioned to address these issues.

In a recent discussion with our education team, several key questions generated significant interest:

• How can we focus our grantmaking to empower educators to use open education resources and practices more effectively to enhance student learning?
• How can we raise awareness among educators unfamiliar with open education, or who doubt its effectiveness, so they understand its potential to meet their needs and the needs of their students?
• How can we support K-12 districts and higher education systems in using OER to systematically improve teaching and learning?

These questions will likely continue to evolve, but they are already helping guide our initial thinking on goals and outcomes for the new strategy. They highlight the need to keep educators and their needs at the heart of our work. For instance, in K-12 education, we may aim to see more districts adopt and implement OER with aligned professional development for teachers. In postsecondary education, both in the U.S. and globally, progress could involve expanded institutional support for inclusive and innovative classroom practices with OER, including through teaching and learning centers and libraries.

New directions for our Performing Arts grantmaking

Americans, as a whole, value the richness that art, in its multiple forms, brings to. Our grants to artists and arts organizations go to projects that have a positive it does not fully reflect some of the new directions undertaken in recent months.

Open Educational Resources

Perhaps the best an aspect of my responsibilities is finding a good pace various individuals who are profoundly dedicated to supporting teachers and understudies. Now and again it’s grantees who have been dealing with Open Educational Resources (OER) activities for quite a while, and I love gaining from their experiences about how their work has advanced throughout the years. As a major aspect of the invigorate of Hewlett’s OER methodology this year, I additionally have attempted to be increasingly purposeful about tuning in to individuals who are new to open instruction, or who are interested yet doubtful about the capability of OER to address the most squeezing difficulties in training. This encourages me to find out about ways we can improve and fortify how we bolster gatherings to propel open training.

All through the entirety of my discussions this year, one predictable message is that the objectives of powerful instructing and learning should drive OER selection.

While improving understudy access to materials has consistently been a spark for our work, we haven’t constantly worked superbly of preparing instructors or understudies to utilize OER in manners that boost learning. At last, we are meaning to work with networks and instructors to guarantee that each student, regardless of where they live, what they resemble, or how a lot of cash they have, has the office, assets and backing to prevail in the 21st century society and economy. OER is one approach to ensure that entrance to instructional materials are not a boundary to learning, and open instructive practices can exemplify the social and academic backings that reflect responsive guidance. At exactly that point will students consider themselves to be skilled and fit issue solvers.

The social and academic backings

My conversations with associates in the field likewise have uncovered that we are as yet far away from understanding this objective. Despite the fact that we have bolstered the improvement of OER substance and stages, get to alone isn’t sufficient. Impartial and powerful utilization of OER requires an interest in individuals just as substance. Honestly, it isn’t sufficient to move culture and practice among teachers—we have to create proof based methodologies that illuminate how and under what conditions open instruction assets and practices really bring about various and better results for understudies. Furthermore, we need straightforwardness by they way we approach this work, for example by ensuring that any specialized foundation for OER that gives “learning examination” bolsters cooperative, information driven instructing and secures understudy information.

Information driven instructing

• While we are arriving at some early decisions about difficulties in the field, our assignment is to make sense of how the Hewlett Foundation is extraordinarily situated to address these difficulties.
• In an ongoing discussion with our own instruction group, my associates communicated the most vitality around these inquiries:
• How might we center our grantmaking with the goal that our work all the more deliberately empowers teachers to utilize open instruction assets and practices to upgrade understudy learning?

How might we bring issues to light about open instruction among teachers who don’t think about it or don’t think it is powerful with the goal that they comprehend its capability to address their issues and the requirements of their understudies?

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How might we bolster areas and advanced education frameworks to utilize OER to methodicallly improve instructing and learning?

I expect these inquiries will advance in the months to come, yet they have been valuable for managing early considering objectives and results for the new system and they signal a requirement for the new technique to keep teachers and their needs at the focal point of our work. For instance, in K-12 instruction, we may plan to see more regions embrace and execute OER with adjusted proficient improvement underpins for instructors. In postsecondary training in the US and universally, progress would incorporate expanded institutional help for comprehensive and inventive study hall practice with OER (e.g., through educating and learning focuses and libraries).