A passion for content

Some of you may have noticed that through this summer, I've been writing a little less on this blog. The reason is that over the past year, I have gotten very involved in the area of Open Education (similar to open source software, but focused on content) and thinking and writing a lot about that.

This interest has grown out of my work in developing content for mobile devices. I have come to the conclusion that mainstream textbook publishers are not likely to come out with meaningful content for mobile devices, and so we are forging on without them. :) After developing a large library of content on a contract basis for schools, we are now looking at open-licensed work as a more far-reaching strategy.

If you are interested in Open Ed and my thoughts on it, you might also want to read my Open Ed blog and check out our new open dictionary project.

In the meantime, I'll still be here on Mobile Musings as well. :)

TeacherTube Mashup

(cross-posted form Karen's Mashups)

Below is one of my favorite mashups of all time -- a compilation of different clips from TeacherTube. If you aren't familiar with TeacherTube, it's a video sharing service for educators that has all kinds of great content for a variety of subjects and grades and even professional development topics, produced by teachers, students, and professional organizations. I think this is a terrific resource for differentiating instruction (especially with mobile devices).




Full credits and links for this show here.

Please feel free to use this in any way you find useful. I plan to use it at professional development workshops to give folks a quick look at all the great free video resources available to them.

Throwing out the textbooks

I presented a keynote a couple weeks ago on Open Education. In talking about the reasons for open ed, I make the following points:

• We must differentiate instruction if we are going to engage and reach students who have increasingly diverse backgrounds, skills, and interests.
  
• Textbooks are not an effective tool for differentiating (or engaging) students.
• Technology can be a better tool, but high quality content is required for effective integration.
  
• There is a huge industry that has grown up around the development and adoption of textbooks. There is a lot of money invested in this industry, and it is not likely to change, regardless of the benefits to learning.
  
• Open educational resources (OER) provide a new approach to this challenge.
  

So after my presentation, a very excited teacher came up to me and said, "I've done just what you've said! I've thrown out our textbooks!" (He told me later that they actually sold their textbooks. Great idea for a fund-raiser!)

He then went out to his car and brought back the materials he's developed to share with me. He is a history teacher and has developed a very innovative system that he calls the "dynamic classroom." It involves binders that the kids construct over the course of the year, bringing together predictable learning routines, effective strategies, and hands on activities.

What most struck me in talking to this gentleman was 1.) his passion for his subject matter and for teaching, 2.) how much personal time and effort he's put into his teaching, and 3.) the results he's gotten with his students.

Then I started thinking about the potential of this approach. The materials appeared to be perfectly suited to building a wiki. I began imagining each kid with a $300 laptop building interactive web sites instead of binders. The possibilities are rich. Then I started thinking about this project built as an open-licensed curriculum. Everyone could benefit from the work this industrious teacher has done.

I know that there are teachers all over the world doing creative things like this, prompting their students to have rich learning experiences. These teachers know more about their content and engaging kids than most textbook publishers do. I think that most of these teachers are willing to share.

This is the potential of Open Education.
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Image courtesy of Alexander Baxevanis.