Spongelab

Finding the best online education - for free

The biggest word accompanying “online education” these days is “free”. While many pay-for-use online education platforms are available online, today’s tight budgets in schools means that it can be tough to make state-of-the-art educational technology available to all. Thankfully, some of the biggest players in education are stepping up to provide innovative new methods of learning - without forcing learners to open up their wallets.

It’s all very reflective of what the venerable Bill Gates said back in 2010, as this piece points out: “It’s very clear that five years from now, on the web, for free…you will be able to find the greatest lectures in the world.”

Spongelab is, of course, one such website designed specifically for science education. We provide an all-in-one system that combines educational multimedia with online classroom and student performance-tracking tools - all for free. Apart from Spongelab though, there are other great alternatives for students and teachers looking for content online.

Stanford University recently made many of their university-level online courses available for free. One course on Game Theory teaches students about the philosophy and mathematical theory behind game theory, and is taught by an economist and a computer scientist. The course started March 19, and you can watch lectures at your leisure. Read this Wired piece for more info.

MIT’s Open Courseware has many fantastic free courses to pick from. One of its most popular courses is Intro to Biology, which has been taught since 2004. Courses like this are similar to what’s going to be offered in MITx, the just-launched free online course system at MIT.

iTunes university continues to be a fantastic source of educational podcasts, all downloadable for free via iTunes. And let’s not forget Khan Academy, the collection of educational videos and simple online exercises. 

Got any other suggestions of great places to find free educational content and learning materials online? We’d love to hear from you.

Game Based Learning vs. Gamification

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Spongelab wins international award!

Last week Spongelab got the fantastic news that we were selected for an Honourary Mention in the National Science Foundation’s Visualization Challenge 2011. Build-a-Body, our interactive anatomy game, took the award for its awesome, virtual educational experience and was hailed by Science Journal as “more like a lab project than a video game.” 

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Apple’s education initiative and why it matters to Spongelab

Apple announced yesterday their game-changing plans to “reinvent the textbook” at a special event at the Guggenheim museum in New York City. The museum, a landmark of contemporary style and cultural locus for the arts, was a smart choice of venue as it keenly reflected the event’s hosts - a company that prides itself on existing at the “intersection of the liberal arts and technology”, as Steve Jobs always put it.

The iPad - with 20,000 learning themed apps and 1.5 million tablets deployed in schools - already has a firm grasp on the hearts and minds of the education world, and it’s upon this foundation that Apple is launching their potential revolution of the pedagogical domain. 

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