Session 5--What Happens When You Merge Your Curriculum and a Wiki?

Session 5---Curriki.org

Wow has time flown.  We are now almost half-way through this course, so we should take the opportunity the week before April break (4/14) to meet again f2f for our second of three meetings. There we can go over coursework expectations for the rest of the semester, practice some hands-on content creation, and collaboratively modify the mid-term assignment to best suit Chariho High School's needs. Let pragmatism prevail!

We still have over three weeks before 4/14, so don't stress out too much. Please arrive with either a solid outline of what topics you'd like to realistically cover in you digital chapter, or the beginnings of what you have already begun to create.  (For those of you that have not gotten comfortable yet with how to start, please arrive with specific goals about what would be the most practical for your setting and we'll collaboratively get you moving in the right direction.)

This shouldn't be an overly-stressful course, so please feel free to ask questions, make mistakes, and communicate your obstacles, so that we can make this the most productive learning experience possible.

I'll reach out to Jessica and see if we can schedule that same room in the CHS Library from 3:15-6 for 4/14.  Now let's get started with S5!

Let's first watch this 5 min. video on the shift to Digital and Open Textbooks.

Now, on to Curriki. I had the good fortune to be speaking at a conference in DC in the Spring of '09 and that lead to a great networking opportunity.  I was lucky enough to be asked to join a cohort of six education professors from around the nation.  We were hired by Curriki to develop a series of online PD sessions on OER's (licensed under CC) that could be integrated into any teacher preparation program.

A great place to start is to hear about the history and mission behind the site. One of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, joins Curriki CEO Kim Jones to talk about their efforts to make learning materials free and open to everyone on the Internet.

Now there's no sense in re-creating the wheel, so I'll follow a similar procedure to Session 4.  Watch the videos below, pause them regularly, and try to re-create the instructions.  When we're finished you can explore on your own.

Let's start with, "Viewing a Resource in Curriki"

Now let's look at what members can do with resources.

With all of these resources available and at your fingertips, you'll need to be assured that your access the best and highest quality information, so let's next learn about, "Reviewed Resources."

We'll skip the screencasts on how to rate and comment on resources for now, b/c that's a little more advanced, but when you're ready you can view it here.

Now it's time for the fun part---finding useful stuff.  Let's start with, "Search Basics."

There are few things more frustrating than searching endlessly for a resource and not finding what you're looking for, so our next video will walk you through the "Advanced Search" options and filters.

Most of the benefits to using OER's can be increased exponentially by working collaboratively with a group of your peers, so the last video we'll watch will be on how to access and create 'groups' in Curriki.

I've always been a big proponent of pragmatism in teacher training, so for the rest of your time this week I'd like you to spend time exploring these resources and looking for material to suit your specific educational setting.  Please keep track of your thoughts and reflections and post them under S5's entry before next Tuesday.

For those chomping at the bit for us to cover eReaders and tablets---your time will be here soon.  Here's some of the latest data:


Have fun!

PS-Here are the comments from past teachers that took this course:
Spring '13
Summer '12