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"Yesterday, Mashable author, Sarah Kessler, wrote "The Case for Making Online Textbooks Open Source," where she drew attention to programs at MIT and Carnegie Mellon that post lectures and other course materials online for free. "

"The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the use of Howard Zinn's best-selling book A People's History of the United States and other materials for teaching a people's history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. The Zinn Education Project is coordinated by two non-profit organizations, Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change. Its goal is to introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. The empowering potential of studying U.S. history is often lost in a textbook-driven trivial pursuit of names and dates. Zinn's A People's History of the United States emphasizes the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history. Students learn that history is made not by a few heroic individuals, but instead by people's choices and actions, thereby also learning that their own choices and actions matter."

Ideas for making the shift to digital texts. The Internet is the best source of content that's ever been. The challenge for schools and districts and parents and famillies and municipalities is getting that information into the hands of our students. It made sense to hand them a book when the experts were far away and the libraries were scarce and only had a few copies of everything. But it doesn't have to be that way now. In fact, in many ways, it's not.

The Internet is the best source of content that's ever been. The challenge for schools and districts and parents and famillies and municipalities is getting that information into the hands of our students. It made sense to hand them a book when the experts were far away and the libraries were scarce and only had a few copies of everything. But it doesn't have to be that way now. In fact, in many ways, it's not.

An Open Educational Resources site OER; in beta now. "Gooru is a search engine for learning that allows you to explore and study over 2,600 standards-aligned and personalized study guides. Study guides cover 5th-12th grade math and science topics, and resources include digital textbooks, animations, instructor videos and more. All resources are vetted and organized by teachers or Gooru's content experts, so you don't have to sort through the mess of subpar educational resources available online yourself. Gooru also makes it easy for you to connect with your worldwide peers to make learning a social experience. Post questions to an active community of students, teachers and experts, or find friends and peers to study with. Best of all, Gooru adapts to you. Based on the topics you study and your performance on self-assessments, Gooru suggests resources and study guides that will help you master the concepts. You can track your study habits and monitor your performance on any of the topics you study."

Not sure what resources are here for social studies but still looks like a very interesting site. Think you should check it out for resources and to share with students.

Smarthistory.org is a free, not-for-profit, multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional art history textbook. Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker began smARThistory in 2005 by creating a blog featuring free audio guides in the form of podcasts for use in The Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Soon after, we embedded the audio files in our online survey courses.

Open Source materials for Art History. Narrative slideshows about different time periods.

Open Source material for infusing art history into the classroom. Definitely worth exploring

"For progressive educators who want to actively engage their students in learning about government, law, economics, or citizenship, the Civic Mirror brings these subjects to life both in class and online. Unlike traditional textbook and lecture learning, the Civic Mirror actively involves students as citizens of their own nation, making learning exciting and meaningful and providing an experience they will never forget."

This looks VERY interesting! Teaching civics or government you might want to check this out!

Teacher showing The Civic Mirror http://bit.ly/hwZ8Vg Kids can create their own nations. Cool. #plpnetwork