Where to Find Free Distance Learning via Free Online Courses and Free Educational TV

Here's Where to Access Free Distance Learning via Online Education and Free Educational TV

ZooBloo has put together a comprehensive collection of distance learning resources to make it easy for you to locate the best educational websites and educational television programming.

Two Exemplary Distance Learning Programs

MIT's Open Courseware "a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. OCW supports MIT's mission to advance knowledge and education, and serve the world in the 21st century. It is true to MIT's values of excellence, innovation, and leadership."

MIT OCW:

Is a publication of MIT course materials
Does not require any registration
Is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting activity
Does not provide access to MIT faculty

"With the publication of 500 courses, MIT is delivering on the promise of OpenCourseWare that we made in 2001. We are thrilled that educators, students, and self-learners from all parts of the globe tell us that MIT OCW is having an impact on education and learning. We hope that in sharing MIT’s course materials, and our experience thus far with MIT OCW, we will inspire other institutions to openly share their course materials, creating a worldwide web of knowledge that will benefit mankind."
- Charles M. Vest, President of MIT

The California-Hawaii Islands Exchange Project "... is an innovative distance-learning program linking three schools in two states. Teachers at Oro Grande, CA, Konawaena, HI, and Pahoa, HI are receiving equipment, training, and distance learning resources for use in their classrooms in rural, low-income communities. Using the project's Full Circle teaching and learning methodologies students begin participation by conducting online research. They then circle out into the local community to conduct field studies at partner agency parks and facilities. To complete the circle, students then return to the classroom and computer technology to self publish their research findings. Students and teachers are learning to use online, multimedia, digital imaging, and GPS technologies in the classroom and out on mobile research projects....Students use language arts/literacy, history/social studies, science and math online resources provided by the project to learn about their own state's islands. Students then make comparison studies that enable them to learn about the similarities and differences between the cultural and natural history of these island chains. Thanks to the unique characteristics of online distance learning students are able to share their research findings with one another across vast geographic distances and are being given an opportunity to learn directly from scientists and experts located across the United States. Examples of classroom and field study research projects are native plant studies, combining online, university, Bishop Museum, Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden content and resource experts in Hawaii; prehistoric culture and paleontology studies with related native legends from the Chumash in California; and rock art research and comparisons between Hawaiian and Californian archaeological sites. Strategic multi-agency partnerships are another innovative project feature. Partners are providing online content, video interviews, site visits, and live online Q & A with resource experts, bring the real world into the classroom and offering students field studies opportunities that bring the classroom out into the real world. Partners include the world-renowned Bishop Museum, Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, and the Hawaii Tropical Garden in Hawaii; national parks and marine sanctuaries in California and Hawaii; Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Ghannawalska Lotusland, and USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies on Catalina Island, in California; and the Southwest Volcano Research Centre in Arizona....""

National Public and Educational Television

Television, if properly utilized, can be an amazing source of quality education for the cost of a cable or satellite subscription.

Here are some of the top national educational TV resources:

Hint: Signup for each channels free newsletter to stay abreast of the upcoming specials and educational programming.

AETV Arts and Entertainment Television has a Classroom page and Education-related contests.

Animal Planet

Biography Channel

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Has links to TV programs by genre.

Discovery Channel

Discovery Health

History Channel

National Geographic Channel

PBS Public Television is a superior source of quality educational materials on a wide variety of topics.

The Learning Channel TLC

Travel Channel

Regional Public and Educational Television

To find the public TV station in your area go to Association for Public Television's website.

Free Online Lesson Plans

The Lesson Plans Page "... is a collection of over 2,500 lesson plans from Preschool through High School and beyond, that were developed by Kyle Yamnitz, students and faculty at The University of Missouri, and more recently by the users of this website. Launched in October of 1996, The Lesson Plans Page was developed to assist educators of all types. Elementary school teachers get lesson plans that are ready to use in their classrooms. College students get great example lesson plans or ideas to base their own lesson plans on. Home schoolers can get lesson plans to use at home and parents can get ideas for educational activities to use with their children."

Educational Resources

Comcast's Online Schoolyard "The Comcast OnlineSchoolyard, an award winning K-12 Web site featuring links to over 500 of the best education sites on the Internet for students and educators.... The OnlineSchoolyard features an easy-to-use, "point-and-click" format and covers subject categories including Arts, English, Math, Science, Social Sciences and much more."

The Educator's Reference Desk