computer-based educational tools
Open Tapestry: make your own teaching units by selecting available OER
Open Tapestry is an online educational/ training tool that leverages open education resources to aid in teaching and learning. Instructors can use it to deploy courses through the Open Tapestry platform or through their own website.
Open Tapestry can easily be integrated with anything (any LMS, Google Docs, interactive tools) and provides a scalable search and recommendation engine, where instructors can connect with colleagues and find relevant content.
The platform aims to make finding teaching and training materials simple and reduce the costs associated with assembling instructional content.
SpeakApps OER
SpeakApps Open Educational Resources (OER) consists of a set of online tools for practising oral production and interaction when learning foreign languages.
The SpeakApps openly licensed tools are directed at different types of activities and are suitable for all students, regardless of the level they have reached in a particular language.
The platform's OER repository allows teachers to find a growing amount of activities and experiences to be carried out in their classrooms. Moreover, and since the repository is build in a wiki environment, users are able to actively contribute to the project by modifying and adapting activities to their needs.
Media & Learning 2013
Media & Learning 2013 is targeted at practitioners and policy makers interested in exploring and discussing media supported learning at all levels of education and training.
Media & Learning 2013 is for all those interested in the latest developments, services and uses of media in education and training. Aimed at both policy makers and practitioners, the purpose of this annual event is to identify policies and initiatives that promote digital and media competence at all levels of education and training as well as to promote best-practice in the take-up and application of media in education and training.
Net Texts: an app for the classroom
Net Texts is a free app which organises and delivers the wealth of Open Educational Resources available on the Internet.
Net Texts helps schools replace or supplement printed textbooks with customized multimedia courses delivered to students' iPads, Android tablets and laptops.
- Teachers use the app’s Content Management Website to select existing courses or to create new courses by mixing and matching items from the library with their own educational material.
- Students use the Next Texts iPad or Android or web app to download and view these courses, filled with videos, slideshows, e-books, PDFs, text, audiobooks and links.
Microsoft Mathematics 4.0
Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 is a free online algebra system with a friendly user interface and a step-by-step equation solver which aims to help students understand the path to a correct answer. Its powerful visualization tools also help to capture students’ imaginations and keep them engaged, allowing their comprehension to rise exponentially.
Mathematics 4.0 can help students understand mathematics, science, and tech-related concepts with powerful, easy-to use tools including a graphing calculator, unit converter, triangle solver, and equation solver.
Step-by-step solutions are provided for each problem, so students can learn problem solving skills fast and easy. An improved Computer Algebra System (CAS) helps teachers share and solve more complex equations and functions. It’s capable of handling many subjects, including pre-algebra, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, physics, and chemistry.
Handwriting recognition is also included, so all students can write out problems by hand.
Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 is part of the Microsoft Partners in Learning free online resources for educators and schools.
OCW Universidad de Alicante
The OpenCourseWare programme of the University of Alicante (Spain) offers more than 350 free and open courses, making it one of the top contributors in Spanish to the international OpenCourseWare Consortium.
Hundreds of teachers have already participated in the OCW-UA project since its creation in 2007 as one of the major initiatives from the University to allow the promotion of open knowledge, improve the quality of teaching materials and increase their distribution.
In 2011 the University of Alicante was awarded with the Landmark Site for OpenCourseWare Excellence for its materials and innovations, including integration with institutional repositories, export-to-wiki functionality and search and discoverability tools.
Teaching 4.0 - Graphic Expression in Construction OCW
The concept Teaching 4.0 is the result of uniting the use of participatory networks, online tools and digital content available in the Internet, and adding educational material generated by teachers in traditional media (offline) and using ICTs (online).
The Universitat de les Illes Balears (Spain) is a pioneer in the implementation of this 4.0 concept, where professor Antonio Fernández-Coca combines face-to-face teaching, following the traditional parameters, with the external support of relationship marketing and ICT tools (such as online videos and social networks) to produce specific content aiming to support teaching in an open and shareable way.
The Teaching 4.0 website developed by professor Fernández-Coca shares the learning and teaching materials produced under a Creative Commons licence for the subject Graphic Expression in Construction, part of the UIB’s Construction Engineering degree curriculum.
Teaching 4.0 is the winner of the Universia Open Course Ware 2012 contest, organised by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and Universia.
Click here to see a video where professor Fernández-Coca explains his Teaching 4.0 concept (in Spanish).