Application of CK-12 as a digital learning tool in the education process

CK-12 is a very useful digital learning tool and supports students, also educators by providing resources from Math, Science, English, Engineering, Technology, Astronomy, History, and Health.

You can find CK-12 here.

Educators who teach grades 1 to 10 can use this digital learning tool in their lessons, they can use filters for adding the grade of the student, and the appropriate subject. Even they can use a filter for finding the proper type of teaching resource. There are various types of teaching resources such as reading, videos, images, simulations, practice questions, quizzes, activities, and lesson plans. These resources are located in the left part of CK-12 on categories. Below you can find brief information about these categories of CK-12.

• The “Concepts” category is another type of collection, if you find a concept that is about the topic you were looking for, it can involve different types of teaching resources. For example, the platform can offer reading material, videos, and simulations based on the same topic. So, it can make the easier searching process for you, and you can use directly a concept on the searched topic, or keyword.
• Other fascinating parts of CK-12 are “PLIX” and “Interactive”, which involve simulation, and quizzes together. Simulation will help to understand the mechanism of the process, and students will be able to change variables, and getting different results will help to nurture their curiosity, and analytical skills. PLIX also involves quizzes, and it helps to check students; understanding based on the given process.
• The “Activities” category which is located in the left part of CK-12, usually helps to find an experiment based on a particular topic, the teacher can download the lab report or document for requirements. It can be discussion, or inquiry questions, worksheets, instructions for the activity, etc. In terms of increasing the engagement of students, these activities can be beneficial, they can also inspire an educator for designing another type of activity.
• The “Study aids” category is one of my favorite categories because it involves brief information about the topic with an illustration. Students can read this part, and then they can start to discuss the topic with their peers. This category offers summarized information, several pictures about the topic, questions (Concept check), and study tip as a definition or interesting facts.
• The “Lesson plans” category can be useful for educators during designing the lesson. They can inspire you for the lesson, and using your creativity can make a better lesson. Sometimes educators come across presentations, download them, and edit them for usage in her/his lesson. Mainly type of the resource is mentioned and you can see it before downloading.
• The “Reading” category needs to be mentioned because it is a unique experience for educators and students. Students can highlight parts of the article, and take notes on the reading. Educators can assign this reading to the class by clicking the section “Assign to class” part in CK-12. Teachers can “Add the library” to this article. If the teacher already created the class, they also can share the resource with the class. Another privilege of this digital learning tool is “Customize” the article for their lessons. The issue is assigning to class, adding to the library, and customizing the resource can be implemented to all types of resources, not only the articles. 
• The “FlexBook Textbook” category offers to read several textbooks on different fields freely. These books are divided into several sections and can be chosen by the reader.
• “Adaptive practices” involves quizzes that were made with different types of questions (multiple choice, open-ended). It helps to check students’ understanding and show the result which can be improved by taking the test again after reading the material.
• In the “Real world” section, you can see the video and, reading resources, there is also several extra links and questions that will help a student to make a relationship with real-world situations. A student will be able to understand the application of this topic to real life, and where she/he can come across with this circumstance.
• “Concept maps” section involves possible Mind Maps about the topic. It can help to understand the main keywords on the concept, and the connection between them.
• “Labs” category is designed for offering an investigation, or experiment to students. It can inspire students for doing a research about defined topic.

CK-12 gives broad opportunities to teachers, and I believe that if educators explore this digital learning tool, they can find many useful resources for their aims. If the person wants to improve her/his knowledge of Economics, Geography, Government, History, and World History, Philosophy, Sociology fields, they can also use the “Subjects” section, and find the proper field for their personal, or professional development.

There are resources for college students, including College Algebra, Precalculus, Linear Algebra, Human Biology, and the Universe fields. Students can find reading materials in CK-12 regarding the desired subjects mentioned above. The “Adult Education” part of the “Subjects” section also can be interesting to adults, it contains many reading materials, and resources on Science, Math, Biology, Physics, and Technology fields.

The “Translation” section for different languages such as Spanish, Korean, Deutsch, Chinese, Greek, and Polski can be useful for people who have an interest in different subjects but can not find an appropriate educational resource in their language.

All these opportunities are free for using of educators, students, and all people. I believe that if teachers know different digital learning tools, they can identify appropriate resources and find them easily from these platforms, by this way, we can contribute to the digitalization of education.

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