I recently discovered university courses on-line free at Itunes U. For an introduction for go to
http://www.apple.com/ca/education/mobile-learning/
There are video and audio courses from some of the best universities in the world. You can watch professors from Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, and many other places give undergraduate and graduate courses. You do not get credit for the course but you sure can expand your knowledge. Some of the content is more impressive than others but every single site delivers value.
They also have demonstrations for many schools in the K-12 range about new ideas on how to teach subjects. One I looked at showed Grade 4 kids going for a walk everyday with a pedometer. Then keeping track of their progress using Excel. The ideas presented really stimulate your imagination. Another showed a grade 12 biology class teaching grade 5 about cell biology.
Great find! Have a look. I have been wondering about the business model that makes people publish to the site. I suspect it is another way to promote your courses and also make them available to your students for review.
Since I wrote this blog I have looked at a few courses and found the audio ones it was very really hard to remained focused. The one with video were better but only if there was more visual stimulation than just the talking head. The talking head was fine to get a better sense of the presenter, but some slides or other visual aids would have helped.
The problem with a poor online course is it lowers your opinion of the school. I guess that is the law of unintended consequences.
Thanks for the info