Enriching Education Through Digital Sharing

The desire to learn never ends—and neither should the opportunity.

Thanks to new technologies, it’s now easier than ever for schools and other organizations to create rich, online repositories of learning “objects” that students, teachers, and other users can draw upon at their own convenience to enrich their education. Teachers across the globe, for example, are taking open digital content items and repurposing them for use in their classrooms; universities are making course content available online to users worldwide; and schools and vendors are creating online, interactive learning communities for educators to advance their knowledge and skills.

With the generous support of Atomic Learning, we’ve assembled this collection of stories from the eSchool News archives to help you understand this phenomenon. We hope you’ll find these resources useful as you explore how technology can unlock a world of knowledge 24-7 for your staff and students --The Editors

  • New online platform aims to boost staff development
    Primary Topic Channel:
    Atomic Learning, a provider of web-based software training programs for schools and other users, has introduced a new product that offers schools a publishing tool to store, manage, and share digital training resources, such as videos, lesson plans, student projects, and more--making it easy to share information and professional development resources throughout schools and districts, the company says
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  • NECC exhibitors launch online educator communities
    Primary Topic Channel: NECC
    The use of Web 2.0 technologies to create interactive, online social environments for networking and professional development was on full display in the exhibit hall at this year's National Educational Computing Conference in Atlanta. Recognizing the importance of professional development in successfully integrating technology into instruction, as well as the need for "just-in-time" resources that educators can call upon at their own convenience, several companies demonstrated brand-new web sites for educators to network with their peers, share ideas and lesson plans, and otherwise advance their understanding of these companies' products and services… Read More
  • Online communities transform teacher development
    Primary Topic Channel: School Administration ,Professional development
    Professional development is central to the effective use of technology, but it often conjures up images of inconvenient and time-consuming meetings and workshops. Now, a new crop of online, "anytime, anywhere" resources is changing the way schools approach staff development--and changing how educators view the concept, too. These new online professional "learning communities" allow teachers to network, ask questions, and share ideas with colleagues on their own time--something teachers have precious little opportunity to do while at school. They also give educators on-demand access to videos, tutorials, and other how-to advice as needed, resulting in the kind of ongoing, "just-in-time" training that research shows to be most effective … Read More
  • PBS station makes open educational resources available to teachers
    Primary Topic Channel:
    Teachers' Domain, a web site from public television station WGBH in Boston, for years has offered free educational resources developed from award-winning PBS science programs such as NOVA and A Science Odyssey. Now, the site has launched a section devoted to “open educational resources”--downloadable, sharable, remixable video segments, interactive activities, and lesson plans in earth science, engineering, life science, and physical science disciplines … Read More
  • ‘Pageflakes’ is an easy way for educators and students to create and share web content
    Primary Topic Channel: School Administration
    Pageflakes, a community-driven personalized home page founded last year, is using Web 2.0 technology to revolutionize how schools and others use the internet through a process known as "pagecasting." Teachers and students have found it a fast and easy way to set up an online learning environment without any programming skills and at no cost. Using Pageflakes, educators arrange "Flakes"--small, movable versions of popular web sites, interactive research tools, and education-specific applications--on a customized web page. Educators then can use Pageflakes' innovative pagecasting capability to share their page privately with their students, classes, and administrators, or publish it to the web so anyone can see it. Pageflakes has worked with educators to develop multi-user Flakes specifically for the classroom environment, including a Grade Tracker, Class Schedule, To-Do-List, Message Board, Class Blog, and Class Calendar, in addition to popular online reference tools such as Wikipedia and a dictionary. Hundreds of thousands of other Flakes also are available for news, special interests, document storage, photos, videos, and more--enabling teachers and students to create a shared, education-oriented web site for virtually any subject, learning topic, or educational community, the site's creators say.
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  • Open-content learning portal debuts
    Primary Topic Channel: Curriculum
    A new online content resource center, formally launched March 9 by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), will make more than 8,000 classroom materials available to teachers and learners worldwide, at no cost. Read More
  • Web fuels 'democratization' of knowledge
    Primary Topic Channel: Curriculum
    Getting into college might be tougher today than it used to be--but an increasing number of top schools are now offering courses free of charge online. What's more, some program administrators report giving away course content actually is having a positive impact on student recruitment.... Read More
  • Curriki offers new world of course content
    Primary Topic Channel: Curriculum
    A new online community has emerged that promises to give educators around the world an opportunity to collaborate and share curricula in hopes of expanding the educational options available to schools. Called Curriki, the resource pairs the benefits of social networking with the freedom of open technologies to create an organic, constantly evolving online repository of free resources for teachers and students... Read More
  • eLearning taken by SCORM: Emerging standard makes content more accessible
    Primary Topic Channel: Curriculum
    Educators who purchase, use, or create educational content for digital instruction should be aware of an emerging set of standards that are sure to have a profound impact on eLearning. The Sharable Content Object Reference Model--or SCORM--is a collection of standards and specifications adapted from multiple sources to allow for the interoperability, accessibility, and reusability of digital learning materials: everything from a video clip illustrating how cells divide to a PowerPoint explication of a sonnet. SCORM is opening the door for the creation of "digital repositories," or collections of sharable, reusable online content that educators can search through to find items they can incorporate into their own instruction... Read More
  • Wanted: Single standard for open-content licenses
    Primary Topic Channel: Curriculum
    The use of open, sharable course materials is transforming education worldwide: Educators across the globe are taking open digital content items and repurposing them for their own classrooms; universities in Vietnam have begun translating materials available through MIT's OpenCourseWare program; and in Japan, leading universities have come together and agreed to make much of their courseware open as well... Read More