free

Heath Brothers (of Switch fame) giving our their new e-book for free. Get it now!

We're proud to announce that we've just released a new e-book called The Myth of the Garage and Other Minor Surprises. It's a collection of our favorite columns for Fast Company magazine.

And it's free.

Here's how you can get it:

  1. Get it for the Kindle or  the Nook or the iPad.
  2. For readers outside the U.S. or without ebook readers, download the PDF version of Myth by going to our Resources page and signing in using your email address (the same one this note was sent to).

We'd appreciate it if you'd forward this email to any friends who might be interested - everybody loves to get something for nothing.

Thanks!

-Dan & Chip

I love their book Switch, and can only imagine that this is worth reading. It's certainly worth more than $0.00. Enjoy!

Pearson's Free OpenClass LMS for Google Apps

I have just started toying with OpenClass, a free LMS (learning management system) from Pearson, which is a Google Apps for Education tool. It's quite capable, yet basic at the same time. It reflects a certain structured class setup, without much obvious room for flexibility. There seems to be some social features like the class wall, but it's difficult to assess how collaborative students will be able to be. It seems like Google Docs are well integrated, which could help, but what about discussion boards, wikis, etc?

I think this is a useful free tool to start with, but is likely yet to compete with Moodle, Blackboad, HaikuLMS, and the like.

Al Jazeera Creative Commons Repository - teach modern history powerfully

FAIL (the browser should render some flash content, not this).

via cc.aljazeera.net

Al Jazeera puts a great deal of their video media into the Creative Commons meaning that your students can use it for projects as long as they cite their source (which of course, they would do!).

Use this with students, let them develop their own news summaries of what's happening in Tunisia and Egypt. Reporting history as it happens, it's like a history teacher's dream come true!

The Concord Consortium - beautiful math and science software and tools - free!

Information for Teachers

You’re just a click away from even more powerful teaching.

You want to help your students to learn more math and science. So do we. That’s why we’ve spent over 15 years using technology to bring science and math ideas alive.

The best part about it? Hundreds of our resources are free, research-based, and available for you to use today. As a non-profit organization, we’re committed to quality science and math. And we’re focused on showing the world how technology can lead to better learning.

So how can you help your students learn? Try one of these easy ways:

Find free activities for your students

Looking for great ways to teach complex science and math concepts? Let our Activity Finder help. Our standards-based activities cover a huge variety of science topics and include time-tested math interactives. Our models and simulations can make complicated topics simple. And most of our activities let you see assessment results after students use the activities, making alignment with your lessons quick and easy.

Put your probes and sensors to work

Do you have probes and sensors gathering dust in your closet? Fire up one of our many probe-based activities and start collecting data without missing a beat. There’s no need for students to learn how to use complicated graphing or data analysis software – our activities do it all without leaving the page. And you can even use probes from different vendors within the same activity. Try one out today.

Stay on the cutting edge of technology

Do you have the drive to learn about the newest technology? Are you always the first in your school to try new software? We love to work with teachers like you to pilot test our software. Sign up for updates about our cutting-edge classroom technology or to be a pilot teacher and get on the inside track today.

 

What Next?

 

via concord.org

I can't believe I have never seen this group before, but the Concord Consortium has some tremendous math and science resources that are worth exploring. Do let me know if you are using these resources in your classroom and if any have been particularly good.