Tennessee Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen announced Thursday the launch of a statewide #GoOpen initiative, making Tennessee one of the states recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for a commitment to supporting school districts and educators in offering high-quality, openly licensed educational resources in schools.
As a #GoOpen state, Tennessee will provide educators access to a large collection of high-quality, digital teaching and professional development resources that can be easily used without the burden of restrictive commercial licenses and will develop a statewide repository of openly licensed resources.
Participating in #GoOpen will allow Tennessee educators to easily collaborate and share resources with each other, regardless of geographical area, officials said.
“Tennessee is excited to join the #GoOpen movement to improve learning outcomes for our students by providing educators with high-quality educational resources,” Comm. McQueen said. “Tennessee is committed to personalizing instruction for all students, and the role of digital content through #GoOpen is an important part of our strategy.”
Since the launch of #GoOpen, 12 school districts across the country have been identified as #GoOpen Ambassador Districts. The Ambassador Districts have experience using openly licensed educational resources in place of traditional instructional materials and are mentoring #GoOpen Launch Districts that are beginning this transition. Two of the #GoOpen Ambassador Districts are in Tennessee: Tullahoma City Schools and Bristol City Schools.
“The #GoOpen initiative provides a tremendous opportunity for Tennessee schools and districts,” Tullahoma City Schools Director Dan Lawson said. “I am thrilled that our state is embracing a leadership role in the #GoOpen movement. Our active involvement as a state will provide access to exceptional open educational resources—regardless of where a school is located or their budget. I look forward to seeing the content that Tennessee educators create and share through #GoOpen.”
"Tennessee’s existing strategy to embrace digital content supports the #GoOpen goal of expanding and accelerating the adoption of openly licensed educational resources for pre-K–12. For example, the Tennessee Department of Education recently launched a pilot program which makes high-quality, editable content for Algebra I and Integrated Math available to Tennessee educators. This pilot is the state’s first attempt to embrace openly licensed material and is a natural precursor to participation in the #GoOpen movement," officials said.