Forum Topic

Internet resources

Hello,Some universities both in the UK and abroad provide data and resources which can be downloaded free of charge by the public. There is a real cost to the universities for the facilities required to provide this service, but they are happy to consider suitable additional content.I visited the BETT education exhibition at Olympia this week.I spoke to a few people there, explaining that some UK and other universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, and Kent provide public mirror sites with a huge amount of resources for download. Most people did not know about these resources, and I had to carefully explain that the Knoppix DVD I offered was not an illegal copy. I asked around the government based stands how the teaching profession were expected to find resources on the internet, and was met by stunned silence. Some said it was up to the Universities themselves to contact teachers, (how many teachers are there?), some said that they could not provide information about resources that might contain illegal content or which might be biased.It was explained to me that there was now no bias towards or against any particular resources, and teachers have a free choice.I was passed around between the exhibitors until I was introduced to the one person who knew something about these facilities. I suggested that information should be made available to teachers, and mentioned that I have collected some information on my website, www.overview.demon.co.ukThere is no Public Relations budget for these free resources, so no advertising. Is this a case of Political Correctness gone mad, or is someone getting profit by hiding these resources?

Chris Bell ● 6465d1 Comments

Chris,have you had a look at the iTunes University programme (in the iTunes Store under iTunes U), which includes audio and video contributions from Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Queens, Warwick, the Open University, and Trinity College Dublin, as well as universities in New Zealand, Australia, France, Switzerland, Canada and Germany, plus, of course, almost all the major colleges in the US). There is also some material aimed at primary schools (all US at the moment), and material from other organisations, mainly TV stations and museums. All the material is provided free, and hosted free by Apple.

David Fox ● 6465d