Implementing an Open Approach #GoOpen District Launch Packet Across the country, districts are choosing to #GoOpen and transitioning to the use of openly licensed educational resources to improve student learning in their schools. This resource is designed for districts that have decided to implement a systematic approach to incorporating openly licensed educational resources into their curriculum by becoming a #GoOpen District.
Implementing an Open Approach #GoOpen District Launch Packet Across the country, districts are choosing to #GoOpen and transitioning to the use of openly licensed educational resources to improve student learning in their schools. This resource is designed for districts that have decided to implement a systematic approach to incorporating openly licensed educational resources into their curriculum by becoming a #GoOpen District.
http://tech.ed.gov/
This gives the Department of Education's take on communities of practice. It describes their efforts and projects that support this form of learning in educational settings. Links to these projects are provided.
This link is to a DoE posting encouraging the use of communities of practice. The specific domain for this page is to encourage k-12 education to use CoPs with a particular target of ones offered by the DoE: Investing in Innovation, Promise Neighborhoods, and Race to the Top. It is encouraging to see the DoE support these efforts.
It is encouraging to see how the Dept of Edu, through the use of CoPs hopes to decrease the achievement gap. It is a worthy notion to hope that through collaboration, sharing and research across a vast diverse audience, a solution could be found.
I really like how the article points out that "A great part of the answer lies not only in the types of tools, programs, and strategies used to close the achievement gap, but also in how education researchers and practitioners share information with each other." Whether this is in person with our co-workers or via some PLN, this sharing of information is vital for success!
This article discusses the National Educatioal Technology Plan and references where it calls for teacher to become connected. It asks them to become part of learning communities both locally and other wise using communities of practice.
SUMMARY: The DOE gets behind CoPs as potential answer for achievement gap and underperforming teachers and leaders. Money, time, and resources were thrown at this initiative to see if online CoPs could become the missing link in the instructional shortcomings. Citing examples of success, one is drawn and intrigued to look further at the project as we are now 2 years later.
Finding and researching CoP sites I came across the Department of Education's answer on the Communities of Practice within education. The Department of Education has added the communities of practice within an initiative called the Investing in Innovation along with a series of other initiatives.
The MyPlate.gov website has mproved its site, creating "Supertracker", now available in beta. It combines the features of the former tracker and foodapaedia from the previous versions.
A straightforward government-issued document on Communities of Practice that focuses on a variety of benefits for both organizations and individuals. Uses business at the working guide- not education- but the principles are the same. Very easy to comprehend document.
Thanks - I read this because it was not aimed at education which is where my interest tends to take me. I liked that there were examples with benefits but did find the description was probably a little narrow in stating that, ". .. who often collaborate via established Web sites. These community Web spaces are designed to allow community members to share ideas and knowledge in several ways" Enjoyed reading it though. Thanks.
This research was published by the U.S. Department of Education on the role on Online Communities. Essentially, the research found that online learning Communities of Practice produce a wide range of values for educators, including immediate and potential value. The primary focus of this research was the role of Community Designers and the questions, concerns, and topics that must be addressed when creating a successful learning community involving educators. While member participation is the key to a successful community, there are other factors that play a major contribution in a group's success as a learning community that are addressed in this research.
This is the destination for digital literacy resources and collaboration. Use it to share and enhance the tools necessary to learn computer and Internet skills needed in today’s global work environment.
This is the U.S. national education technology plan. 101 pages with lengthy bibliography after each section. Currently there is no Congress mandated plan scheduled so this plan will be relevant for awhile.
Office of Educational Technology, U.S Department of Education (2016). Future ready learning: Reimaging the role of technology in education. Retrieved from http://tech.ed.gov/files/2015/12/NETP16.pdf
As a math teacher I use numbers a lot! I found the US Census website is a great resource for primary source information that includes numbers...lots of numbers. I used this to create a learning activity that found precent increase and r-squared values. What fun!
According to the Texas Education Government Agency (https://tea.texas.Gov/Academics/Instructional_Materials/Accessible_Instructional_Materials/), this website "serves as a resource to state and district-level educators, parents, publishers, conversion houses, accessible media producers, and others interested in learning more about accessible educational materials and the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)."