12.17.07
Posted in OpenSource at 12:05 pm by sbetts
Cross posted from SharonsShare
Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to seven introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.
This can be such a boon to those students needing more, but living in remote areas. Technology can be the leveler to give them the challenge the need. There are courses in Astronomy, English, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology and Religious Studies.
Thank you Yale.
Technorati Tags: sharonbetts,Yale,opencourses
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08.25.07
Posted in My stuff, OpenSource at 6:17 pm by sbetts
Been doing a lot of research for a new CMS for school and home. It must be opensource, fairly robust and user friendly.
Settled on Joomla
Trying this e-book to learn more.
Wondering what your choice might be – outside of blogging and wikis.
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05.18.07
Posted in OpenSource at 2:58 pm by sbetts
Great quote at the end of the blog post by Sun’s CEO:
All of which is to say – no amount of fear can stop the rise of free media, or free software (they are the same, after all). The community is vastly more innovative and powerful than a single company. And you will never turn back the clock on elementary school students and developing economies and aid agencies and fledgling universities – or the Fortune 500 – that have found value in the wisdom of the open source community. Open standards and open source software are literally changing the face of the planet – creating opportunity wherever the network can reach.
I know that open source has been both a financial and a creativity lifesaver for me both personally and at my job. Although we use different Operating Systems in the schools of my district, we have loaded the machines with open source solutions to help the teachers integrate. Scribus, Open Office, GIMP, Audacity – the list goes on. To license the 100s of computers with proprietary programs to meet the same needs is fiscally impossible. Students gain, teachers gain and overall our society gains.
Just how difficult is it going to be to open our OS next purchase round?
sharon+betts
open+source
Sun
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03.31.07
Posted in Blogs, OpenSource, web2.0 at 10:40 am by sbetts
What to use? I have been asked several times when to use what – although there is no clear answer, here are some tips:
*Blogs* – Blogs are ongoing individual postings with the ability to take comments from readers. This is a great way to journal, reflect or get input.
*WIKIs* – are online editable pages available to anyone given permission. Usually you can attach files to wiki pages and there is a comment page connected. This is good for collaboration. It does not fit the journal model as well as it does a portfolio / archive model. Of course, it is also great for multiple editors of a single document.
*Forums* – threaded discussions. Can be used for the same as above. They individualize each posting, but in a threaded manner unlike blogs
which are sequential.
*Social networks* – combine all or some of the above with many added features. If you are ready to launch your students into the cybersphere
of learning, this is the way to go. I like Ning - but it still does not have a wiki module although the blog and forums are great.
*Course Management Systems* – also combines the above features and adds the ability to quiz etc. It is an online class. My favorite is Moodle
(at the moment). Students are part of a class and can use the forums, wikis, as well as complete assignments. I do not like the blogging
feature presently being used.
There are hybrids of all the above – and more appear each day. The key is to know what your goals are for each project.
Is it your students first adventure into online learning? do you simply want journals? do you wish to attach artifacts? do you want to actually hold your class online with assessment and all? do you want to use these in a more social atmosphere? Do you have the ability to pay for a service or to host it “in house”?
sharon+betts
wiki
blog
moodle
ning
Turbo Tagger
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03.09.07
Posted in OpenSource, future paradigms at 1:23 pm by sbetts
OERcommons.org
A new online content resource center, formally launched March 9 by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), will make more than 8,000 classroom materials available to teachers, faculty, and learners worldwide, at no cost.
The content on the site has been developed by faculty at colleges and universities, including Rice, Harvard, MIT, and the University of California-Berkeley. On the site, users can gather information on topics such as art, mathematics and statistics, and science and technology, targeted to grade levels ranging from primary school to post-secondary studies.
The march continues……
technorati tags: sharon betts oercommons
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02.26.07
Posted in OpenSource, future paradigms at 3:34 pm by sbetts
The opening paragraph reads:
The Citizendium (sit-ih-ZEN-dee-um), a “citizens’ compendium of everything,” is an experimental new wiki project. The project, started by a founder of Wikipedia, aims to improve on the Wikipedia model by adding “gentle expert oversight” and requiring contributors to use their real names. It has taken on a life of its own and will, perhaps, become the flagship of a new set of responsibly-managed free knowledge projects. We will avoid calling it an “encyclopedia” until the project’s editors feel comfortable putting their reputations behind this description.
technorati tags: sharon betts Citizendium
As educators, we try to teach evaluation of sources – will forcing registration make this Wiki more or less reliable for students to use? What do you think?
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12.01.06
Posted in OpenSource, future paradigms, web2.0 at 1:04 pm by sbetts
I was having an email discussion with a colleague around social bookmarking tools vs the Firefox extension, Foxmarks. He like the extension because it organizes in folders. I have always been a list kinda person, but del.icio.us has changed the way I look at saving resources. Anyway, here is some of the conversation:
– check out the extension Foxmarks
(me) how is it better than social bookmarking?
– I had difficulty getting del.icio.us to organize into folders like I’m used to. I’m really into “tabbed browsing” and like having things where I can open a whole set of tabs all at once.
(me)I can see where a “folder kinda guy” might find social bookmarking a bit different. I use tagging to take care of the organization portion. What I really like is the ability to share the bookmarks with others, the cross-referencing through tags, the piping of bookmarks to my webpages etc.
The newest thing is to annotate and save – “we aren’t researching in Kansas anymore” — http://www.diigo.com/
There are so many new ways to control your resources – here are about 55 of them from Webloghits.com .
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07.14.06
Posted in OpenSource at 11:20 am by sbetts
This is a blog entry for the participants of UNH OpenSource summer Institute. I hope you enjoyed your morning with Kathy – we would love to read some of your thoughts before jumping into the next portion of the day. Please post them here – and comment on a fellow session-mate.
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05.31.06
Posted in OpenSource, future paradigms at 1:25 pm by sbetts
Ajax – swf – php – what’s the future of applications? Who has a nifty new online application that you would like to share? Something with educational possibilities that is..
I have a link of open-source / freeware on my website, but am looking for those killer online items.
The newest that I am playing with is http://www.gliffy.com
Gliffy – Draw and Share diagrams on the web.
So, what is your present favorite?
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05.24.06
Posted in OpenSource at 9:34 am by sbetts
I am preparing for my NECC presentation – San Diego on the 4th of July, WOW. This year’s theme is Open Source Portal: Uniting Student Data, Assessment, and e-Learning
I am leading a demonstration and discussion on several OpenSource solutions being used in my district: Metadot, Moodle, PolicyBook, ePortfolios etc. I would love any input for my discussions.
I am also participating as a leader in an opensource discussion. What do you use in your district that is open and/or “free”?
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