Open Knowledge News - Spring 2008

In This Issue:

Welcome
*New* - The IdeaBank
TLC WebEvent
Universal Log-In
Other Updates
Featured IdeaList

Contributing to the Community

March 10-12, 2008:
John Seely Brown, former chief scientist of the Xerox Corporation; Diana Laurillard of the University of London; Jim Greeno of the University of Pittsburgh; and Toru Iiyoshi of the Carnegie Foundation presented at the Opening Learning Interplay Symposium at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The research panel discussed future research directions for open education. A set of recommendations from the upcoming Carnegie book Opening Up Education (The MIT Press) was also shared with the audience.

Welcome to Open Knowledge News

Welcome to our third issue of Open Knowledge News. The Knowledge Media Lab team has been working hard over the winter months to produce several new features for the Teaching & Learning Commons. Our upgrades include The IdeaBank, an engaging new tool, and our very first Teaching & Learning Commons community event!

Introducing the IdeaBank

Browsing the Teaching & Learning Commons with Thought

There are plenty of bibliographic and bookmarking tools for websites, but what about one that promotes introspection and reflection? There is a plethora of great sites created to promote teaching and learning, but what if we could save these sites, comment on them, and share our reflections and insights with our colleagues?

The IdeaBank was created with the goal of allowing educators to share particular resources they discover online, include their own thoughts and reflections, and then organize the sites into lists—called IdeaLists—that can be viewed publicly by members of the Teaching & Learning Commons community. The IdeaBank allows educators to share sites about teaching and learning with collegial insight, recommendations and constructive critique.

An Example

Let’s say Judy, a biology faculty member, was interested in improving her department’s approach to assessing students' understanding of science. When she did a search for sites about science teaching and learning in the Commons, six biology sites and four other sites related to assessment techniques appeared. Using the IdeaBank, she was able to take a few cursory notes about each site and share them with her department. The IdeaBank helped facilitate her process for saving, reflecting and discussing these sites with her departmental colleagues. The ability to publish the list also allows others using the Commons to view the sites through Judy's unique lens.

Features

The IdeaBank allowed Judy to:

Save all 10 sites in her own account;
Add her reflections about each site;
Group the sites she found into an IdeaList;
Provide an abstract/summary of her newly formed IdeaList;
Publish the list so that she could share it with her colleagues and the larger Commons community.

"Banking" in the Commons

Within the Commons, users can find, comment and build on ideas offered by Carnegie Foundation scholars and friends and KEEP Toolkit users. In the Bank, users can save pages, comment on individual pages, categorize or group them with comments and a label, and then share this new collection of ideas. Essentially, it allows all users of the Commons to share their ideas of pedagogical sites with their colleagues.

Additionally, the Commons offers a blog and a set of web-conversations, which prompt discussion and heighten educators’ awareness of various teaching, learning and technology issues.

Teaching & Learning Commons WebEvent

Meet Our First Guest Speakers & Participate in an Online Discussion

To inspire new methodologies in teaching, spark knowledge exchange and share what educators have learned and overcome, we are hosting a Commons web event.

Listen In!

Tune in to listen to an insightful discussion on the meaning and development of a teaching and learning commons. Carnegie Foundation Research Scholar Cheryl Richardson will interview Vice President of the foundation Pat Hutchings and Senior Scholar Mary Huber, authors of The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons (Jossey-Bass). Hear them share their ideas on what it takes to build and sustain a commons.

Discuss!

Each attendee is invited to listen to our guest speakers and then participate in an online discussion with our guests and fellow community members. Come share your ideas and experiences and discuss issues such as the inherent values and obstacles associated with a teaching commons.

Register

To register for the event and receive more information, simply send your name and institutional affiliation to richardson@carnegiefoundation.org. Please include "TLC WebEvent" in your subject header. Everyone is welcome to join.

New Community Log-In

Single Log-In to Access Multiple Features

The Knowledge Media Lab has implemented a universal log-in that spans all of our sites and tools, including the Gallery of Teaching & Learning, the KEEP Toolkit, our new IdeaBank, and the Community Favorites page. This makes it much easier to access our tools. If you are logged into one tool you are automatically logged into the others. For example, if you already have a KEEP Toolkit account, you do not have to create a new account to use the IdeaBank. The universal log-in also allows you to access both Commons items and Snapshots.

Other Updates

Changes to Our Terms of Service

We recently updated our Terms of Service, and there are a few changes we would like to point out to our users. In addition to broadening our Terms of Service to cover the new IdeaBank, we have included a section that explains the types of data that we store and use to improve our sites. We have also collected all of our policies related to users into one place for your convenience.

This effort is part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, so that users of our services can be clear regarding our obligations to one another.

Featured IdeaList

Educational Technology IdeaList

Olga Trusova, a graduate student in Learning, Design & Technology at Stanford University, spent several years researching and developing new media and emerging technologies for educational purposes at the Knowledge Media Laboratory. Here she highlights several initiatives aimed at incorporating educational technology—such as e-portfolios, podcasting, and portable devices—with teaching and learning practices across many levels, disciplines and institutions.