Open Education
Tips for Sharing Great Open Educational Content
While the open content movement in education continues to gain steam, more teachers are starting to learn about free content they can use and adapt to their own needs for their classrooms. But educators are focusing too heavily on acquiring content, rather than contributing and improving to it, according to a company that helps teachers [...]
Will Free Online Textbooks Become a Reality for California College Students?
thinkstock By Ana Tintocalis California is one step closer to bringing free online textbooks for state college students, a huge step for the open education movement. A historic bill on the desk of Governor Jerry Brown would give college professors, and thereby students, an option to use free online, customizable curriculum rather than print textbooks, [...]
How Open Education is Changing the Texture of Content
By Frank Catalano 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 [...]
Is Peer Input as Important as Content for Online Learning?
Today, Open Education Resources (OER) industry leaders are arguing that the free content is only the starting point.
How Open Education Can Transform Learning
Flickr: NP_Josh As the open education movement grows, the ripple effects of what it means for teachers to take control of what they teach is being witnessed across all spectrums in education. Customizable content, sharing and becoming part of a community, and deconstructing entrenched ideologies about what constitutes quality learning materials — these are just [...]
How to Create Your Own Textbook — With or Without Apple
Aggregation, curation, creation: A step-by-step guide to creating your own textbook — and involving your students along the way.
California Bill Pushes for Free Online College Books
Every year, the average college student pays about $1,100 for textbooks alone. At this point, most textbooks assigned by college professors average around $150 each. That’s almost the same cost as the course itself at California community colleges. But the free, open-content movement that’s been percolating for the past few years may change all that [...]
What Colleges Must Do to Stay Relevant
For many Americans, going to college has been the next natural step after graduating from high school. A college degree has served not just as a status symbol, but also proof that graduates have mastered a subject and can put the knowledge they’ve acquired in school to practice. But the value of a college degree [...]
The Khan Academy Opens Its Virtual Doors — Carefully
As of today, there are more than 2,700 videos on the Khan Academy site. All of them have been created by Salman Khan himself, with the exception of those produced by the SmartHistory team who Khan hired a few months ago. Over the course of a few short years, Khan has accumulated a vast library [...]
Open Education Sites Offer Free Content for All
Flickr:FontFont Open education sites exemplify how technology is democratizing education. These sites allow both learners and teachers to create their own curriculum, whether it’s used in or out of the classroom. Here’s a comprehensive list of open education sites MindShift has covered. As always, we love to hear about sites that aren’t included in the [...]
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