Cool Tools
Open Source Curriculum
By Louisa Lambregts, Online Learning Centre
By Louisa Lambregts, Online Learning Centre
Introduction
Wiki-what? (Wikipedia)
About Curriki
Additional Open Source Curriculum Resources
Introduction
Good-bye “information age”. Welcome to the “participation age".
This is the terminology that Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has coined to describe how people’s use of the internet has changed. In addition to looking up information, more and more people are becoming content producers – choosing to publish their own writing, photographs, movie clips, and podcasts. They are also becoming active members of online communities.
Curriki.org is a relatively new open source curriculum resource. If it takes off as its executive team hopes, the site could become a valued teaching resource and a dynamic community space for educators, parents and students.
Wiki—what?
Many of us have probably used Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (www.wikipedia.org). This international web site creates its content through an interesting process – one that has been applied successfully to the development of “open source” software – collaborative writing. Unlike the hard-cover volume set of the Encyclopedia Britannica, content can be added to and modified by anyone at any time.
Wikipedia’s peer review and editing policies, which focus on consensus and reversibility of entries deemed to be incorrect, encourage the development of credible and reliable information. However, the credibility of its content has come under fire. (Some of this criticism is discussed within Wikipedia itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Credibility )
Despite its growing pains, Wikipedia, with its easy-to-use “wiki” platform, has ushered in a new age of content development – one that allows anyone to contribute content within a collaborative and increasingly global online environment.
Curriki
"We want to be like Wikipedia, but in curriculum: the first place people go to find curriculum". Bobbi Kurshan, Executive Director, Curriki.
Started by Sun Microsystems in 2004, Curriki is an online environment that “supports the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them.” A non-profit organization, Curriki’s aim is to make quality educational content available to everyone for free.
As a registered member, you can contribute new content, use content, or modify content to make a customized derivative that meets the needs of your class.
Curriki aims to be more than just a repository of learning assets. Its focus is on providing a "complete curricula solution, not just a textbook or lesson plans, but a comprehensive course of instruction and assessment."
Curriki has many interesting collaborations and projects planned. Enhancements will include the ability to create courses, to access and contribute to open source textbooks, and to collaborate about curriculum online. It will be interesting to observe its evolution. Like Wikipedia, it may go through some growing pains. Over time, it could prove to be an interesting online space for finding and sharing learning ideas and content.
More About Curriki
Curriki: Open Source Curriculum, Barbara Kurshan. Podcast from Florida Educational Technology Conference, January 23-26. Conference Connections,Apple Learning Exchange.
http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/item.php?itemID=9789
Curriki
offers new world of course content. Corey Murray,eSchool News.(January 5, 2007).
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showstory.cfm?ArticleID=6787
Interview with Bobbi Kurshan of Curriki. Piloted.(March 13, 2007). http://academicbiz.typepad.com/piloted/2007/03/interview_with__1.html
Wikipedia in the Classroom
This blog entry provides a good summary of the arguments that educators are making for and against the use of wikipedia in the classroom.
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/07/
wikipedia_in_the_classroom_con.html
Do you think that wikipedia should be used in the classroom?
Send your thoughts to
ltnewsletter@algonquincollege.com
Other Open Source Curriculum Resources
How the open source movement has changed education: 10 Success Stories.Online Education Database. (Published March 1, 2007) http://oedb.org/library/features/how-the-open-source-movement-has
-changed-education-10-success-stories
Connexions
A collaborative environment for developing and sharing modularized learning content.
http://cnx.org/
The National Repository of Online Courses (NROC)
A repository of online courses for high school and higher education.
http://montereyinstitute.org/nroc/nroc.html
MIT Open Courseware
Provides a substantial collection of open source course resources that are free for anyone to use.
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
The Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/index.php
The Internet Archive is an online library of web sites and digital artifacts relating to history and culture.
