Open Educational Resources (S0): Books & Ebooks

Education has always been a key driver in our nation's struggle to promote social mobility and widen the circle of people who can enjoy the American Dream. No set of educational institutions better embodies the promise of equal opportunity than community colleges. Two-year colleges have opened the doors of higher education for low-income and working-class students as never before, and yet, community colleges often lack the resources to provide the conditions for student success. Furthermore,there is a growing racial and economic stratification between two- and four-year colleges, producing harmful consequences. Bridging the Higher Education Divide faces those grave realities in unblinking fashion. Led by co-chairs Anthony Marx, the president of the New York Public Library and former president of Amherst College, and Eduardo Padron, the president of Miami Dade College, the task force recommends ways to reduce the racial and economic stratification and create new outcomes-based funding in higher education, with a much greater emphasis on providing additional public supports based on student needs. The report also contains three background papers: * "Community Colleges in Context: Exploring Financing of Two- and Four-Year Institutions" by Sandy Baum of George Washington University and Charles Kurose, an independent consultant for the College Board * "School Integration and the Open Door Philosophy: Rethinking the Economic and Racial Composition of Community Colleges" by Sara Goldrick-Rab and Peter Kinsley of the University of Wisconsin-Madison * "The Role of the Race, Income, and Funding on Student Success: An Institutional-Level Analysis of California Community Colleges" by Tatiana Melguizo and Holly Kosiewicz of the University of Southern California.

The community college is poised to contribute beyond its own community to across the world. To do so-to advance the work for the betterment of students and communities-it must engage internationally while building capacity. Recognizing the growing importance of educating students in a globalized world, this volume explores the community college in an international context. It addresses global ideals, values, competencies, and understanding in a local context and shows: How individual community colleges have internationalized How models and partnerships can aid progression to comprehensive internationalization How international systems consider adoption and adaptation. The authors point to a crucial vision for the future: Globalization has moved the U.S. community college steadily from international education as an add-on to international education as a choice, and now to international education as a crucial, integrated mission that has drawn increased interest from other nations intent on an educated, skilled citizenry. The community college is no longer about the United States; the community college is for all of us, a world phenomenon. This is the 161st volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinct and expanding educational mission.

This comprehensive and cutting-edge book portrays a vision of how digital media can help transform schools, and what kinds of curriculum pedagogy, assessment, infrastructure, and learning environments are necessary for the transformation to take place. The author and his research team spent thousands of hours observing classes and interviewing teachers and students in both successful and unsuccessful technology-rich schools throughout the United States and other countries. Featuring lessons learned as well as analysis of the most up-to-date research, they offer a welcome response to simplistic approaches that either deny the potential of technology or exaggerate its ability to reform education simply by its presence in schools. Challenging conventional wisdom about technology and education, Learning in the Cloud: critically examines concepts such as the "digital divide," "21st-century skills," and "guide on the side" for assessing and guiding efforts to improve schools; combines a compelling vision of technology's potential to transform learning with an insightful analysis of the curricular challenges required for meaningful change; and discusses the most recent trends in media and learning, such as the potential of tablets and e-reading.

Praise for Social Media for Educators "At last, a book that provides a straightforward discussion of the pedagogical reasons to use social media, and how to effectively use the tools to enhance learning experiences. A practical must-have!"--Rita-Marie Conrad, instructional strategist and technologist, Duke University School of Nursing; coauthor, Engaging the Online Learner and The Online Teaching Survival Guide "This insightful and in-depth exploration effectively makes a case for embracing the best characteristics of social media to foster deeper learning experiences, promote collaboration, and provide timely feedback. This book is a can't-miss for educators."--Amy M. Collier, associate director for technology and teaching, Center for Teaching and Learning, Stanford University "Thought about using social media in your online courses but don't know where to begin? Joosten's comprehensive hands-on book describes step-by-step how social media can add richness to your course content and have a positive impact on student outcomes." --Rosemary Lehman and Simone Concei#65533;#65533;o, eInterface; coauthors, Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching and Managing Online Instructor Workload "Many faculty are hesitant to incorporate social media into their teaching for fear that it will be a distraction or too time consuming. Tanya Joosten has done a remarkable job outlining the benefits--and considerations--of doing so. Faculty who read this book will be able to make informed, educated decisions about the best approach to take." --John Dolan, director, digital media and pedagogy, College of the Liberal Arts, Penn State University Social Media for Educators This is a down-to-earth resource filled with strategies for designing learning activities that work toward specific outcomes. It illustrates the ways in which social media will improve learning and contains case studies that clearly demonstrate social media's ability to: Increase communication and interactivity in a course Facilitate engaging learning activities Enhance students' satisfaction, learning, and performance

Facebook, Twitter, Google...today's tech-savvy students are always plugged in. However, all too often their teachers and administrators aren't experienced in the use of these familiar digital tools. If schools are to prepare students for the future, administrators and educators must harness the power of digital technologies and social media. With contributions from authorities on the topic of educational technology, What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media is a compendium of the most useful tools for any education setting. Throughout the book, experts including Will Richardson, Vicki Davis, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Richard Byrne, Joyce Valenza, and many others explain how administrators and teachers can best integrate technology into schools, helping to make sense of the often-confusing world of social media and digital tools. They offer the most current information for the educational use of blogs, wikis and podcasts, online learning, open-source courseware, educational gaming, social networking, online mind mapping, mobile phones, and more, and include examples of these methods currently at work in schools. As the book clearly illustrates, when these tools are combined with thoughtful and deliberate pedagogical practice, it can create a transformative experience for students, educators, and administrators alike. What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media reveals the power of information technology and social networks in the classroom and throughout the education community.

"Eye-opening, thought-provoking, and enlightening." -USA Today "An indispensable guide to the business logic of the networked era." -Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody "A stimulating exercise in thinking really, really big." -San Jose Mercury News What Would Google Do? is an indispensable manual for survival and success in today's internet-driven marketplace. By "reverse engineering the fastest growing company in the history of the world," author Jeff Jarvis, proprietor of Buzzmachine.com, one of the Web's most widely respected media blogs, offers indispensible strategies for solving the toughest new problems facing businesses today. With a new afterword from the author, What Would Google Do? is the business book that every leader or potential leader in every industry must read.

This book focuses on the emerging phenomenon of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which are changing the fundamental underpinning of educational systems worldwide and forcing educators and other stakeholders to re-think the way instruction is currently conducted. It examines the origins of MOOCs within the context of the open education movement, and reviews current policies, guidelines and initiatives to promote the use of ICT  in education through the development and use of open educational resources from international practices, including implementation and licensing issues. With a particular focus on new trends in MOOCs, the book explores the potential of this emerging paradigm, its rise and its impact on openness in education. Various new initiatives are also presented, including more global examples and those that are more geared to certain regional contexts. The book is intended as a stepping stone for both researchers and practitioners who are looking to approach MOOCs from a holistic perspective.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2014! Sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), this one-of-a-kind book demonstrates the best tools, resources, and techniques for discovering, selecting, and integrating interactive open educational resources (OERs) into the teaching and learning process. The author examines many of the best repositories and digital library websites for finding high quality materials, explaining in depth the best practices for effectively searching these repositories and the various methods for evaluating, selecting, and integrating the resources into the instructor's curriculum and course assignments, as well as the institution's learning management system.

Every day, learners use and reuse open, digital resources for learning. Reusing Open Resources offers a vision of the potential of these open, online resources to support learning. The book follows on from Reusing Online Resources: A Sustainable Approach to E-learning. At that time focus was on the creation, release and reuse of digital learning resources modeled on educational materials. Since then the open release of resources and data has become mainstream, rather than specialist, changing societal expectations around resource reuse. Social and professional learning networks are now routine places for the exchange of online knowledge resources that are shared, manipulated and reused in new ways, opening opportunities for new models of business, research and learning. The goal of this book is to extend the debate of how open, online resources might support learning across a variety of contexts. Twenty-four distinguished experts from nine countries distributed across Europe and North America contribute empirical evidence and ideas. Collectively they provide a vision of the potential of open, online resources to support learning across everyday contexts of education, work and life.