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With nearly 200 free software applications, this new update is just jammed full of awesome free tools and tons of insights into how to use them in your courses and classrooms! If you’ve followed EmergingEdTech for a few years now,
"Everyone is talking about a digital curriculum free of those hard copy textbooks that have been a part of schooling since the advent of the one room schoolhouse. In this series I will investigate some resources that can open up a world of digital curricula. In this second post of the series, I’ll examine the idea of Open Education Resources."
Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators. Happy Open Education Week! We are happy to announce that the School of Open community has launched its first set of courses...
"In our experience working with people and communities around open content, one of the misconceptions we see regularly is that the process of creating open content differs from creating content that is not openly licensed. Fortunately, content is content; and if you have ever created a resource for use in your class, a piece of documentation, a video, a podcast, a blog post, shared a picture online, etc, then you have done the same type of work you will need to do to release openly licensed content."
If you are looking for a list of locations to locate open course materials check out this post. After discussing Massive Online Open Course (as in MOOC) they post turns to Top Universities and Program - sharing some of the leading platforms today as well as partnerships with other universities and colleges. It then goes on to share sources for open content: * Libraries and Archives * Databases and Search Engines * Podcasts and Lectures * Subscription Services Chances are you may find a link or two (or more) to some open course materials you have not seen in the past. Unfortunately (and not addressed in this post) a number of sites have posted that Flat World Knowledge will not be offering free textbooks beginning in January 2013. They were one of the first sites to offer open education resources. It appears that venture capital has come into play and may be a reason for this shift.
Are you looking for open education resources geared to high school students? Check out this post. Links are provided for resources in science and math, comprehensive modular resources, grade-level collections, history, some higher education, as well as some free resources. Many of this have been mentioned at one point or another in this Scoop.it but there are some new ones!
Digital textbooks are in the news these days. Many publishers are providing digital textbooks at a cost. However, Boundless has "just launched the public beta version of its brand new site. What is Boundless? It’s a way to easily turn all of the open source information that exists in the world into a simple easy-to-use digital textbook. And it’s free." Boundless uses open source materials to create their digital textbooks. Additional digital resources are also generated. For more information on how it works check out this article, or go directly to the Boundless website to sign up: http://www.boundless.com/.
Do you have questions about what Open Education is and why it matters? Would you like to be able to share information on why using Open Educational Resources (OER) has benefits and opportunities for teachers, students and schools? Check out the three videos that are the winners of the 'Why Open Education Matters' video contest sponsored by Creative Commons, the U.S. Department of Education and the Open Society Foundation. All are short (~ 3 minutes or less) and provide a great overview on Open Education. And all are open source! Share, remix, rebuild, educate yourself and others on the value of Open Education.
When people talk about open educational resources (OER) they often state that the use of OER will save money. In this study "20 middle and high school science teachers...adopted open textbooks to understand the process and determine the overall costs of such an adoption." The conclusion states: "Simply substituting open textbooks for traditional textbooks did not appear to have an effect on student test scores...One area of particular interest is the teachers whose classes saw relatively large (23% and 14%) increases in their CRT scores after adopting open textbooks. One of these teachers said, “The better students write in their textbooks more.” If this comment turns out to be representative of a broader phenomenon, we hypothesize that student test scores will improve when professional development is provided to teachers to help them understand the new activities and pedagogies made possible by the open textbooks (e.g., students highlighting and taking notes directly in their books)." Additional information may be found in the article.
"Schools are moving from creamy to chunky — but not in relation to cafeteria peanut butter. The change in texture is happening with content. Instruction that was structured linearly, captured in books that were all-inclusive monoliths with a predetermined progression for a uniform, somewhat “creamy” consistency, is shifting to newer forms of instructional content that are more “chunky,” beginning as a scattered landscape of digital pieces that are then assembled to support full courses." And the Open Educational Resources (OER) is a key component of this change. Four core factors are explored in this post: Price, Availability, Discoverability and Flexibility. Read on for more information.
"Creative Commons licenses are enabling an international partnership of accredited universities, colleges and polytechnics to provide free learning opportunities for students worldwide with pathways to formal academic credit. The OER university (OERu) will create a parallel learning universe for learners who cannot afford a tertiary education by offering CC-licensed courses — with the opportunity to acquire formal academic credit at greatly reduced cost when compared to full-tuition studies." Currently the "anchor partners have shortlisted 8 university and college-level courses...as prototypes for refining the...delivery system." Additional information on this may also be found at WikiEducator (http://wikieducator.org/OER_university/CC_empowers_the_OERu_to_provide_free_learning_towards_formal_academic_credit)
Simple - Great OER content is out there. Gather that content, stitch it together, and engage learners w/o reinventing the wheel. Stretchy - Seamlessly integrate content with dozens of popular websites, apps, and social media services. Sticky - Make ANY web content engaging, interactive and shareable using the same tools your learners use every day.
Learn about CourseSites free online learning resources for the classroom.
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If you're committed to shifting your curriculum to e-textbooks, consider trying free first. Here are the best sites for digital books that won't cost your students a dime.
"This is a listing of 27 sites that legally offer free textbooks and written course material. There is a separate page with links to free audio and video courses. To the best of my knowledge all of the websites listed here offer only content that they are legally entitled to transfer to you. If you find a site listed here that you know illegally offers copyrighted material, please contact me through the site with a link to the infringing content."
So what happens when Google, Amazon, and your local library come up short in your quest for free educational eBooks?
"Temple Run...What does the popular video game Temple Run have anything to do with algebra?" Check out some of the new materials available at CK12 and you will find that they are using Temple Run as "a real-world application of using algebra." CK12 has been providing open education resources (OER) for quite a few years and "has recently added more interactive resources to its offerings, including quizzes, videos, and real-world application examples." For additional information on new features click through to the post, or go directly to CK12 at http://www.ck12.org/.
Where are we when you look at open source textbooks? This infographic explores the situation and the solution, as well as sharing locations where you may find open source materials. (You might also do a search on OER in this Scoop.it for locations). Given finances of schools I think that open education resouces (that's the OER referred to above) will become more common...but that is my personal opinion.
"Connexions is a dynamic digital educational ecosystem consisting of an educational content repository and a content management system optimized for the delivery of educational content. Connexions is one of the most popular open education sites in the world. Its more than 17,000 learning objects or modules in its repository and over 1000 collections (textbooks, journal articles, etc.) are used by over 2 million people per month. Its content services the educational needs of learners of all ages, in nearly every discipline, from math and science to history and English to psychology and sociology. Connexions delivers content for free over the Internet for schools, educators, students, and parents to access 24/7/365. Materials are easily downloadable to almost any mobile device for use anywhere, anytime. Schools can also order low cost hard copy sets of the materials (textbooks)."
There are so many new buzzwords in education that it becomes hard to know what just what people are talking about...and to the rescue come an EdTech Cheat Sheet that will help you 'understand new trends in educational technology.'
"One of the best things the Internet blessed us with (besides Maru the box-loving cat) involves increased educational opportunities for children and adults alike. Although some progress still needs to be made when it comes to accessibility opening lessons up to special needs learners, there are plenty of resources for engaging a wide variety of absorption styles. Whether you're a teacher looking to incorporate new media into a classroom setting, a homeschooling family, or a parent hoping to supplement the day’s formal coursework, the following resources offer some particularly great examples of using digital technology to get kids exploring the universe. They’re fun. They’re free. And they feature a diverse selection of topics and strategies, meaning almost every user will find something of interest."
MOOC - Massive Open Online Courses - are in the news more and more...and this list is extensive in the resources provided. Beginning with "A few godfathers and godmothers of thinking on MOOCs, connectivism, open education resources" it continues with links to "definitions and history of MOOCs in the media; debate and discussion about MOOCs, open education and online learning; instructor experience in MOOCs; student experience in MOOCs; related writing on open education resources; MOOC launches, backing, funding, startups and stops; MOOC - related models of credentialing; MOOC sites, classes and institutions who MOOC; and MOOC-ish iniatives and open education resources."
edX is a 'transformational partnership in online education'…Harvard and MIT ‘will collaborate to enhance campus-based teaching and learning and build a global community of online learners…(edX) courses (will) feature video lesson segments, embedded quizzes, immediate feedback, student-ranked questions and answers, online laboratories, and student paced learning’ and it will be open source.
“MIT and Harvard will use the jointly operated edX platform to research how students learn and how technologies can support effective teaching both on-campus and online. The edX platform will allow study of which teaching methods and tools are most successful.”
This is a pretty amazing announcement and you may watch a video press release at http://www.edxonline.org
It’s innovation in education. And the time is right. OpenStax College offers students free textbooks that meet scope and sequence requirements for most courses. These are peer-reviewed texts written by professional content developers. Adopt a book today for a turnkey classroom solution or modify it to suit your teaching approach. Free online and low-cost in print, OpenStax College books are built for today’s student budgets.
Are you wondering what it means when you read the words creative commons? Why should we teach students about this? What does this mean in relation to copyright laws? This article may help you gain a better understanding of the variety of creative commons licensed materials and how we may use them in our classrooms.
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Scoop.it!
Emerging EdTech has just released their newest version of the excellent e-book that covers free software applications. This version is free to download and it may become a great resource for you to check out when you are considering new projects to do with your learners.
The e-book has eighteen chapters, beginning with Blogs and Blogging Resources. Additional chapters include:
* Creating Your Own Comics and Cartoons for Teaching and Learning
* Educational Games and Gamification
* Interactive Collaboration Tools
* Open Educational Resources
* Screencasting
* Using YouTube Videos as Lesson Materials
* Video Conferencing and Video Chat Tools
And this is by no means a complete list. You will find many more tools if you download the free book. You will need to provide your name and email address to receive the download link. Click through to the post for additional information.
Thanks Beth Dichter
Emerging EdTech has just released their newest version of the excellent e-book that covers free software applications. This version is free to download and it may become a great resource for you to check out when you are considering new projects to do with your learners.
The e-book has eighteen chapters, beginning with Blogs and Blogging Resources. Additional chapters include:
* Creating Your Own Comics and Cartoons for Teaching and Learning
* Educational Games and Gamification
* Interactive Collaboration Tools
* Open Educational Resources
* Screencasting
* Using YouTube Videos as Lesson Materials
* Video Conferencing and Video Chat Tools
And this is by no means a complete list. You will find many more tools if you download the free book. You will need to provide your name and email address to receive the download link. Click through to the post for additional information.