In October 2015, the U.S. Department of Education launched #GoOpen. The purpose of the campaign is promote the use of open-sourced educational resources or OER in districts and schools across the country. The initiative is promoted through the Office of Educational Technology, an office within the US Department of Education. As part of the press release, the Education Secretary, Arne Duncan stated, “In order to ensure that all students – no matter their zip code – have access to high-quality learning resources, we are encouraging districts and states to move away from traditional textbooks and toward freely accessible, openly-licensed materials. Districts across the country are transforming learning by using materials that can be constantly updated and adjusted to meet students’ needs.” OER”s can then be modified and share without the worry of copyright violations.

Here are a few open-source resources that you may want to explore:

OER Commons (https://www.oercommons.org/) OER Commons describes itself as “a dynamic digital library and network. Explore open education resources and join our network of educators dedicated to curriculum improvement.”

Academic Earth (http://academicearth.org/) states it is a “collection of free online college courses from the world’s top universities.”

CK12 (http://www.ck12.org/), “provides a library of free online textbooks, videos, exercises, flashcards, and real world applications for over 5000 concepts from arithmetic to physics to journalism.”

MIT Open Courseware (https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm)—states that it “is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.” There are online textbooks, demonstration videos, audio/video lectures and much more. Take some time to explore the “Highlights for High School” page as well, https://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/

Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/) offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning that allows learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom with great supplemental resources to share with students. For students that have taken the PSAT or SAT, they can link their College Board account to Khan for a personalized study program as well. Another feature I like is the single sign-on. Students that are part of a GAFE district can sign in using their school Google account. I believe you can also make a connection with Google classroom  through this venue.

edX (https://www.edx.org/) – “EdX offers free online courses and classes. Find the latest MOOC from the world’s best universities including MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, UT and others.”

Amazon is now getting into the game with its Amazon Inspire. Released in beta format in June, Amazon Inspire is platform of free resources for teachers and educational institutions .After signing up, educators will be able to upload resources as well as search for materials by subject or grade level and download to adapt to specific needs. If you’d like to request access, click here https://www.amazoninspire.com/access and sign up. I’ve requested access myself and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Take some time to explore some of the resources mentioned above and let me know what you think. For more details on #GoOpen commitments made by school districts and technology companies, go to http://tech.ed.gov/open.