One of the topics that came up during our Birds of a Feather (a gathering of people who are interested in the same topic) during ISTE in Denver last week (for SIG-Literacy) was how could we use Open Source Solutions and what materials are out there and available to be used right now; as far as e-textbooks that can be uploaded onto classroom computers and e-readers.

Although I may not know of any specific titles anyone may be looking for…here are a few websites, blogs, links, and resources that I have come across ….

http://www.friedbeef.com/7-best-places-to-download-free-textbooks/

• This is a blog post (from a website I recently found- that I have found to be very informative!!) and provides links to places where educators and students alike can download books and textbooks. It’s definitely worth checking this site out and you can also sign up for updates on the topic of “downloadable-free-textbooks.”

http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

• This is one of the GREATEST resources for Children’s Literature I have come upon in a very   l o n g  time. It is the International Childrens Digital Library. This site provides classic literature, representing varying cultural and ethnic writers, stories, families, and perspecitves. Included alongside each book is background information, extension activities, the actual publication date (as these are tales/books that are out of print), and country of origin. Each book can be read online, most of the books are very colorful and engaging which will help to entice your audience into wanting to read more and visit the site to reread the texts during independent reading time.

http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/

(The information found below was taken directly from the Curriki website)

• “Curriki is more than your average website; we’re a community of educators, learners and committed education experts who are working together to create quality materials that will benefit teachers and students around the world.”

• “Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them. Our name is a play on the combination of ‘curriculum’ and ‘wiki’ which is the technology we’re using to make education universally accessible.”

http://www.oercommons.org/

• OER stands for Open Educational Resources. This is a wonderful site that provides tens of thousands of free resources to educators, including free and open textbooks.

http://community.k12opensource.com/events/opensourcecon-1

• A Ning network created by Steve Hargadon (I’m a big fan of his!!) of educators- There is a wealth of information available on this website- it does require the you do Sign up!

I would love any feedback on the above resources- I will post more Open source resources once I know how you did with the above resources!!

Thanks so much for the feedback!!