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....
Dubbed the "Wikipedia of curriculum" by its creators, the online community known as Curriki...aims to provide a place online where educators from anywhere in the world can post curricula and lesson plans for review and use by fellow classroom teachers.
Like Wikipedia, the organic online encyclopedia that lets its users edit and update existing entries, Curriki employs a philosophy of open access, encouraging its members not only to use the content available on the site, but also to upgrade it, modify it, and tag it to suit the needs of their students, wherever they are.
The brainchild of Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, Curriki was founded as a way to provide disadvantaged teachers and students around the globe with open and unfettered access to high-quality educational content.
So enamored was McNealy with his vision that he decided to spin the company off from Sun into its own freestanding nonprofit organization. Based in Washington, D.C., the group is led by longtime educational software designer Bobbi Kurshan....
After celebrating its official launch in October, organizers report that as of press time membership in the online community had ballooned to more than 15,000 registered users, with more educators coming online daily....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/06/2007 03:35:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
