Conversation is the key : A short history of smarthistory.org
Published | September 2010 |
Conference | UOC, OU, BYU |
ABSTRACT
Smarthistory.org is a proven, sustainable model for open educational resources in the Humanities. We discuss lessons learned during its agile development. Smarthistory.org is a free, creative-commons licensed, multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement or substitute for the traditional art history textbook. It uses conversation instead of the impersonal voice of the typical textbook in-order to reveal disagreement, emotion, and the experience of looking. The listener remains engaged with both the content and the interaction of the speakers. These conversations model close looking and a willingness to encounter and engage the unfamiliar. Smarthistory takes the inherent dialogic and multimedia nature of the web and uses it as a pedagogical method. This extendable Humanities framework uses an open-source content management system making Smarthistory inexpensive to create, and easy to manage and update. Its chronological timeline/chapter-based format integrates new contributions into a single historical framework, a structure applicable across the Humanities.Keywords | art · art history · conversation · humanities · instruction · Khan Foundation · learning · Open Educational Resources · Smarthistory · sustainability · teaching methods · textbooks |
Published at | Barcelona |
Language | en |
Rights | by-nc-nd/3.0 |
URL | http://openaccess.uoc.edu/webapps/o2/bitstream/10609/5081/6/Zucker_editat.pdf |
Export options | BibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar |
AVAILABLE FILES
Viewed by 192 distinct readers
CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS
The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.










Click a star to be the first to rate this document
▶ POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS
Open textbook adoption and use: Implications for teachers and learners
Petrides, Lisa; James, Cynthia; Middleton-Detzner, Clare; Walling, Julie; Weiss, Shenandoah
The Community College Open Textbook Project (CCOTP) was developed to support the use of textbooks that are freely available and accessible online, and that can be adapted by teachers and learners to meet their unique ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability; teaching methods; textbooks
Are We Asking Too Much of OER? A Conversation on OER from OE Global 2023
Flinn, Chad; Openo, Jason
This paper examines the pervasive discourse of disruption in OER literature by recounting a facilitated conversation hosted at the 2023 Open Education Global conference held in Edmonton, Alberta. This dialogue used ...
Match: conversation; open educational resources; textbooks
Building a manifesto for OER sustainability: UK experiences
Pegler, Chris
Evidence of sustainability, or the potential to achieve this, is increasingly a pre-requisite for OER activity, whether imposed by funders, by institutions requiring a 'business case' for OER, or practitioners ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability
Evaluating the effectiveness of adopting open educational resources in an introductory American government course
Lawrence, Christopher N.; Lester, Julie A.
In this article, we present findings from a grant-funded initiative to replace traditional, proprietary textbooks with an open content textbook under a Creative Commons license in the introductory American government ...
Match: open educational resources; textbooks
How to foster sharing of educational resources?
van der Baaren, John; de Vries, Fred
The future of OER is highly dependent on the future of education in general. A future that will be determined by major changes in society that demand more people with a higher education and life long learning. Each ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability
Effects of open textbook adoption on teachers’ open practices
Mason, Stacie; Kimmons, Royce
The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand whether certain theoretical benefits that open educational resources (OER) might have on teacher practice were being realized by a group of secondary teachers ...
Match: open educational resources; textbooks
Open educational resources: Staff attitudes and awareness
Rolfe, Vivien
Attitudes are changing in education globally to promote the open sharing of educational courses and resources. The aim of this study was to explore staff awareness and attitudes toward ‘open educational resources’ ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability
Open educational resources: Inquiring into author use and reuse
Petrides, Lisa; Nguyen, Lilly; Jimes, Cynthia; Karaglani, Anastasia
For teachers and learners, the proliferation of Open Educational Resources (OER) in combination with advances in information technologies has meant centralised access to materials and the possibility of creating, using, ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability
Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions
Hilton, John
Textbooks are a vital component in many higher education contexts. Increasing textbook prices, coupled with general rising costs of higher education have led some instructors to experiment with substituting open ...
Match: open educational resources; textbooks
Open educational resources: An analysis of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities student preferences
Kinskey, Caroline; King, Hunter; Miller, Carrie Lewis
The cost of college tuition and textbooks continues to rise and can function as a barrier to education for many students. This study evaluated Minnesota State Colleges and Universities students’ attitudes towards ...
Match: open educational resources; textbooks