Episode 1: District Leader Dan McDowell Talks Benefits of PreK-12 OER

For the inaugural episode of Revise, Remix, Redesign, Kristina Ishmael interviews Dan McDowell, the Director of Learning & Innovation with Grossmont Union High School District in San Diego, California. Dan has been part of the K-12 OER movement since its inception in October 2015. His leadership in bringing open educational resources (OER) to Grossmont has lead to many benefits for students, teachers, and families.

Kristina's main takeaway from this interview was around the benefits that Dan has seen in the district with the teachers leading this work: first, camaraderie between teachers who may never have previously worked together, second, in-depth analysis of teaching practices, and third, a profound sense of ownership in the content that they built. These three pieces are things that may never have happened without Grossmont’s commitment to transitioning to OER in place of traditional instructional materials.