January+11,+2011+-+Online+Learning,+Mobile+Learning,+Open+Textbooks+and+Resources,+Tools+and+Resources,+and+More



=**Worthy of Note: January 11, 2011**=

**Online Learning, Mobile Learning**
Crafting E-Curriculum That Inspires //Education Week, January 7, 2011// This special report, the final installment of a three-part series on e-learning, examines how schools are working to create high-quality digital curricula and online courses. It covers the influence the common-core academic standards are likely to have on building the online curricula of the future, the growing emphasis on teaching social skills to virtual school students, how schools are building courses that blend face-to-face and online learning, and the evolving role of e-assessments. These special reports from the technology team at Education Week Digital Directions aim to highlight the progress made in the e-learning arena, as well as the administrative, funding, and policy barriers that some experts say are slowing the growth of this form of education.

There are 11 reports featured that include Susan Patrick and Common Core Standards, Curricula for Blended Classes, What About Mobile Computing and e-Courses?, Social Skills, Cyber Schools in Elementary Schools.

Links to the two previous reports - September 2010: //E-Educators Evolving// and April 2010: //Assessing the Agenda for Change//.

Linking E-Courses to 'Common Core' Academic Standards //Kathy Ash, Education Week, January 7, 2011// Encouraging news….The widespread pledge by states to adopt “common core” academic standards could allow online education to truly break down state boundaries for teachers and students for the first time, and reduce the cost of online-course creation, experts in virtual education say.

Schools Examine Content, Delivery of Online AP Courses //Michelle R. Davis, Education Week, January 3, 2011// As the number of online Advanced Placement courses rises, more students are accessing those college-level classes than ever before. But teachers, students, and the governing body that authorizes such courses have had to adapt over time to determine how materials should be presented online and whether that method measures up to face-to-face instruction. The College Board is getting into the act of seriously looking at AP Courses content. Course requirements are being retooled to include more-robust content, but with a focus on the development of 21st-century skills starting with some science, history, and language courses. The College Board does not evaluate online courses differently from the comparable face-to-face versions; it focuses on evaluating the content of courses and not the way the content is delivered.

**Webinar: Virtual Challenge: Creating Quality E-Courses** //Greg Marks, Michigan Virtual University and Debi Crabtree, Hamilton County Virtual School, Chattanooga, TN, Education Week (Michelle Davis, Moderator)// Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time

Mobile Learning Could Be Key in Achievement Gap Equation

// Tina Barseghia, Mind/Shift, KQED, January 4, 2011 //
Can mobile learning bring quality education to under-served communities? Research is pointing in that direction. A recent report by [|Pew Internet and American Life Project] shows that the mobile Internet may be the very technology that finally helps close the “digital divide.”

10 Reasons Students Prefer Learning Online Lisa Nielsen, //Tech&Learning//, January 2, 2011 You may have guessed it ―”I can sleep in” ― but there are very valid reasons here which were presented by a panel of students at the iNACOL Virtual School Symposium.

Journal of Virtual Worlds and Education (new publication, January 2011) //Center for Virtual Worlds Education// The //Journal of Virtual Worlds and Education// is a peer-reviewed journal that will present the best writing and thinking available about Virtual Worlds and their applications and implications for the field of education. Their intent, in creating this Journal, is to provide a forum that engages and inspires both the scholarly and creative communities to share ideas, theories, quantitative and qualitative research, speculations, informed commentary, and through this discourse generate new synergies between virtual worlds and education. Volume 1, Issue 1 is available as a free download. About the Center for Virtual Worlds Education.

**New //Inside Higher Ed// Podcast**
The Pulse; Rod Murray's E-Learning Tech Podcast // Rodney B. Murray, Inside Higher Ed, Interview with ////Matthew Wasowski on Blackboard Collaborate// [|The Pulse] is a new monthly podcast about higher education technology from Rodney B. Murray of the University of the Sciences. The January 2011 edition of The Pulse features an interview with Matthew Wasowski, senior manager of customer programs at Blackboard Collaborate. He discusses Wimba Classroom, Pronto and Wimba Voice, and how these products and Elluminate will be combined in the upcoming Blackboard Collaborate, due this summer.

**Open Textbooks and other OER**
(There are resources here that are applicable to K-12, too.)

Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) This is a joint effort by the OER Center for California, Foothill-De Anza Community College District, the League for Innovation in the Community College and many other community colleges and university partners to develop and use open educational resources (OER) and especially open textbooks in community college courses. View over 500 open textbooks in many subject areas. For descriptions of these open textbooks, see listings in MERLOT and OER Commons.

College Open Textbooks //The Community College Open Textbooks Collaborative// is funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This collection of sixteen educational non-profit and for-profit organizations, affiliated with more than 200 colleges, is focused on driving awareness and adoptions of open textbooks to more than 2000 community and other two-year colleges. //College Open Textbooks// has peer-reviewed more than 100 open textbooks for use in community college courses and identified more than 550. Open textbooks are freely available for use without restriction and can be downloaded or printed from web sites and repositories. Read the accompanying blog.

// Download this Power Point presentation: //// Discover Open Textbooks; Make Education More Accessible ////. //// (Bryan Evans, Larry Green, Una Daly, Sloan-Merlot, July 2010) //Sloan-4 MerlotOpen Textbooks 2010

Open Text Book Open Text Book is a registry of textbooks (and related materials) which are open — that is free for anyone to use, reuse and redistribute. It is run by the Open Knowledge Foundation.

A Cover to Cover Solution; How Open Textbooks are the Path to Textbook Affordability //Nicole Allen, Student PIRGs, September, 2010// College textbooks prices have sky rocketed in recent years, threatening the affordability and accessibility of higher education in America. The average student spends $900 on textbooks annually. Some recent developments have brought signs of relief. And several potential solutions have evolved in the textbooks marketplace. Published by Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups)

OpenCourseWare (OCW) OCW is a free and open digital publication of high quality university‐level educational materials. These materials are organized as courses, and often include course planning materials and evaluation tools as well as thematic content. OpenCourseWare are free and openly licensed, accessible to anyone, anytime via the internet.

MITOpenCourseware MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT. No registration required.

Index of OER Resources //Creative Commons// More than just open textbooks, Open Educational Resources come in many shapes and sizes. This partial list of sources provided by Creative Commons introduces the scope of OER and the organizations cultivating its increasingly vital role in opening higher education up to the greatest number of people worldwide. Also, download the Free to Learn Guide also from Creative Commons.

Read how California addressed K-12 textbooks. The California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) began in 2001 as a collaborative – a public/private undertaking; it was the first organization created to address the high cost, content range, and consistent shortages of K-12 textbooks in California.

**Cloud-based Instruction**
Privacy Considerations in Cloud-Based Teaching and Learning Environments (White Paper) // Veronica Diaz, Joann Martyn Golas, & Susan Gautsch, Educause Learning Initiative (ELI), January 6, 2011 // Quote: “In this white paper, we outline the privacy issues relevant to using cloud-based instructional tools or cloud-based teaching and learning environments for faculty members and those supporting instruction. Our discussion of how teaching and learning in an increasingly technological environment has transformed the way we interact and interpret FERPA will help inform various choices that institutions can consider to best address the law, including policy and best-practice examples. We highlight practical suggestions for how faculty members can continue to use innovative instructional strategies and engage students while considering privacy issues. Finally, this paper discusses ways to further explore and address privacy locally and includes a comprehensive resource list for further reading.”

**Resources and Tools**
How Web-based Tools Change Teaching and Learning Provided by Digital Learning Environments, this eBook is available for download. It is designed to help you understand how valuable Web 2.0 technologies are and how educators can use these tools to meet the challenges ahead.

The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators //Several Contributors, Richard Bryne, Free Technology for Teachers, December 13, 2010// There are introductions in this book to more than six dozen web tools for K-12 teachers. Additionally, you will find sections devoted to using Skype with students, ESL/ELL, blogging in elementary schools, social media for educators, teaching online, and using technology in alternative education settings. Download the free book.

The Secrets of Writing Multiple Choice Test Items With thanks to Oklahoma Career Tech Testing Center, this was their #1 most read post in 2010. The entire list of 25 can be found here.

The 6 Best Free Online Meeting Tools to Collaborate With Your Team //Jessica Cam Wong, makeuseof.com, January 3, 2011// This round-up is a collection of incredible free online meeting tools that don’t skimp on features even when they are browser-based. Instead, they offer pretty fully featured suites for collaboration even to users with free accounts, but of course, most have additional paid offerings as well. Here’s the list: Free Project Collaboration Portal: TeamLab; Document Collaboration Tools: Sync.in & Twiddla; Web-Conferencing Services: Tokbox VideoChat, DimDim , Vyew ;

Merlot Just a reminder of the wealth of learning materials found here.

**Other Topics**
The Story of Stuff Project //Annie Leonard// Just think this is a great site in case you have never seen it. It’s really about environmental issues and technology is just one focus here. The author is serious but demonstrates the issues in cartoons. There’s also some take-away for content and instruction.

"We environmentalists are a whiny, wonky bunch," Leonard says. "We bombard people with facts. But who wants to join a movement where people just scold you? We have to make it inspiring. We have to make it fun."

In the past 2 1/2 years, more than 12 million people worldwide have viewed Leonard's animated Web video, "The Story of Stuff," a 20-minute exposé of humanity's wasteful ways. It has been translated into more than 15 languages and has spawned a book of the same name, published on recycled paper with soy ink.