What is a wikitext? A powerful, new way to learn!


A non-profit organization called CK-12.org has developed a great collaborative tool called a Flexbook that allows users to create their own online (and printable) textbook, developed for a learner's specific ability, learning style, reading level, interest, culture, or region.

Click here to watch a demo, or view the featured author or Flexbook or to learn more about what Flexbooks can do for your students?
Want to create your own chapter? Click here.

CK-12.org has Flexbooks and chapters available in physics, mathematics, and biology.

University of Rhode Island
Dave Fontaine of URI offers a graduate-level course that allows the participants to develop chapters and content for a wikitext to share with others. Dave is affiliated with CK-12.org and has developed this course to spread the word about the organization and about the free, collaborative resources that abound there.
Dave Fontaine
Internet Librarian
National Board Certified Teacher
Educational Consultant
DaveFontaine1@gmail.com
http://www.visualcv.com/davefontaine

URI Course description: Online Texts in the 21st Century Classroom 

• Participants will explore and use collaborative, online tools like wikis to improve instruction, as well as create digital textbooks from Open Source material. They will also contribute, and gain access, to unlimited amounts of free digital textbooks that can be used in their classrooms, schools, and districts and create an Open Source chapter/subsection that will be shared with the world! 
• In the 21st century, teachers and students are finding traditional textbooks less useful. Most are out-of-date before they reach the
  classroom. Teachers only use a fraction of the material, and the costs have skyrocketed; even the smallest districts spend over $100,000/year on textbooks! 
• More and more teachers are beginning to access online resources like: interactive tutorials, videos, edu-games, and pod casts to supplement their instruction. In this economic climate, and with the proliferation of free, quality content on the Internet, is it possible to create your own digital textbooks?
• The answer is yes and the movement is already underway! Some of the greatest minds are banding together to harness their Collective Intelligence. They are collaboratively writing textbooks and giving them away for free for the common-good. Learn about this movement, share your own knowledge, and let your district benefit from the generosity of others.
  Save and retain each week's lesson in its entirety so that you may review it repeatedly and manipulate it for your own classroom use. Learn about Creative Commons Licensing and how it allows you to keep, modify, and share each week's lesson.
• URI should be sending out some info soon.