Open-source curriculum

Open Source Curricula (OSC) is online instructional resources that can be freely used, distributed and modified. OSC is based on the open source practice of creating products or software that opens up access to source materials or codes. Applied to education, this process invites feedback and participation from developers, educators, government officials, students and parents and empowers them to exchange ideas, improve best practices and create world-class curricula. These “development” communities can form ad-hoc, within the same subject area or around a common student need, and allow for a variety of editing and workflow structures.

OSC repositories such as Curriki – Global Learning & Education Community, MIT Open Courseware and Connexions are one way in which the concept of Open Source Curriculum is being explored. With these online repositories, a curriculum framework for a particular course is created by an instructional designer or author in conjunction with content experts. Learning objectives are clearly identified, and learning activities and instructional sequences and assessments are developed and offered to support the attainment of the objectives. However, all users (from students to educators) are empowered to add, delete, and modify the learning activities, resources and generally contribute to the learning environment. In short, each user contributes to the repository and is able to select curricula based on individual interests.

Resources Futureofthebook.org eSchool News Online Open Source Software in Education GlobalText EduCommons CreativeCommons Free High School Science Textbook project Uk Innovation/Jorum (Open in UK only) EISTI-ESSEC - an EU based open courseware repository project with Vivendi involvement - Jean-Hugues Lauret The Gutenberg Project - All Public Domain works The Internet Archives - Brewster Kahle (Large content archive project)

External Links PopTech Content Tapestry Project Curriki – the Global Learning & Education Community Connexions BBC Commonwealth of Learning’s Knowledge Finder -Indexes nearly 1 million documents from around the world on education and development from selected Web sites. Development Gateway Foundation, OER Topic Page - Helps improve people’s lives in developing countries by building partnerships and information systems that provide access to shared knowledge Discovery Channel, Global Education Partnership - Provides tools and training necessary to extend the power of technology and information to under-resourced communities around the world. DSpace - A digital repository system that captures, stores, indexes, preserves and redistributes an organization’s research material in digital formats. Gateway to Educational Materials - Provides educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, nonprofit, and commercial Internet sites. Internet Archive, Education - Provides a variety of content including materials on education and a Web search tool as it existed at different times over the past decade. Smithsonian Institute - Allows users to take advantage of its extensive collection of learning and teaching materials. Sun to Open Source Education - eWeek, March 7, 2006 Former CEO McNealy Finds a Productive, Yet Less Stressful, Place in Sun – USA Today, 12/5/2006 Young Filmmakers Use Web to Teach About Global Issues – Chronicle of Philanthropy, 11/23/06 Tech Executive, As Parent, Seeks To 'Open' Curriculum – Investor’s Business Daily, 11/9/06