We give an overview of the Physics Educational Technology (PhET) project to research and develop web-based interactive simulations for teaching and learning physics. The design philosophy, simulation development and testing process, and range of available simulations are described. The highlights of PhET research on simulation design and effectiveness in a variety of educational settings are provided. This work has shown that a well-designed interactive simulation can be an engaging and effective tool for learning physics. Complete listing and access info »

Survey held May 18 to Nov 16, 2005 to investigate reception of Opensource Opencourseware Prototype System (OOPS). Survey topics:

* Background
* How did You First Become Aware of 'OOPS'
* Roles in Educational System
* Satisfaction to Course Materials
* Suggestions
* 65 Educators and OOPS
* Volunteers and OOPS

Total surveys recorded: 839. Total valid surveys: 788
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On September 19-21, 2006, the WGBH Educational Foundation hosted a conference on "Open Content and Public Broadcasting." With an initial grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and additional funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, WGBH proposed the conference as a way to explore public broadcasting issues related to producing and distributing open access content across multiple platforms.

The conference grew out of the recognition that public broadcasting executives were interested in the Open Content movement, but were struggling to understand how it might both further public broadcasting's public service mission and support efforts to pursue strategic business models and sustainable solutions.

The Open Content conference was designed to bring together key stakeholders in the public broadcasting system, academics who promoted open content in higher education, industry leaders in new media and technology, experts in intellectual property rights, and leaders in philanthropy. Together they examined existing models and efforts that might guide public broadcasting's entry into open content, possible barriers to adoption of open content models in public broadcasting, and opportunities to pursue.

This report looks at the events of the conference and the key points discussed. It summarizes the group's conclusions and presents recommendations from the WGBH planners. Audio from the conference presentations and further information is available at http://opencontent.wgbh.org.
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This article presents the challenges and rewards of sharing research content through a discussion of Open Context, a new open access data publication system for field sciences and museum collections. Open Context is the first data repository of its kind, allowing self-publication of research data, community commentary through tagging, and clear citation and stable hyperlinks, and Creative Commons licenses that make reusing content legal and easy.

The Nov-Dec 2007 issue of Educational Technology magazine is an entire special issue dedicated to "Opening Educational Resources." A series of articles in this issue highlight open educational models, including OpenCourseWare, Connexions and this piece on Open Context, co-authored by Sarah Whitcher Kansa and Eric Kansa.


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The common use by archaeologists of ubiquitous technologies such as computers and digital cameras means that archaeological research projects now produce huge amounts of diverse, digital documentation. However, while the technology is available to collect this documentation, we still largely lack community-accepted dissemination channels appropriate for such torrents of data. Open Context aims to help fill this gap by providing open access data publication services for archaeology. Open Context has a flexible and generalized technical architecture that can accommodate most archaeological datasets, despite the lack of common recording systems or other documentation standards. It includes a variety of tools to make data dissemination easier and more worthwhile. Authorship is clearly identified through citation tools, including web-based publication systems that enable individuals to upload their own data for review, and collaboration is facilitated through easy download and "tagging" features. Near Eastern archaeologists will benefit from Open Context's flexibility to share a variety of content from diverse projects, no matter how large or small.

This article was originally published in Near Eastern Archaeology (ISSN 1094-2076), Volume 70, Number 4, December 2007.
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