EvaluTech e-Newsletter
www.evalutech.sreb.org
This periodic e-newsletter is provided by the Educational Technology Cooperative
to promote new publications, resources and other topics.
SREB Educational Technology Cooperative
October 2007
Spotlight on Connexions
Connexions is a valuable resource for collaboratively
developing, freely sharing and rapidly publishing K-20
digital learning content on the Web. Its Content
Commons contains educational materials for everyone
— from children to college students to professionals —
organized in small modules that are easily connected into
larger collections or courses. All content is free to use and
reuse under the Creative Commons “attribution” license.
Connexions allow users to create and produce their own
textbooks by selecting the content they want to use and
putting it together in a print format.
Most textbooks are a mass of information in linear
format: One topic follows after another. However, our
brains are not linear — we learn by making connections
between new concepts and things we already know.
Connexions mimics this by breaking down content
into smaller chunks, called modules, that can be linked
together and arranged in different ways. This lets students
see the relationships both within and between topics and
helps demonstrate that knowledge is naturally intercon-
nected, not isolated into separate classes or books.
When people share their knowledge, they can select
from the best ideas to create the most effective learning
materials. The knowledge in Connexions can be shared
and built upon by all because it is reusable.
Just as knowledge is interconnected, people don’t
live in a vacuum. Connexions promotes communication
between content creators and provides various means of
collaboration. Collaboration helps knowledge grow more
quickly, advancing the possibilities for new ideas from
which we all benefit.
This description was taken from the Connexions
Web site. http://cnx.org/
For more information on topics discussed in this e-newsletter, go to http://www