OpenCurriculum
From Schoolforge-UK
Contents |
The goal
Our goal is to provide links to open content resources and on-line Schemes of Work covering the whole of the English National Curriculum, with lesson materials and links to supporting resources, which can all be presented with generic software tools such as OpenOffice.org, Mozilla, etc.
In other words, an entire support system for the UK school curriculum that is free, updateable and accessible via any standards-compliant web browser.
To find resources for a particular Key Stage or Subject, click on the appropriate link below. Alternatively, try using the Search box (at left).
Note: Teachers are invited to upload or link to FLOSS schemes they have developed.
Other sources of open curriculum content
Over 2000 Lesson plans at TeacherNet:
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/TeachingandLearning/resourcematerials/Resources/
- any comments or experience about these?
Resouces created by teachers may be freely shared through the Teacher Resource Exchange.
OpenLearn provides freely available Open University educational resources for learners. Educators may also add to and remix the courses in the experimental LabSpace.
Connexions is a rapidly growing collection of free scholarly materials and a powerful set of free software tools for building them. Connexions is internationally focused, interdisciplinary, and grassroots organized. More than one million people from 157 countries are tapping into over 2,300 modules and 80 courses developed by a worldwide community of authors in fields ranging from computer science to music and from mathematics to biodiversity.
OpenCourseWare finder Provides a comprehensive index of open courseware offered by US universities.
OpenCourseWare The OpenCourseWare Consortium now includes many international universities contributing materials to the open courseware project started by Massachusetts Intitiute of Technology.
National Learning Network (NLN): A good collection of e-materials aimed at the Learning & Skills sector. You need to register in order to access these materials.
Wikibooks is a collection of open-content textbooks that anyone can edit. Started in 2003, it currently has over 8000 book modules in a huge range of topics.
Wikiversity is a sister project to Wikibooks (as well as Wikipedia), and is a collection of educational resources, as well as being a space for active learning. There is a page on Wikiversity to explore how collaboration with SchoolForge could take place.
Textbook Revolution - Another source for free educational materials on a good range of subjects.
Priory Woods School - excellent content and resources also suitable for SEN.
Project Gutenburg has some 16,000 eBooks and is the oldest producer of free eBooks on the Internet. The collection was produced by hundreds of volunteers.
Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, they provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public. The way back machine also lets you view old versions of websites.
ibiblio is home to one of the largest "collections of collections" on the Internet, ibiblio.org is a conservancy of freely available information, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural studies.
Wikipedia has a List of open-content projects.
OpenContent Initiative - Open Content curriculum development project sponsored by a standards-based American school district. Both standards, and curriculum areas are open to editing using the Mediawiki engine.
Open Clip Art is a good site for clipart and is getting better all the time. Also if you need a quick lesson filler in IT get the kids to design some clipart and the best one(s) can be submitted to the project.
The Schoolforge directory of FLOSS for education list many programs suitable for schools use.
How the OpenCurriculum will be built
We invite schools and teachers to adopt a page or topic to look after. There will be some kind of recognition for those who do a really good job, perhaps a certificate and a write up on our Home Page. We're not quite sure how best to do this, and ideas are welcome.
In any case, if you wish to contribute, please register first and then put something about yourself on your User page. Please also read the Wikipedia policies and guidelines about using a neutral point of view (NPOV), copyrights and respect for other contributors.
Suggested structure for a Scheme of Work
- Title
- Reference to the QCA Programmes of Study
- Learning Objectives
- Information/factual knowledge needed
- Description of activities
- List of resources needed
- Links to useful resources eg relevant sections of Wikipedia.
- Homework/additional exercises
- Summary of what should have been learnt
You can see some examples of OpenCurriculum Schemes of Work here
