Skilio The 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You If you’re not an avid follower of #edchat on Twitter, you may be missing out on a great opportunity to learn about some new Web 2.0 tools that are currently being used in classrooms around the world. That’s because @chickensaltash posed a simple question to the PLN and there has been a huge swell of support as hundreds of people have jumped in to answer the question about which 5 Web 2.0 tools teachers are using in classrooms. The Best of the Best You can view the live stream of #edchat here and see what people are saying at the hashtag #chickenweb2tools here. We scoured hundreds of responses and have come up with the following list. The following tools have not been verified and are simply based on the number of times each was mentioned on Twitter during this hashtag discussion. Made at Tagxedo – it’s in this list! The List Added in the comments and via Twitter: Add To This List Have another recommendation?
The Best Places to Read and Download Educational e-Books Now that mobile devices are all over the map, reading becomes much more enjoyable .You can take with you your entire digital library anywhere you go and access it any time you want. This is a convenience our ancestors were dreaming to have. But what about reading resources ? Do you know where you can grab some good and educational content to read ? Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has curated a list of some great online platform where you can read or download e-books. 1- Wiki Books This platform contains an open-content textbooks collection that anyone can edit easily. 2- The Free Library The Free Library is that has a wide range of periodicals, articles,publications, and many more 3- Read Print This resources contains thousands of free books that range from essays to short stories. 4- Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg offers over 42,000 free ebooks: choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online. 5- Many Books 6- Infomotions 7- eBooks 8- Bookyards
Examining Open Education This past week, I had the chance to delve deeper into the idea of open education and open education resources (OER) thanks to both #ETMOOC and the #MediaLabCourse. Before this week, I hadn’t spent much time considering the differences between “open” and “free” and the power they can bring to people around the world when they are combined together. Free is valuable for the accessibility it provides but open, I discovered, means much more than just making something accessible or available to the public. It’s quite literally like holding the “secret code” in your hands to a door you might never have known existed before and then being able to enter that code in, walk through the door, and start making changes to the entire architecture of a place, program, or site. Of course, one of the benefits of the open learning movement and the open education community, is that you don’t have to walk through that door alone. Like this: Like Loading... Related Experimenting with Open Collaboration
Modern Lessons Welcome to the new online learning platform for the Global Education Database! It’s a free, simple, and quick way to learn new skills, find new education resources, and figure out how to do just about anything a modern teacher or student needs. Take as many courses as you like – they’re free and all you need to do is sign up to get started. Register To Start Learning Free View More Courses 51 Education Podcasts For The 21st Century Teacher Maybe you don’t have time to sit down and sift through the latest education blogs for ideas and inspiration. If the thought of trying to carve out more hours in your day leaves you feeling overwhelmed, this list is for you. Podcasts are a great way to get information when you’re driving in your car, making dinner at home, or waiting at the DMV to renew your license. Podcasts don’t force you to find more time in your day; they give you the opportunity to capitalize on all the dead time that already exists in your day by simply downloading the .mp3 or syncing a podcast to your iTunes account on your smartphone. Even though podcasts have been around awhile, a lot of people still don’t utilize the hundreds of free podcasts available on the Internet. Below are 51 educational podcasts you should look consider. 51 Education Podcasts For The 21st Century Teacher 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37.
Learnadoodledastic: Making a case for creating Open Educational Resources for use in Higher Education To set the scene we'll start with a useful and pragmatic definition of Open Educational Resources from Stephen Downes (although he does not support the idea of an 'official' definition) – Read more here "Open educational resources are materials used to support education that may be freely accessed, reused, modified and shared by anyone." Background Inspiration for this post was attendance at the one day MEDEV workshop From curiosity to confidence: sharing what it takes to ‘go open’ with learning and teaching resources. Keynote speaker Kieran McGlade (Queen’s University Belfast) kicked off proceedings with an Introduction to open educational resources (OERs) and open educational practice (OEP). Suzanne Hardy (MEDEV) rounded off the session in the afternoon with many practical tips and advice on tools to use that will aid the development of OERs. Further Reading Mitigating the effort of creating OERs 1. 2. 3.
The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational Uses of Content in the Digital Age A Foundational White Paper The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational Uses of Copyrighted Material in the Digital Age A Foundational White Paper This foundational white paper reports on a year-long study by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, examining the relationship between copyright law and education. In particular, we wanted to explore whether innovative educational uses of digital technology were hampered by the restrictions of copyright. The paper builds on four detailed case studies of initiatives that have encountered such obstacles. Drawing on these case studies, other research, and comments made by a cross-section of scholars, lawyers, librarians, and educators who participated in two day-long workshops organized as part of the project, the following emerged as the most significant copyright-related obstacles to educational uses of content: Back to Table of Contents 1. The remainder of this white paper undertakes the analysis.
Announcing the New and Improved 2013 Edition of the Free Education Technology Resources eBook This popular resource provides 115 pages of free applications and resources and insights into how educators are using them in today’s classrooms! This digital booklet provides an introduction and easy access to many of the wonderful free applications and resources available on the Internet for teachers to use in and out of the classroom as part of the instructional and administrative process. The 2013 update of this eBook is loaded with new content. How Do I Get My Copy of this Exciting Resource? If you are an existing subscriber, there’s a link to the eBook in today’s blog post email. If you are not an existing subscriber, just sign up today (see the “Sign Up” form on the right, above “Popular Posts” => you might have to scroll up a little). Thanks for subscribing and enjoy this excellent resource! About Kelly Walsh Kelly Walsh is Chief Information Officer, and an adjunct faculty member, at The College of Westchester in White Plains, NY and is the founder and author of EmergingEdTech.com.
How Open Access and Para-Academic Publishers Are Disrupting Academic Publishing Digital disruption has happened in almost every publishing sector except one: academic publishing. The reasons why academic publishers have resisted changes as other sectors have gone digital is complex, and many have tried to change aspects of academic publishing with few results. For example, In 2011, GigaOm author Mathew Ingram explained that one of the reasons why academic publishing is so resistant to change is because universities “pay large sums to subscribe to those journals, they often feel compelled to justify those costs by requiring that all research be published through them” (“So When Does Academic Publishing Get Disrupted?”). Some of these journal subscriptions cost upwards of $20,000 a year through traditional academic publishers, according to a recent report from the University of Illinois. Here in 2013, not much has changed in traditional academic publishing, but there are changes happening on the edges of academic publishing. Library Book Image via Shutterstock.