Open Education Resources (OER) Movement

Report about "emerging impact and explores future opportunities. Central to the report is the idea of “The Brewing Perfect Storm” and the creation of an Open Participatory Learning Infrastructure"

http://www.hewlett.org/Programs/Education/OER/OpenContent/Hewlett+OER+Report

Open Educational Resources

"OER Commons is a teaching and learning network of shared materials, from K-12 through college, from algebra to zoology, open to everyone.



Find college courses or K-12 lesson planns. Search lectures, labs, or syllabi that are open to adapt for your own use. Browse the categories or Collections for what interests you"





I was particularily interested in the 10 most popular OER resources--great list.

1. introduction to music theory
2. causal reasoning
3. architectural design workshop: Collage-Method and Form
4. Semiconductor manufacturing
5. Masses & Springs
6. Introduction to Computers and Engineering Problem Solving
7. Introduction to Psychology
8. Globalization
9. Urban Housing: Paris, London, New York
10. Globalization, Migration & International Relations

Translating MIT's OpenCourseWare into Chinese

The New York Times has interesting article in the spreading of free courses and knowledge....

By NOAM COHEN
Published: April 2, 2007

"Using much of the $1 million in royalties from his versions of “The Lord of the Rings,” Mr. Chu says he devotes himself to distributing free translations of material from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Web site."

With volunteer help he has now translated 178 courses of the about 1600 that are available.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/technology/
02link.html?ex=1333166400&en=dcf9f2c3175ed3bf&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Open Source Search

i got a unique opportunity to hear Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia speak at the Colloquia in Orlando (and shake his hand). His speech were entitled, "Free Culture." He talked about open source technology and open content using the creative commons copyright and how the joining of these two things and how they may influence the future.

Here is a link to an interview from Wired where he talks about his new project creating an open source search engine
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,72376-0.html?tw=wn_index_9.

joomla

New open source softare:

derevivative of mambo...

"Joomla! is a free open source framework and content publishing system designed for quickly creating highly interactive multi-language Web sites, online communities, media portals, blogs and eCommerce applications."

30 pieces of free software

Helpful, tested pieces of software:
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2006/12/01/30-essential-pieces-of-free-and-open-software-for-windows/