Books such as Bonk's nudge education towards change, perhaps nudge is not the right word, but if education moves a nudge it's a huge leap. Education maybe open but it's definitely not flat..there are tall peaks and low valleys..the peaks being new initiatives such as the University of the People, Peer 2 Peer and, of course MIT. What Bonk has done is to take a systems view of these initiatives. Each of these, viewed individually may not seem so disruptive on its own. Taken as whole these initiatives are rapidly changing traditional education.
This book is written in order on conceptualize the following: We All Learn
W: Web Searching in the World of EBooks
E: E-Learning and blended learning
A: Availability of open source and free software
L: Leveraged resources open courseware
L: Learning object repositories and portals
L: Learner participation in open information communities
e: Electronic collaboration
A: Alternative Reality Learning
R: Real time Mobility and Portability
N: Networks of personalized learning
What follows is a short list of resources which I found on the web that I felt related to each of Bonk's key points. I was excited to find some semantic resources for one or two of these. One that I did not include here is Twine which I discussed in an earlier post.
Web Searching in the world of eBooks
Access Text Networking:
The AccessText Network facilitates and supports the national delivery of alternative electronic textbooks to higher education institutions for students with documented disabilities.
AccessText provides these textbooks by leveraging an online database powered by Intuit QuickBase® and incorporating publisher-provided information on thousands of textbook titles.
Open Textbook Initiative
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 place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc
. Anyone may view or contribute:
- authors create and collaborate
- instructors rapidly build and share custom collections
- learners find and explore content
Examples of Affordable, Free and Open Textbooks
This page contains a vetted list of affordable, online educational resources that might be used in place of an expensive, commercial textbook. The focus of this list is usability; each resource was recommended by at least one professor who has assigned it. For links to other more extensive collections and repositories, see our links section.
http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/statement.asp?id2=37833
eLearning and Blended Learning
There are a variety of eLearning resources, free, open and with paid subscriptions on the internet.
Blended Learning: This page provides links to some resources on blended learning - that is a learning solution created through a mixture of face-to-face and online learning delivered through a mix of media.
Bonk referred to Notschool.net in the book which is: an international 'Online Learning Community' offering an alternative to traditional education for young people who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to engage with school or other complementary provisions such as home tutoring or specialist units.
eLearning according to Wikipedia may be defined as: a term which is commonly used, but does not have a common definition. Most frequently it seems to be used for web-based distance education, with no face-to-face interaction. However, also much broader definitions are common. For example, it may include all types of technology enhanced learning (TEL), where technology is used to support the learning process.
There are resources available such as eLearning Guild for professionals in the field of eLearning design.
ELearn Magazine
Availability of Open Source and Open Software
Open Source: Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.
Leveraged resources open courseware
John Hopkins OpenCourseWare Initiative: project provides access to content of the School's most popular courses. As challenges to the world's health escalate daily, the School feels a moral imperative to provide equal and open access to information and knowledge about the obstacles to the public's health and their potential solutions.
The most current development in this area is folksemantic semantic website that pushes your education interests and needs to you. According to the website for the Center for Open and Sustainable Learning Folksemantic is:
"a project to create tools that increase the impact of open education resources by helping people find, filter, collaborate around, and remix them. As part of the project, work is underway to integrate the OCW Finder, OER Recommender, and Luvfoo. Plans are to improve these tools and add collaboration, personalized recommendation, widgets, and publishing features. COSL is holding an online meeting on March 26 to describe the Folksementic project and solicit input."
Learning Objects repository and portals
Flexible Learning Toolboxes (Toolboxes) are high quality, cost effective interactive e-learning and assessment resources featuring scenarios, images and activities. They are designed for use by training providers, industry and business and support online delivery of recognised training packages for the vocational education and training sector.
Learning Objects, Learning Activities: LOLA is an exchange for facilitating the sharing of high-quality learning objects. It contains materials for use across the curriculum, with a particular focus on modules for Information Literacy
Learning Participation in Open Information Communities
Students/learners creating learning objects such as YouTube videos, flickr, and scribd docs. These types of sites seem to proliferate on the web.
Electronic Collaboration
According to the Business Dictionary this is the: Process of monitoring, critiquing, and cooperating in a project or program by using internet, emails, groupware, etc.
Alternative Reality Learning:
Innovative learning games: alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive experience that uses the real world as a platform to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions"Alternate reality games leverage social technologies to some degree or another for game designers (known as puppetmasters) to provide information to participants, and for participants to communicate with leash other during the process of the game. ARGs are sometimes described as the first narrative art form native to the Internet, because their storytelling relies on the two main activities conducted there: searching for information, and sharing information."
Virtual reality education website
Real time Mobility Learning and Portability
Define as fromWikipedia: Mobile learning is: Any sort of learning that happens when the learner is not at a fixed, predetermined location, or learning that happens when the learner takes advantage of the learning opportunities offered by mobile technologies.
Mobile learning institute: Nokia, a world leader in mobile communications, and the Pearson Foundation sponsor the Mobile Learning Institute, which delivers engaging, personalized, project-based learning right to classrooms and community centers across the United States
Networks of Personalized Learning
Personalized Learning Space
This space is for folks interested in the idea of making learning (online, blended, or hybrid) more personalized. This includes not only learning design and instruction, but also the tools and technologies that can be used to make learning more personal.Refer back to Folksemantic
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