Driving Awareness, Adoptions, and Affordability

All Blog Posts (304)

Essay on "Brief Overview of Public Policy on OER"

Today, an essay was posted to the Publius Project on "A Brief Overview of Public Policy on OER from California Community Colleges to the Obama Administration" authored by Carolina Rossini and Erhardt Graeff of the Berkman Center at Harvard University.

Excerpt from the essay: "OER encourages and enables the open production, sharing of, and access to educational content and resources. This alone is a valuable societal good,… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 1, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

The Orange Grove's Text Plus (& Smarthistory.org)

The Orange Grove, Florida's K20 digital repository and the University Press of Florida have teamed up to created Text Plus an open textbook repository. I thought this was important work even before they vetted and accepted Smarthistory.org—now I think they're brilliant.

Added by Dr. Steven Zucker on September 29, 2009 at 5:32pm — No Comments

Open Textbook Legislation Proposed by Sen. Durbin

Info about Senator Durbin's Legislation to Make College Textbooks More Affordable posted on Cable Green's blog

Added by Judy Baker on September 28, 2009 at 10:07pm — No Comments

Helpful Summary of State Policies about eTextbooks and Open Textbooks

ECS.org Clearinghouse provides this helpful summary if state policies and intiatives, titled: 'State Initiatives Regarding Electronic or Open Source Textbooks' By Noe M. Cisneros, September 2009.

Added by Judy Baker on September 28, 2009 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Campus Bookstore Links to Free Textbooks and Courses

A campus bookstore website links students to free textbooks used in Queen’s University courses. Find out details from Jeff Young’s article “College Bookstores Hope to Turn Their Web Sites Into E-Book Portals” in The Wired Campus.

Added by Judy Baker on September 26, 2009 at 10:17pm — 1 Comment

Orange Grove Texts Plus in the News

Inside Higher Ed describes Orange Grove Texts Plus in a recent article: Free, But at What Cost? Scroll to bottom to see comments about the article posted by CCOT Collaborative Program Director, Jacky Hood.

As reported by The Orange Grove, the 2009 Florida Legislature requested (HB 7121 or SB 844) that an Open… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on September 26, 2009 at 3:40pm — No Comments

Need information on working with bookstores and OER

Our institution has begun initial exploration into the provision of open textbooks and other OER for some of our courses. During this initial exploration, the bookstore (Follett), has raised a question as to what the institution's overall strategy is with regards to Open Textbooks. I'd like to know from others what types of strategies they have used within their own institution with regards to adoption and deployment of open textbooks as well as success stories (or failure stories) of working… Continue

Added by Kara Monroe on September 23, 2009 at 11:34am — 4 Comments

OER News and Announcements

Stay up-to-date with open educational resources news and issues at the OER Consortium Blog, OER Center Twitter, and educ8ter Twitter.

Added by Judy Baker on September 16, 2009 at 12:32pm — No Comments

Tools to Improve Students' Online Reading

Find out how one educator uses reading methodologies and techniques to improve online text comprehension. In his recent blog, Towards More Effective Online Reading, Willy Kjellstrom describes his exploration of how to use a tool like The Awesome Highlighter, Diigo’s highlighting and notes feature,… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on September 14, 2009 at 9:23pm — No Comments

Beta testers of open textbook reviews needed

In the past few months, more than 30 open textbooks have been peer-reviewed by an outstanding group of professors, instructors, and other experts. Most of these reviewers exceeded our requirement that a reviewer have taught the subject for a minimum of one year at the college level. Many have taught for decades and several have doctorates and full professorships. The reviewers rated every chapter in each book on our 11 criteria and wrote summaries. Some even improved the open textbooks and most… Continue

Added by Jacky Hood on September 11, 2009 at 11:57pm — No Comments

Dispelling Myths about Open Textbooks

Presentation titled "Dispelling Myths about Open Textbooks" at OpenEd 2009 by Presenter: Barbara Illowsky, Professor, Mathematics & Statistics , De Anza College
Jacky Hood, Project Director, Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, Foothill-De Anza Community College District
See video: http://openedconference.org/archives/384

Added by Judy Baker on September 11, 2009 at 9:16pm — No Comments

Free Lesson about eBooks

For a free and quick lesson about eBooks, visit: http://bit.ly/aFC3Y

Many other lessons about technology, computer, and software are provided for free by Hewlett-Packard at their Learning Center.

Added by Judy Baker on August 25, 2009 at 12:39pm — No Comments

Find open licensed content via Google

Did you know that you can use Google’s Advanced Search to find open educational resources ? If you want learning content that is open and available for use and reuse, follow these steps:

1. Go to Google

2. Click on Advanced Search

3. Click on “date, usage rights, numeric range, and more”

4. Click on the dropdown menu next to “Usage rights”

5. Select the Usage right you desire

6. Type in your search terms

7. Be… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on August 23, 2009 at 8:27pm — No Comments

Free Books for Your Kindle

Read free books on your Kindle. Find out how at http://bit.ly/LleXE

Added by Judy Baker on August 23, 2009 at 8:25pm — No Comments

Open Images at Google, Picasa & Flickr

Educators seeking images for slideshow presentations can now find Creative Commons open licensed photos using Google, Picasa and Flickr.

Google Images allows advanced search for open licensed photos - screenshot at http://www.k12opened.com/blog/archives/177

Picasa allows search for photos w/ Creative Commons license - for screenshot, see… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on August 23, 2009 at 8:23pm — No Comments

Open Content at Google Books

On August 13th, Google announced that authors can now use Google Books to distribute their Creative Commons licensed work. Authors benefit from using a CC license because it allows them to distribute their work more widely and clearly communicate how they… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on August 23, 2009 at 8:10pm — No Comments

Hewlett Awards Open Textbook Grant

Hewlett Awards Open Textbook Grant

In July 2009, Trustees of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation approved an award to the Foothill-De Anza Community College District (Los Altos Hills, CA) to manage the Community College Open Textbook Collaborative ($1.5 million) over 2 years.

The Foothill-De Anza Community College District's Aug 10th… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on August 23, 2009 at 8:07pm — No Comments

Remixing Education

Anya Kamenetz has a great new article in Fast Company, "Who Needs Harvard?", where she argues many of the same points in my recent post on Free Education: "Free online courses, Wiki universities, Facebook-style tutoring networks--American higher education is being transformed by a cadre of Web-savvy edupunks."… Continue

Added by Tutorpedia on August 12, 2009 at 10:54pm — No Comments

Foreign Languages is needed in the curriculum of all US schools

It is a concern to many who have accomplished the task of becoming bilingual because they had the opportunity to learn a foreign language in school at the same time the native language was developed, that the present generation would not have the same or better curriculums that will promote the learning of foreign languages at a time when the population of the entire world is in need to understand each other and the different cultures in the globe.

Added by Silvia T. Pulido on August 8, 2009 at 2:57pm — No Comments

Perspective on Textbooks from a Writing Instructor

Matthew Williams shares his perspective on the use of textbooks for writing instruction on his blog. His major points include:

* "Writing manuals and how-to textbooks devalue the role and integrity of the composition instructor."

* "Textbooks remove the most important element of learning from the equation: the student."

* "Most… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on August 4, 2009 at 5:56pm — No Comments