XplanaZine

Stephen Downes has some excellent comments on our Free Curriculum discussion. In particular, he points out that the Manifesto I wrote yesterday is a decent start, but that what is called for now is something more concrete. And he is absolutely correct. We do need something more concrete.

For that reason, and as an extension of the Free Curriculum Manifesto, I am announcing the creation of the Free Curriculum Project (that will live at freecurriculum.org). The Free Curriculum Project will have, as its stated mission, the creation and distribution of free course materials covering K-20 and lifelong learning curricula. In order to provide some scope for the Free Curriculum Project (FCP), I am listing here some of the project’s timelines, goals, and commitments.

1. We will have a core library 100 online courses available for free and open distribution within 24 months.
   1. Course creation will be open to communities and will encourage content creation through a collaborative process.
   2. Course creation will include optional or alternative lessons that reflect different learning styles, content preferences, etc.
   3. Course design and creation will be open to community participants but the FCP will provide course templates for those who wish to use them. Community members will also be free to create new course templates for the FCP in general or for specific discipline needs.
2. The FCP will partner with existing open course initiatives and will make its curriculum content available to any existing libraries for redistribution.
3. All courses and course content will be available in part or whole on a variety of LMS platforms, both open source and proprietary. Our goal is to provide free curriculum content to all learners and instructors within the technology format(s) they are currently using.
4. Alternatively, individual course elements will be available through a FCP learning object repository (LOR) or through other LOR partners.
5. The FCP will partner with foundations and corporations to provide free hosting of FCP courses for all learners.
6. The FCP will recruit both individual and institutional partners as course and/or discipline sponsors.
7. In addition to the core curriculum mentioned in #1, The FCP will partner with various world organizations to design and create specific free curricula for developing nations.
8. The FCP will foster an open community of research and discussion related to the idea and practice of a free curriculum.
   1. We will work to inform discussions about learning curricula.
   2. We will conduct partnered research on content distribution so that FCP content can be distributed on as many hardware platforms as possible.
   3. We will model new ideas for course and curricula design and provide testing and feedback for those ideas.
9. The FCP wiki will be launched September 1 at http://freecurriculum.org. It will feature complete details about the project and our stated goals.
10. The FCP course community area will be launched October 1.

Here’s the bottom line. I will work for the next two weeks to get the FCP launched officially. I will take care of server space, the wiki, course technologies, and recruiting. I’ll also take responsibility/editorship for the languages portion of the curriculum which, in the core library, will include Basic and Intermediate Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese, and English as a Second Language. The first Spanish course for free and open distribution will be available this spring.

It’s concrete, but it’s only a tiny start. So, here’s where the recruiting begins. Consider this the official FCP notice and now consider your self formally asked to participate. Some can contribute design theories, while others can contribute editorial services, and still others can contribute content. We’re looking for individual assessments, lecture notes, lessons, animations, photos, and more. This is a project through with everyone benefits and to which everyone can contribute something. It will take a community and I am asking you to be a part of that.

Until the wiki goes live, feel free to send me e-mail regarding this project at rob@freecurriculum.org. I will also be providing blog and podcast updates in the interim.

Postscripts

In addition to Downes’ comments yesterday, , A. K. M. Adam also picked up our free curriculum discussion and extended part of it to current practices by professional organizations. He writes, “If a professional association really wants its members to gain mindshare, to raise the level of public discourse over the topics it addresses, that organization ought to commission educational materials from its leading exponents and distribute them online — for a tiny proportion of what mainstream-media campaigns cost.” Amen.

Downes also mentions his Regina Declaration which is well worth the read.