About us

K12 Open Ed is a web site devoted to the exploration of open educational resources in education with a focus on elementary and secondary levels.

The web site is written in part by Karen Fasimpaur, who is an educational technology consultant. Karen is also the president of K12 Handhelds, an author on the use of mobile technology in education, and the host and producer of the podcast Karen’s Educational Mashups.

This site grew out of a series of beliefs:

• Differentiating instruction is essential to improving education.
• Textbooks are not the best tool for differentiating instruction.
• Using a particular type of educational technology can make a significant different in how education succeeds.
• Relevant content is critical to relevant and successful technology use in education.
• Mass collaboration is an incredible force.
• Open resources are a public good.
• The current educational bureaucracy (which includes, but is not limited to, government educational agencies and commercial publishers) are not likely to embrace open, mass collaborative projects.

These beliefs led us to investigate OER and to become enthusiastic about their use in K-12 education.

Beyond this site, we hope to help spearhead the development of many free open resources for K-12 education, including a Kids Open Dictionary and a K-12 Open CD.