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Classroom Technology Opinion

14 Open Resources For High School

By Tom Vander Ark — October 10, 2012 2 min read
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Co-written by Tom Vander Ark and Sarah Cargill

Last week Secretary Duncan
said it was time to dump the heavy, expensive books students lug around in their backpacks. We agree, it’s time to shift to digital. High-quality open
educational resources (OER) help make the case.

Digital learning advocate and co-founder of two online high schools, Robyn Bagley, recently asked, “What are some good open high school courses?”
We compiled 14 open resources.

Science and Mathematics



  1. CK12.org
    is a pioneer in open resources providing secondary math and science Flexbooks includingFlexmath content originally developed at Leadership Public Schools.
  2. National Repository of Online Courses (NROC)

    provides an online library of OER high school and AP courses at HippoCampus.org. You’ll find
    solid courseware available in modules with voice over text. It is easy to create media playlists, find track high-trending learning materials, and
    share learning content with students.

    Find their next gen content at NROCmath.org including a great Hewlett Foundation-funded open
    Algebra 1 course and a developmental math sequence.


  3. Educurious
    is Gates-funded OER and project-based learning (PBL) curriculum designed to align with Common Core State Standards.

  4. Khan Academy
    has a library of more than 3,000 math, science, and history lessons delivered in easy-to-understand videos.

Comprehensive Modular Resources



  1. The Gateway to 21st Century Skills
    is one of the oldest repositories of education resources online, providing a variety of activities, lessons plans, projects, and assessments.

  2. Curriki.org
    is a big library of shared courses and content.

  3. OERcommons.org

    offers free-to-use teaching and learning content and a long list of content providers.

Grade-Level Collections



  1. Gooru
    curates the Web’s best resources, compiling them into collections and attaching quizzes.

  2. Power My Learning

    provides math, Language Arts, science, social studies, art/music, computer programing, and more educational activities for parents and teachers.

History



  1. Big History Project

    is a Gates-funded thematic interdisciplinary project.

  2. Muzzylane
    transforms history into a game.

Mostly Higher Education



  1. Connexions
    provides a platform for learning modules and content creation that can be compiled into courses, books, reports, and more.

  2. Open Courseware Consortium

    provides free and open college- and university-level educational materials online, anytime.

  3. The Saylor Foundation
    provides free and open college-level courses to students without registrations or fees. Several districts are using Saylor.org courses in high school.
    Watch for more Common Core aligned resources.

Additional Free Resources



  1. Google in Education
    and
    Google Course Builder
    provide great professional dvelopment and learning resources for educators to create and collaborate in the classroom.

  2. iTunesU

    has tons of mostly post-sec content.

  3. YouTube EDU
    has more than 1,000 educational channels.

  4. PBS LearningMedia

    provides tens of thousands of digital resources for educators and is especially valuable to the flipped classroom.

  5. National Geographic
    has a longstanding reputation of supporting learning with valuable multimedia resources for any classroom.

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The opinions expressed in Vander Ark on Innovation are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.