Curriki

From OER Grapevine

Launched as Curriki.org running Xwiki, November 2006
Founded: 2004
License: CC BY? Will all content hosted at Curriki be licensed CC BY?

Thought you all might want some background about Curriki. --Bobbi

Curriki - Global Education & Learning Community is the first all-embracing Internet site instituted to develop, aggregate, evaluate and support the best of Open Source Curriculum. Curriki is the only site to develop this complete Open Source Curriculum solution based on a comprehensive curricular framework that includes defined learning objectives, scope and sequence for instruction, lesson plans, instructional materials, teacher training and student assessment of mastery.

Curriki was founded by Sun Microsystems in 2004 and became an independent 501(c)(3) organization in 2006. It currently has more than 400 community projects underway with over 3,000 registered developers.

[edit] Curriki Mission

Curriki’s mission is to empower people worldwide through Open Source Curriculum and to eliminate the Education Divide by moving learning into the Participation Age. This curricula will range from K-12 to higher education and lifelong and life skill learning. The initial focus will be on K-12 curricula in the areas of literacy, languages, mathematics, science and technology; and universities and organizations that develop curricula for K-12.

[edit] Curriki Strategy

Curriki’s approach leverages the Internet to shift how curricula is developed, distributed and evaluated, as represented by its 3-D model:

Develop curriculum through community contributors
Deliver the curriculum globally
Determine the impact by project and by individual

In order to implement this approach, key elements to Curriki’s strategy will include creating an open source portal, building a community of educators, building a repository of open source curricula and engaging a global community.

Curriki intends to be the “one-click stop” for the best in world-class learning, by supporting and aggregating open educational resources of other organizations and individual developers. Curriki also will provide open source developers with unique, time-saving online curriculum development tools to create and develop Open Source Curriculum and academic research. User feedback will provide an effective way to validate the curricula.

Curriki’s repository will offer easy access to online materials that can be localized by ministries or departments of education. Open source textbooks will be the primary curricula format, as textbooks are the most common and easily understood framework for instructional materials. Since every education agency has a printer and paper for reproducing and distributing the materials, online access at the student’s desk will not be required to benefit from Curriki’s repository.

Curriki will be a digital crossroads for those who want to teach and those who want to learn. Together we can eliminate the Education Divide. Freely sharing through community is the right thing to do for educating an increasingly inter-dependent global population in this Participation Age.