I checked out Wikibooks as our science department is in the middle of planning to create some open source information to provide to our online science students. We are in the research and discussion stage though I really think that a creating our own wiki resource is a great option.


So this week was very relevant to one of our science department goals is for this year. We have a goal to explore creating some open source materials for our online course. We have some classes that use text books and others that use the online information provided by our partner. The main issue with the information provided is that it is not as comprehensive as we would like and is currently supplied in a very rigid structure. Assignments and activities are inbeded into the online source. Which makes it very difficult to adjust or modify the curriculum as we would wish.

It looks to me like we can start to collaborate on producing such an online source by using a wiki. I checked out the online text book project at Wikibooks which is a web wide effort to do the same. I specifically looked at the biology section and found that it was started but just barely. There are other such movements that we are looking into as well as just creating our own information as well.

As a department we have all agreed philosophically that the information should be open source and available to all. This does bring up the interesting fact that with the open enrollment system we could very well be contributing to the success of other online schools in the near future, who under the current system are in direct competition for our potential students. With the current capped enrollment system in place this could be potentially fatal to our endeavor.

Week 1 Ced 0535 Opportunity Lost?

I found the bookBlogs Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful tools for classrooms to be a very exciting read. I really got caught up in looking forward to the possibilities described in the read/write web. We have used some of those tools in this class effectively. My first thought was how difficult incorporating these tools into a face to face class would be and then how difficult it would be to incorporate these tools in to the rigid system we have in my online environment. Richardson's advice to start by using the web tools to learn about and develop your own passion seems to be great advice. it is nice that we have the added advantage to explore them in our grad class but I also feel that the tools will be most useful to me professionally in the context of organizing, building and communicating online materials with my science department. We have established a delicious group were we share bookmarked web pages. We also cooperatively work on projects using Google docs.



It is interesting how different districts are reacting to the changes taking place. The school district of Arrowhead moved this year to allow the students to use their cell phones throughout the school day and some teachers have encouraged their use in class. My son downloaded a Spanish English Dictionary on to his cell phone for use in class. While the school district of Waukesha has banned teacher participation in online social networks such as face book and twitter and blogs. What are your thoughts on this topic?


Students are currently learning how to interact in these environment on there own, with very little guidance. Wouldn't it be beneficial to give students experience in using these tools productively? Of course the fear of their misuse can out way the opportunities . Information security and privacy issues is one area that we need to address. Sooner better than later as it seems opportunities are being lost.