CONTACT:  Amee Godwin 
(650) 728-3322

ISKME to Launch OER Commons on March 9, 2007

HALF MOON BAY, CA, March 9, 2007 -- The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) will launch on March 9 a new Internet resource that makes over 8,000 high-quality classroom materials available to teachers, faculty, and learners worldwide at no cost.

In the weeks before its public launch, over 10,000 visitors have come to www.oercommons.org to find a wide range of educational resources, from primary documents to complete course guides and from algebra to zoology, all in one place.

Content on OER Commons has been developed by over 60 collections worldwide, including Carnegie Mellon, Connexions at Rice University, Foothill De Anza Community College, George Mason, Harvard, MIT, NASA Kids Science News Network, Open University-UK, Science Education Resource Center, UC Berkeley, and WGBH-TV in Boston. The number of tools and materials on the site is growing daily, and they will soon be enhanced and adapted for classroom use with comments, ratings, and reviews by instructors and learners across the globe. OER Commons is a project of ISKME, a leader in educational research and practice, with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Palo Alto, a leader in expanding access to Open Educational Resources.

OER Commons is the first comprehensive network for Open Education Resources combining high-quality content with extensive social networking. Educators and learners add tags, ratings, reviews, and comments to help others in schools and on campuses quickly find what they are looking for and to encourage others to share their ratings and reviews – for the benefit of all.

"OER Commons brings the open content movement into the classroom. It offers new ways for instructors and students to engage with teaching and learning materials and share what they know," says Lisa Petrides, president of ISKME. "When people share their knowledge on OER Commons, they pass along their best thinking to others around the globe."

"OER Commons is a great place to locate teaching and learning resources and make them your own," says Richard Baraniuk of Connexions at Rice University, which is a content partner with OER Commons. "By providing an easy link to resources such as those found in Connexions, OER Commons offers unique and innovative opportunities for educators to learn and helps open the door to collaboration."

Created with and for educators, students, and self-learners, this broad selection of high-quality teaching and learning materials for K-12 and higher education can be browsed, searched, and most importantly, enhanced using Web 2.0 social networking features, such as tagging, ratings, comments, and reviews.

Check out Top Ten in OER Commons. By bringing Web 2.0 social networking features and open source technology to educational content, OER Commons offers a unique open content model that allows the best materials to rise to the top, through Top Ten lists for Featured, Highest Rated, Popular, and New items.

 
Webinar on March 9 for Reporters to Debut New Internet Resource

WHAT:  National Media Webinar to explore the launch of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons, a free Internet resource that brings over 8,000 high-quality lesson plans, learning modules, and course materials to teachers, professors, and independent learners at no cost. The Webinar will explain the importance of this new and unique resource and how it helps to engage students with rigorous subject matter.

WHO: 
Lisa Petrides, President, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME)
Amee Godwin, Program Manager, OER Commons, ISKME
Moderated by Matt Maurer, CommunicationsWorks, L.L.C. 

WHEN:            Friday, March 9, 2007, 1:00 P.M., EST
WHERE:          To participate, please RSVP to Albert Lang, alang@communicationworks.com or (202) 955-9450 extension 317.

The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) is an independent, nonprofit educational research institute that conducts social science research, develops research-based tools and resources, and facilitates community-building with the goal of helping educational institutions increase capacity to collect and share information, apply it to well-defined problems, and support inquiry and continuous improvement directed toward student success and organizational learning.

OER Commons: www.oercommons.org