Open-Source Early Literacy Materials Gaining Some Attention

phooky writes "Although open teaching materials have been available at the university level for a while now, there have been very few materials for younger learners. That's beginning to change now with the advent of Free-Reading, a free, wiki-based resource for early literacy instruction. The availability of free materials could free up millions of dollars from school budgets for more teachers and training. From the USA Today article: 'Last fall, a Florida textbook adoption committee approved Free-Reading, a remediation program for primary-school children that's believed to be the first free, open-source reading program for K-12 public schools. It's awaiting approval by Eric Smith, the state's incoming education commissioner, who could approve it by mid-December. Florida is one of the top five textbook markets in the USA, so its move could lead to the development of other free materials that might someday challenge the dominance of a handful of big educational publishers.'"

The downloadable flash-cards

[aegl]

are in ".doc" format files generated with Microsoft Wrod. Not so open source.

Re:Start a wiki!

[Bryansix]

They already have one. In fact it is linked [free-reading.net] in the main article summary.

Re:Starfall

[filesiteguy]

My son loves starfall. However, at the end of the stories - he continually rates them "not so good." He seems to like how they respond.

Funny - I don't remember being able to use a touchpad when I was five.

Wait - they didn't have touchpads on PC's when I was five.

Wait - they didn't have PC's when I was five...

RTFM!

[Anonymous Coward]

"'Florida is one of the top five textbook markets in the USA, so its move could lead to the development of other free materials that might someday challenge the dominance of a handful of big educational publishers.'"

The one time a particular open-source response would be appropriate.