Eclectic Technology

"One of the best things the Internet blessed us with (besides Maru the box-loving cat) involves increased educational opportunities for children and adults alike. Although some progress still needs to be made when it comes to accessibility opening lessons up to special needs learners, there are plenty of resources for engaging a wide variety of absorption styles. Whether you're a teacher looking to incorporate new media into a classroom setting, a homeschooling family, or a parent hoping to supplement the day’s formal coursework, the following resources offer some particularly great examples of using digital technology to get kids exploring the universe. They’re fun. They’re free. And they feature a diverse selection of topics and strategies, meaning almost every user will find something of interest."

Simple - Great OER content is out there. Gather that content, stitch it together, and engage learners w/o reinventing the wheel.

Stretchy - Seamlessly integrate content with dozens of popular websites, apps, and social media services.

Sticky - Make ANY web content engaging, interactive and shareable using the same tools your learners use every day.

When people talk about open educational resources (OER) they often state that the use of OER will save money. In this study "20 middle and high school science teachers...adopted open textbooks to understand the process and determine the overall costs of such an adoption."

The conclusion states:

"Simply substituting open textbooks for traditional textbooks did not appear to have an effect on student test scores...One area of particular interest is the teachers whose classes saw relatively large (23% and 14%) increases in their CRT scores after adopting open textbooks. One of these teachers said, “The better students write in their textbooks more.” If this comment turns out to be representative of a broader phenomenon, we hypothesize that student test scores will improve when professional development is provided to teachers to help them understand the new activities and pedagogies made possible by the open textbooks (e.g., students highlighting and taking notes directly in their books)."

Additional information may be found in the article.