Saylor.org

A recent graphic (‘Major Players in the MOOC Universe‘, pictured) from the Chronicle of Higher Education has caused a small stir, mainly by those who feel left out (*cough, cough*). Some others, though, took umbrage at the inclusion of Khan Academy as a “MOOC”. A glance at the comments reveals at least a few raised eyebrows in re Khan, echoing other thoughts that can be found floating around the Web.

One commenter writes, “Don’t understand why Kahn [sic] is in the middle of this diagram.  The scope of their free and open products don’t fit within the technical definition of ‘MOOC’.” loup7066 goes on to suppose that maybe we ought to switch “OER” for “MOOC”, and “if so, then Saylor.Org, Connexions etc. should be added.”

(Thanks, loup7066, you rock!)

Note that the issue here isn’t about the quality or significance of Khan’s offerings (hey, we’re fans here) — at least for most — but about the definition of MOOC. That can be a touchy subject, and one we ourselves have mostly skated around.

One of the the ironies in this situation is revealed by Sal himself, who has said that the Khan Academy is not a MOOC (see first half-minute of video). Not that the term is an insult — not by a long shot. But the danger in slippery speech here, given the rapidly burgeoning public awareness of this MOOC thing, is that wanton application of the label can obscure what an organization really is, if it it not, in fact, a maker of MOOCs.

So. Khan Academy? Not a MOOC. But, hey…us neither!

[Image credit: The Chonicle of Higher Education]

Is Einstein’s theory of relativity still confusing to you? Do you want to explore physics in real-live action? Are you more of a visual learner who would like to see physics in motion? Well you’re in luck! Here are some resources to aid you in your physics travels.

Helpful Videos

Flash Animations for Physics

(U. of  Toronto)
This helpful resource from the U. of Toronto is available for your viewing pleasure and also for educational purposes. Various topics are covered, including chaos, waves, and fluid mechanics.  Also, they are available in Greek, Dutch, Hungarian and Polish! (Open License)
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PhET Physics Simulations

(PhET, U. of Colorado @ Boulder, CO.)
These simulations can help keep you interested in the mesmerizing and engaging world of physics. This site is also available in many languages. (Open License)
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Physics

(Khan Academy)
Short and sweet concepts videos from the Khan Academy. (Perhaps you’ve heard of them?) (Open License)
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General Physics Lab Experiments

(METU OCW)
Brought to you by the Middle East Technical University in Turkey, which has a whole lot more worth exploring, in both English and Turkish. (Open License)
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Other Resources

Encyclopedia of Physics 

(Scholarpedia)
Scholarpedia has a nice bunch of articles on physics and astrophysic.. The articles come from many different authors and have been fine tuned through the process of peer-review; they might break your brain, but it’s worth it. (Open License – by article)
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Nuclear Warfare

(U. of Notre Dame)
Is science just not your thing? Check out this course, specifically designed for non-science majors…and good evidence for why everyone should know a little physics. (Open License)
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Motion Mountain 

(Schiller, Motion Mountain Physikverein)
This German organization has committed itself to a 25-year project to make physics more engaging! Come explore what they have available for you! (Open License)
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Basic Physics, 2nd ed.

(Flexbooks CK-12)
CK-12 has a collection of e-books (and some videos too!) that can be helpful to help keep the hard sciences more down-to-earth. (Open License)
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Open Courseware Consortium

(OCW)
Okay, maybe we’re cheating here…the members institutions (such as yours truly) of OCWC have just about everything on offer. In any case, just search for physics and ready, set, LEARN! (Open License)
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Good Morning and a belated Happy Presidents’ Day to those in the states! Have you ever heard of the 3 R’s? Well, this week we have the  3 A’s for Education: Access, Affordability and Accreditation. Education isn’t always fully available to all. Many times money can stand in the way, or even a lack of good curriculum, technology, etc. But when looking at access, one must ensure that accreditation and quality must  also be addressed.

We start off this week with a combination of all three A’s and a look at some of the immediate aftermath of last Tuesday’s annual State of the Union address. President Obama made a proposal to change higher education in America with a few key points: changing eligibility for financial aid, a new accreditation system, and a focus on student success rather than simply enrollment (among other things). Is this possible? Will the US Congress agree with these proposed changes? Only time will tell.

Obama’s Bold Plan to Reshape American Higher Education (Chronicle of Higher Ed.)

With New ‘Scorecard,’ Obama Seeks to Give Students a Tool for Comparing Colleges (Chronicle of Higher Ed.)
In the name of Affordability, included in one of the American President’s changes is a scorecard system that can help prospective students choose colleges and universities. However, critics feel that this new system is lacking data and that the government should first take the time to see what kind of data the students want.

Does Khan Academy help learners? A proposal (Chronicle of Higher Ed.)
In the name of Access, Khan Academy has made many videos and lessons freely available to help one learn independently. But some wonder if KA really helps the learner.

Where does Tech ed belong in Edtech? (EdSurge)
Next up, and continuing in the name of Access, we have an article from EdSurge. It states that Tech. ed., or teaching students computer science prior to university, has now become the focus of a few initiatives in some public schools, to allow more students to get a head start.

To MOOC or Not to MOOC (Chronicle of Higher Ed.)
And lastly, in the name of all three: Access, Affordability and Accredition, an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at both sides of the MOOC surge. On the ‘for’ side: “[A]s higher-education systems continue to grow in scale, it makes sense to look at ways of teaching more people more efficiently, and MOOCs may well be a part of the answer.” And against: “What is forgotten in all the hubbub is that the financial models of most elite universities nowadays are not based primarily on educating undergraduates.” The journalist also further questions if such an endeavor would help research, and other sources of endowments.

Well? Which of the 3A’s is most important to you? What sort of changes would you propose for education? Other comments? Please feel free to comment below and let us know!

Have a great week! In other news…
A warning to college profs from a high school teacher (The Washington Post)
Disney ‘Connected Learning’ Aims To Infuse Games with Learning (Ed Surge)
Colleges Ask Goevernment to Clarify Rules for Credit Based on Competency (Chronicle of Higher Ed.)

Photo Credit: Instant Vantage via photopin by SA 2.0 CC

We research all kinds of materials…only some of which end up in one of our courses. Many resources are too good to keep hidden, so we’ll be presenting them here every Friday. Today’s a 10-for-1 deal…enjoy!

As our world grows smaller and even more globalized, many people have looked to the stars and space to see what is else out there. (After all, it is the Final Frontier.) Here are 10 great sources and tools that can help you as an educator, student, or someone who is simply curious about the universe.
Planetariums

Google Sky (Google)
Similar to its brother, Google Earth, this tool shows us the skies above us and its galaxies.
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Stellarium (F. Chéreau et al., via Source Forge)
Source Forge allows you to download the open source software and begin your adventure by looking at 3-D images of objects that can be seen with the naked eye, binoculars, or a telescope. (Open Source)
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nakshART (cestum.org)
This sky chart view application gives you the chance look at the stars and planets in 3-D. No eyewear necessary!
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Planetarium (Neave Interactive)
Set your location on the map, and blast off! Now you can use an interactive map to view the location of the sun, search by constellation or planet…or just explore.
<<link>>

Images and Videos

Zooniverse (Citizen Science Alliance)
Originally known as Galaxy Zoo, this nifty site educates others by using inquiry-based learning and asking its viewers to give their own input on what the graphics show. In short: crowd-based science. Now you can participate in a world-wide science project!
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Cosmology and Astronomy (Khan Academy)
The Khan Academy has a collection of short videos (20-25 min each) available for your viewing pleasure. (Open License)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day (NASA)
NASA shows us pictures of the world around us from a bird’s eye view. With a new image daily, and an archives section, NASA has really brought outer space to our homes and computer screens.
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Other Resources

Introduction to Astronomy (Public domain text, updated by Curtis Menning)
This open book was started in 1910. Although it lacks some of the advancements that have occurred since then (like Hubble, and Einstein) it still is rather up-to-date in its explanations of the basic concepts of Astronomy. (Open License)
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Exploring Black Holes: General Relativity and Astrophysics (MIT OCW)
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has made one of their courses available to the general public. Taught in 2003, this site comes complete with lectures, readings, exams and even projects! (Open License)
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OER Commons: NASA
With search options according to grade and subject, this NASA collection provides many open materials that can be used in the classroom or at home — with some supervision of course! (Open License)
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We’re going to aim to have these out mid-month from here on out; as always, if you’ve got links that belong in one of the categories below (or if we’re foolishly missing a category), drop us a line! See the end for more info on the credits.

Open License

KA Lite [BY-NC-SA 2.0]
Historically, network connectivity has been the bane of teachers and students everywhere, and one of the biggest obstacles to deploying technology to ‘improve’ learning…when it takes 25 minutes of an hour-long block to get all the students on charged & networked computers, well, that’s not so nice. This offline implementation of Khan Academy’s openly-licensed content might solve at least some of those problems — it can be installed on any Windows or Linux server for use on a local network, or even on “roving vans.” Actually, their ‘more info’ sheet covers most of the use cases you haven’t yet imagined. The Power of Open, people…it’s a thing.
[Link]

LoudLit.org [BY-NC-ND 2.5]
Free audio recordings for a number of classic novels, stories, children’s books, and poems. Nothing wrong with that. We gave a listen to part of Chapter 1 of Huck Finn…great voicing and sound quality!
[Link]

RealWorldMath.org [BY-NC-SA 3.0]
From the site: “Real World Math is a collection of free math activities for Google Earth designed for students and educators.” In other words…fun. Credit: ES
[Link]

Open Access

Knowmia
K-12 video curation, brought to you by some of the same folks who were behind the Flip video recorder (which enjoyed a brief, brilliant time in the sun before smartphones came into their own). Credit: ES
[Link]

JSTOR Register & Read
Some of you may know about or remember JSTOR’s release of early journal content (content that had passed out of copyright back into the public domain), and this new program is equally exciting…for registered individual users, the company is making selected content from about 1,200 journals available for online reading. According to the info page (see the link), the content is “from the first volume and issue published for these journals through a recent year (generally 3-5 years ago).” Credit: Hamish M.
[Link]

“Is Open Access Finally on the Ascendancy?” (BioScience)
This optimistic (and brief!) article has been making the rounds the past few days. Well worth a look, and OA is always worth the discussion!
[Link]

Tools

FOIA Online (U.S. Department of the Treasury)
From the site: “As of December 10, 2012, the Department of the Treasury will implement FOIAonline in a limited capacity to receive FOIA requests and provide the processing status of requests identified by tracking numbers through FOIA online.” Credit: HNN
[Link]

Cerego
Still an invite-only beta (you can request one at the link), these folk “use brain science to help you learn faster and remember longer.” Credit: ES
[Link]

Groupnotes
Also still in the free invite-only phase (but there’s a demo). From the site: “Groupnotes is a collaborative tool that you can use to easily share, annotate, and comment on websites.” Credit: ES
[Link]

WorkFlowy
A list making application…nothing new there, but this one’s got some impressive testimonials from
Credit: SR
[Link]

News

Education to Employment: Designing a system that works (McKinsey)
Old news for a new year: there is a disconnect between education and employment; this downloadable report dives right on in. Credit: ES
[Link]

Serious. Fun.

Trace Effects (U.S. State Department)
From the site: “A collaborative English language video game experience for students ages 12-16. Learn English and explore American culture through puzzles, games, and adventures in an interactive world.” Credit: ES
[Link]

Impact of Major on Career Path for 15600 Williams College Alums (Satyan Devadoss, Hayley Brooks, Kaison Tanabe)
Notwithstanding the fact that it looks a bit like an anatomical drawing of muscle fibers (our apologies if you can’t un-see that now), and further notwithstanding that it’s peculiar to a single institution (Go Ephs!), this data visualization is pretty darn cool.
Credit: ES
[Link]

Spent (Flash Game)
Some of us here are old enough to have read a lot of a certain series of “gamebooks”. And old enough, at least, to know that text-based adventures were one of the first going concerns in personal computer gaming. “Spent” is kind of an emotionally-serious upgrade of the classic Lemonade Stand, in which the player attempts to make a budget last all month in the face of all-too-common frustrations. Working students will certainly sympathize (but may want a little less reality in their gaming). Regardless, “Spent” is a great example of how people can use the Internet to communicate in compelling ways…creatives take note!
Credit: ES
[Link]

Dead Sea Scrolls…at 1215 dpi (Israel Antiquities Authority, Google)
In an ancient OER newsletter, we mentioned the high-res Dead Sea Scrolls that Google had helped put online. Now, they’ve helped take it several steps further by assisting the Israel Antiquities Authority with launching the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. 5,000 images in infrared and color, at 1215 dpi resolution. Awesome.
[Link]

DIY.org
The concept is deliciously simple: the site presents real-world ‘maker’ challenges (DIY = “Do It Yourself”), which the maker can then complete, share back to the site, and earn “patches”. It’s all about climbing the mountain because it’s there, and many or most of the challenges can be done on the cheap. Almost completely random aside: The School of Life. Huh.
Credit: ES
[Link]

Credits
ES = EdSurge (www.edsurge.com)
HNN = History News Network (www.hnn.us)
SR = The Scout Report (scout.wisc.edu/scout-report)