Search Results for 'open-source'
Weekly News Roundup
The VOIP service Skype officially launched “Skype in the Classroom,” a directory to help connect educators with others who are using the service. Skype has recognized that teachers are already using the service to connect their classrooms, and so it wanted to make it easier for teachers to find others and to share Skype lessons [...]
What’s Next for Open-Source Education?
Ten years ago, the concept of a university openly sharing its prized (and expensive) curriculum for free with anyone who was interested, especially one has highly regarded as M.I.T., was unheard of. But in the past decade MIT OpenCourseWare has paved the way for the open-source content movement. On their tenth anniversary, ReadWriteWeb enumerates what [...]
Three Trends That Define the Future of Teaching and Learning
In today’s dynamic classrooms, the teaching and learning process is becoming more nuanced, more seamless, and it flows back and forth from students to teachers. Here’s a look at current trends in teaching and learning, their implications, and changes to watch for. The Three Key Trends 1. Collaborative. If Web 2.0 has taught us anything, [...]
Three Trends That Will Shape the Future of Curriculum
What we as adults experienced in school, as educators and students, will bear little resemblance to what lies ahead. Here’s a look at current trends, their implications, and changes to watch for. The Three Key Trends 1. Digital delivery No longer shackled to books as their only source of content, educators and students are going [...]
Algebra, Meet the iPad: Part II
The iPad’s impact on the role of the teacher, paid content versus free online and open-source content, and the learning process. Will eighth-graders who use the iPad to learn algebra do better than their textbook-using counterparts? That’s what publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Fuse pilot program will determine at the end of the school year. In [...]
How Free is “Free”?
The article about CK12′s open-source digital FlexBooks compelled a reader to respond with some questions. He writes: I have developed a strong interest in open or free text ever since I purchased a brand new grey-market, European textbook for 60 dollars, a full third of what Americans pay for the same biology book. I also [...]
The “Living Book” Movement: Free Education For All
By Sara Bernard They’re free, they’re customizable, and they meet state standards. Those are the three biggest selling points of CK12 Flexbooks, digital educational content for K-12 schools. FlexBooks are developed through a combination of author donations, licensing partnerships, university collaborations, and incentives for community-based authorship, and teachers can customize them to their hearts’ content. [...]
Will College Textbooks Be Obsolete?
By Sara Bernard These days, college students have many more options for buying less expensive versions of their required texts. With sites like Amazon, Half.com, and Craigslist, as well as textbook rental programs, they no longer have to rely on those heavy, expensive texts. Online textbooks that use open source software — which are becoming [...]
Teachers and Students Create Their Own Curriculum in Alaska
By Sara Bernard The Bering Strait School District (BSSD) in Alaska – which spans a swathe of land and sea the size of Great Britain — is one of the few districts in the nation that has replaced textbooks with online content that can be modified by any of its teachers, students, parents and anyone [...]
5 Fun Play-and-Learn Websites for Grade School Kids
Your kids’ online experience doesn’t have to be dominated by the commercial worlds of Disney and Webkinz. Kids can get busy learning with engaging and informative sites that educate them about a wide range of fun and interesting topics. I’ll be covering this subject regularly, but for starters, here’s a roundup of 5 of my [...]
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