Connexions: http://cnx.org/ - 1 views

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  #1 Sharon Shaffer on 04 Sep 10

   

  "Connexions is:
  a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute:
  authors create and collaborate
  instructors rapidly build and share custom collections
  learners find and explore content"
  
  This is the description on the opening page of the site.This site offers information on a wide variety of topics. I chose to explore the topic "science and technology". Then I was directed to a page that allowed choices from complete modules to "bits" or "chunks" of information that can be assembled into custom modules. As a former teacher of science, I could see myself using this to design lessons that my former administrator would call "web quests". Science education can definitely benefit from more open course materials. Students come to this subject with vastly different background and experiences with learning science. The amount of content and breadth and depth is also extremely unpredictable. It seems to be the that elementary teachers skim over or avoid.
  This is my first exposure to the term "open content" but I immediately see the advantages of having resources available to create such a beast. Without knowing what it was, I have had in my mind that creating an electroninc version of the math and science resource center, where parents, teachers, students, really anyone, could contribute to or use materials to create lessons for the computer.
  This web site seems to be such a tool.
  I agree that the CBE used by most schools is lacking and a lot of changing will have to take place in the education community so that we can keep our 'digital natives' supplied with the type of knowledge and learning they are going to need to be successfu.
  One year at the "back to school motivational assembly" for teachers on their work day, there was a speaker whose name I don't remember but she said something like "the kindergarteners who started today will have 7 career changes in 5 different industries before they are 40 years old". That has really been an inspiration to reflect on how I taught each lesson and how I was going to prepare the students for this. I believe creating, implementing, managing and organizing quality multi-media cbe is NOT AN OPTION (Houston) but an OBLIGATION.

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">"Connexions is: <br /> a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute: <br /> authors create and collaborate <br /> instructors rapidly build and share custom collections <br /> learners find and explore content" <br /> <br /> This is the description on the opening page of the site.This site offers information on a wide variety of topics. I chose to explore the topic "science and technology". Then I was directed to a page that allowed choices from complete modules to "bits" or "chunks" of information that can be assembled into custom modules. As a former teacher of science, I could see myself using this to design lessons that my former administrator would call "web quests". Science education can definitely benefit from more open course materials. Students come to this subject with vastly different background and experiences with learning science. The amount of content and breadth and depth is also extremely unpredictable. It seems to be the that elementary teachers skim over or avoid. <br /> This is my first exposure to the term "open content" but I immediately see the advantages of having resources available to create such a beast. Without knowing what it was, I have had in my mind that creating an electroninc version of the math and science resource center, where parents, teachers, students, really anyone, could contribute to or use materials to create lessons for the computer. <br /> This web site seems to be such a tool. <br /> I agree that the CBE used by most schools is lacking and a lot of changing will have to take place in the education community so that we can keep our 'digital natives' supplied with the type of knowledge and learning they are going to need to be successfu. <br /> One year at the "back to school motivational assembly" for teachers on their work day, there was a speaker whose name I don't remember but she said something like "the kindergarteners who started today will have 7 career changes in 5 different industries before they are 40 years old". That has really been an inspiration to reflect on how I taught each lesson and how I was going to prepare the students for this. I believe creating, implementing, managing and organizing quality multi-media cbe is NOT AN OPTION (Houston) but an OBLIGATION.</div>

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