Lifehacker has published information about an upcoming course on creativity taught by MIT professors that is open to the public. Registration for the course ends February 8, 2013, and the course begins February 11, 2013.  Check out MIT professor Mitch Resnick’s invitation to participate in Learning Creative Learning.  

As I ponder my class in the upcoming semester, I am left with a serious conundrum. What is the role of the textbook in a New Media teaching environment? In the age of information abundance the textbook is a gilded box for information. Its monetary cost to students is significant, yet its benefit is questionable. While content is important, I question if textbooks, especially basic-level textbooks, provide an essential source of that content.

In honor of Digital Learning Day (February 6, 2013), PBS LearningMedia released a survey indicating that teachers correlate educational benefits to technology use in classrooms. Nearly 75% of all teachers surveyed indicated that “technology enables them to reinforce and expand on content, to motivate students to learn, and to respond to a variety of learning styles.” According to this survey, teachers are indicating that they have even more access to…

Noted Stanford University education professor Larry Cuban is skeptical about the latest trend in educational technology circles otherwise known as the MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses). In this blog post, he doubts that MOOCs will seriously alter the structures of higher education institutions and cites several reasons for this. After hearing several colleagues speak highly of their experiences teaching students via MOOCs, he notes, “As I listened to them tell how…

U.S. News & World Report discusses governments’ increasing use of open-source textbooks to reform education programs with Creative Commons’ Cable Green. This movement, often referred to as “open educational resources” (OER), challenges what some reformers consider an anachronistic textbook industry.

Edudemic provides a useful overview of Explania.com, home to hundreds of animated explanations, interactive tutorials, and instructional videos that can be viewed online or embedded in other web pages for free. Topics include technology, ecology, and health.

Writing for EdSurge, science teacher Jessica Sullivan explains how she brought the richness of an educational work trip back to the classroom using field photographs and Google Earth.