Eclectic Technology

More and more sites provide access to e-curriculum. Here is a list from Michael Gorman that explores the following sites:
* Symbaloo, a site that allows you to create web mixes. Please note that Symbaloo has a educational version and a non-educational version. It is worth checking out both versions.

* Diigo, a site that allows you to store bookmarks, tag them and more.

* Livebinders - think of a 3-ring binder but online and you get the idea.

* My Big Campus - a safe social learning platform for students. There is a paid version and a freemium version.

* Scoop.it - a great tool for curation.

* Pinterest - many great educational resources can be found.

* Educlipper - this tool is similar to Pinterest but designed for educators.

There is much more information on each of these tools in this post and well worth the read. Have fun exploring!

Are you ready to move away from textbooks and use Open Education Resources (OER)? This post provides links to 24 sites that provide free resources.

Perhaps you are wondering why schools are choosing to use free curriculum. Michael Gorman provides a list of ten reasons in this post that include:

* Provides  opportunity to make learning more authentic by giving you the ability to localize learning

* Can provide differentiations and allow educator to adapt to their students’ needs

An explanation is provided for each link he provides so you get a sense of what is available, and materials are available for students from elementary school through college. Below are a few of the sites listed.

* SAS Curriculum Pathways - a resource that has been around for a number of years and continues to innovate. The website states “The products make learning more profound and efficient, not simply more entertaining.” 

* Concord Consortium - a website that provides excellent STEM resources with hundreds on interactive, research based activities.

* Vision Learning - Peer reviewed materials for learning science available in English and Spanish that emphasize science as a process (inline with the new Next Generation Science Standards)

* CK12.org - CK12 is now focused on STEM and provides a wide variety of free courses from Arithmatic to Probability to Calculus in the area of math (a total of nine math courses); Life Science, Earth Science, Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Technology, Astronomy and Engineering; a few xourses are available for English and History and there is a new course in Economics. CK12 also provides support through a variety of resources including: studyHELP, FlexMath, Braingenie and I Need a Pencil (SAT prep). One of the older sites they continue to revise courses and materials to meet the needs of todays students.

Check out the complete list by clicking through to the post, and consider not only using these materials but sharing materials you have created in some of the communities provided.