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It's been great fun to get to share a part of eight school opening days this year from Mississippi to Vermont. They're always filled with a great deal of energy, and they're also a good way of getting a sense of where things are in terms of schools' evolution (or lack thereof) in thinking around technology in a teaching and learning context. I'd love to be able to say that it feels like we're a lot farther down the road, but by and large, that's not the what I'm seeing. There is still a real emphasis on the implementation of "stuff" without the hard conversations about pedagogy that deal with preparing kids for a connected world. There are pockets of that, but not much that is being discussed within the frame of a long-term plan or real vision as to what classroom learning is going to look like in say, ten or even five years. (I put out a Tweet last week asking what the timeframe was for the technology plans at the schools where people are teaching, and most said three years with an occasional five year plan or a "Technology plan? What's that?" thrown in. I'm wondering, by the way, when we'll stop calling them technology plans and just call them learning plans.)

Curriki, the online education community, is building the first website to offer free, open-source instructional materials for K-12. We have thousands of free worksheets, lesson plans, exams, project ideas and activities for English language arts, math, science, social studies, technology integration and other subjects. All of our educational material is contributed by teachers and partners and is free and open source.

an annotated list of free and open source video editing software for different platforms

A great annotated list of free and open source video editing software for different platforms

5 open source alternatives to moodle

Research Seminars at University of Worcester Island Forthcoming sessions in 2011. February 24th Resistance - who has it, why it occurs and what can we do about it (Gann McGann - Mark Childs) March Thursday 31st - Supporting distributed team working in 3D virtual worlds - how a 3D virtual world facilitates socialisation and team working among students working on a team project at a distance. (Shailey Garfield - Shailey Minocha from the Department of Computing at the Open University)

Customizable, standards-aligned, free digital textbooks for K-12 - Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

Customizable online textbooks for a variety of subjects. History is full of terrific primary sources.

open access textbooks resources for iPad included here

Open source textbooks are a great idea!

Never worry about problems opening a docx and other Office 2007 & 2010 file again with this free download from Microsoft that lets you open them in Office 2003. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+&+Web+Tools

The iPad (or iPod touch or iPhone) with its apps opens many new opportunities for learning. At the same time, it offers a slightly different wrapper for older learning opportunities. Both can be worthwhile, but it would be a shame if teachers missed the former for the latter. And, if past experience and research is any indication, educators are much more likely to co-opt the new technology to accomplish the status quo. This activity is designed to help teachers think through both opportunities and to categorize those apps that lend themselves to either or both. Teachers will start by exploring a variety of apps, some that lend themselves to learning content such as math facts or spelling words and others that can be used in open ended content creation such as storytelling or photography. Then, teachers will examine a set of lessons that use these apps. Finally, teachers will use a "taxonomy" such as Bloom's Taxonomy, SAMR, LoTi, ETaP, Prensky, etc. and attempt to classify/categorize where the apps fall. Most likely teachers will need to contextualize the app to a particular use/activity. Ideally, teachers will realize that in most cases it is not the app itself, but the use that detrmines where it falls and that the apps belong in multiple places.

The Ilios Curriculum Management System provides the Health Professions educational community an open-source, user-friendly, flexible, and robust open source web application to collect, manage, analyze and deliver curricular information.

A warning about how educators use G+ circles exclusive closed circles or as open public content? Keep it Open if u can.

This video demonstrates how products are being developed using open source and open funding. I am going to show this to teachers in a PD session to discuss how the workplace is changing and why students need to learn how to work in collaborative groups. This is important because workplaces are going in this direction. In our classrooms, teachers need to have students involved in collaborative work where they are using higher order thinking skills to create. This methodology supports Common Core curriculum and teach to the future.

Before opening his mind to the educational value of social media, he blocked You Tube at school. Great message for school board members and administrators.

Some great sites if you're interested in Open Educational Resources.

"Practical Biology provides teachers of biology at all levels with experiments that demonstrate a wide range of biological concepts and processes. Each practical may be used alone or as a starting-point for open-ended investigations or enhancement activities, such as clubs or open-day events. Experiments are placed within real-life contexts, with links to carefully selected further reading, enabling teachers to show relevance and illustrate the key principles of How Science Works"

"He opened his laptop and started playing around, again. I hadn't quite noticed until I'd gotten the rest of this Year 7 class to get their books open and start completing the questions that were on the whiteboard."

Visit Art Museums virtually. Zoom in on the Art.

Museums from around the world. Nice place to view art work from multiple locations quickly.

The Art Project powered by Google features interior tours of seventeen world famous art museums. Select a museum from the list on the homepage & you can virtually tour it using the same interface style you experience in Google Maps Streetview. Inside the museum, just double click to zoom to a location. You can also open a floor plan overview & click on a room to navigate to that part of the museum. The best part of the Art Project powered by Google is the option to create your own artwork collection while visiting each museum. As you're touring a museum click on the "+" symbol on any work of art see it in greater detail, to add it to your collection, & to open background information about that work of art. To create a collection you must be signed into a Google account. This is a great way to start a story or writing prompt, or to explore history & cultures.