David Geer recently spoke with Joel Thierstein, Associate Provost, Rice University, and Executive Director of the Connexions Project, a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Following is an edited transcript of that conversation.

Listen to the original interview here, or visit our Podcast Center for more audio interviews.

David Geer: So tell us, what is the Connexions Project?



Joel Thierstein: We are a two-faceted operation. We've got a repository of open access educational information, which is formed in kind of modules, which are smaller units. And then their authors, or teachers, come in and put them together into what we call courses. The other part of our project is the platform side. This is the delivery mechanism by which the repository information, or all the information stored in our storage facilities, is distributed to the consumer.



All the information in our repository and our platform is open to the public. Anybody who has access to the Internet can access all of our information. Our material is licensed under what they call a creative commons license. You can use it to do anything you want, including make a profit for yourself. However, we do require that you attribute the material to its original author.



Geer: It sounds like you've got a great resource for various parts of the world where they have some teachers, they have some equipment, but they can't fully fund the content.



Thierstein: We span the full spectrum of users. Folks, as you described, who are the economically- or educationally-deprived who can't afford to produce their own materials, can come to Connexions and download everything for free.



We also have the other end of the spectrum, which is the highest academic pursuit. The Connexions founder is Rich Baraniuk, originally a Rice University professor in digital signal processing. He and his colleagues have formed a user group on our site to push the envelope of digital signal processing. The way that works is, traditionally, if you want to put out information to your colleagues, you publish a book or a journal article. You're looking at, at best, for a journal article, six months; more than likely, it's a year or two. A book is definitely two years. And by the time the book comes out, everything you've put in the book is out of date, in a field like digital signal processing that advances so fast. And so Rich decided that he needed some way to move the discipline along faster, and so he put together this Connexions platform and software, and set up this repository for materials and education.



Geer: And I understand that an organization called Teachers Without Borders is taking interest. First, give us a brief description of what Teachers Without Borders is.



Thierstein: Teachers Without Borders is a global organization that helps teachers around the world better their teaching

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