curriculum, text

MIT OpenCourseWare
“A free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world…a publication of MIT course materials…does not require any registration…is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting activity (does not provide access to MIT faculty).”

California Open Source Textbook Project
“COSTP will provide a new model for textbook creation in the State of California by 1) leveraging free, already-existing, and widely available K-12 educational content in the public domain; 2) better leveraging the substantial curriculum-based intellectual capital of California’s best K-12 teachers; and 3) using innovative copyright tools to secure new and dormant K-12 textbook content that would not otherwise be made available.”

Free High School Science Texts
“…to help our next generation by providing a free science textbook for Grades 10-12 to all South African learners.”

Wikibooks
a collection of open-content textbooks that anyone can edit

Free Curriculum Project
“to create a written plan for educating a child from grades K-12, including a complete set of course materials under the GNU Free Documentation License, including textbooks, workbooks, homework and tests.”

OpenTextBook
an effort to produce free (CC licensed) textbooks

The Textmapping Project
“Textmapping is a graphic organizer technique that can be used to teach reading comprehension and writing skills, study skills, and course content.”

Directory of Open Access Journals
“free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals...all subjects and languages...”

The Public Library of Science
“...to make the original published reports of ideas, discoveries, and research results in the life sciences and medicine (and eventually other fields) freely available online, without restrictions on use or further distribution...” For example, see this paper on Gray Wolves and Climate Change in Yellowstone.

Textbook Weight in California: Data and Analysis [PDF, 284KB]
Study of the role text-books play in creating over-burdened back-packs for children.

organizations, projects

explOratorium
“The museum of science, art and human perception”, the Exploratorium was founded in 1969 by Frank Oppenheimer and others who wished to provide informal learning experiences in a public space. Check out the Teacher Institute, Institute for Inquiry, and CILS (Center for Informal Learning and Schools). Or head over to the Palace of Fine Arts and experience the interactive exhibits first-hand!

Waldorf education
“Developed by Rudolf Steiner in 1919, Waldorf education is based on a developmental approach that addresses the needs of the growing child and maturing adolescent. Waldorf teachers strive to transform education in to an art that educates the whole child—the heart and the hands, as well as the head.”

reggio emilia
From Italy: “…educational project developed and practiced in the Municipal Infant-toddler Centers and Preschools of Reggio Emilia.”

School Arts for Nature
From Germany: “According to the slogan Thinking and learning about the environment with head, heart and hand, pupils explore their local and regional environment for special phenomena. Their impressions and experiences will then be expressed creatively in an artistic and aesthetic manner. The finished products will be presented to the local communities in the individual schools and will later be offered for sale.”

Shikshantar
From India, an organization that endeavors to “…construct and connect new open learning communities”

Motivating People to Learn
an interview with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi about what motivates people to learn

Generation YES
“...works with schools...to implement and enhance student technology programs through innovative curriculum, online tools and research-based support services. Programs focus on student-centered, project-based experiences that impact student’s lives and increase student involvement in school and community through technology.”

ThinkerTools Project
“…researchers from UC Berkeley and elsewhere are collaborating with middle school teachers from inner-city, rural, and suburban public schools. We are developing instructional methods and materials aimed at making scientific inquiry accessible to a wide range of students.”