In my earlier blog post, I shared some background on the growth of online and web-based learning.  As we see the explosion in these capabilities, the question arises as to what can you, as an education leader to do over the next few years to begin to integrate these Web mechanisms and open-education processes into the educational system. What can you do in terms of curriculum development, pedagogy, staff training, and technological infrastructure?  As with any new technology trend, there are many stages to this:  We move from awareness to understanding to implementation to revision or modification to still greater use.   Here are some guideposts for education leaders to explore, develop and adopt.

Explore and Identify

Awareness can happen in many ways and at many levels.   For instance,education leaders can explore portals of open education courses or perhaps even create one.   Highly popular websites such as Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators, Bernie Dodge’s Webquest page, George Lucas’s Edutopia, and the various NASA for Educator sites have existed for at least a decade. More recently, Yahoo! Teachers, TeacherTube, National Geographic blog, and Wikijunior (Wikibooks for young children) have sprung up to extend online educational possibilities in K-12 education.   Education leaders need to expose their teachers to these sites.  In addition to online portals of open content, free e-books from open-education leaders, open-access magazine special issues on open education, and other resources about the open-education movement might be evaluated and shared internally.

But access to and later discussion of such materials is only step one.  Education leaders, can do so much more.  They might bring in guest speakers who have created or used open-education resources.  If there is enough interest generated, retreats or one-day institutes might be held to discuss what is possible.   At the same time, a school leader might take an online class and discuss what happened with her staff.  She might also try to access, use, and share resources found in online portals such as those on Darwin, Shakespeare, or Einstein.  She should not be content with just a fleeing familiarity with what is found in a teacher-generated list of resources;  she should dig in and see what is possible and where internal firewalls cut off access.   If she cannot access it, neither can her students.

Expanded Power of Online Resources in the Classroom

This same person might attend classes where online resources are being used. Maybe it is an early-morning virtual physics or chemistry lab using the Highlights for High School website, which showcases OpenCourseWare from MIT. This rich array of college-level content from one of the most prestigious universities in the world has been remixed for advanced placement high school classes.
 

Perhaps the following hour she visits a social studies class and the teacher is using American history or European history lessons available from Curriki, the brainchild of Scott McNealy, founder of Sun Microsystems. So much is available in Curriki today.  Eventually, it intends to offer universal access to free K-12 content.  That is some goal and mission!  But are you aware of it?

Then later in the day this educational leader might sit in on a music class that is using content found in Connexions from K-12 music teacher Kitty Schmidt-Jones.  With millions of viewers scanning and using Kitty’s hundreds of content modules at Connexions, she has become a global educator.   Students benefit well beyond her home in Champaign, Illinois. They come from San Francisco, Chicago, New York, etc.   Not impressed? How about Canada? Yes! Are you still yawning?   Well, then, how about the tens of thousands of students using her resources in places like Uganda, Scotland, Japan, India, and Trinidad and Tobago? Kitty can even be the super-mentor or learning guide for your students.   And it all started with Connexions! She certainly has them.   Such is the world of open education.

These are just a few examples.   The school leader does not need to know all the resources that are available for teaching and learning.   No one can.   But it certainly helps to have viewed, used, and shared a few of them.   When participating in a class with neo-millennial students, she might ask questions about what inspires them.   Their responses may be the most valuable piece of information she needs in understanding what to do in this more free and open learning world.

What else can she do? She might spend an hour watching a few YouTube or TeacherTube videos.   As an example, she might first select the video Pay Attention, created by Darren Draper of Jordan School District in Sandy, Utah. Draper’s video would help her understand the perspectives of her students before she talks to them and help guide her questions of them.   Draper specifically designed his video to motivate teachers and schools to more effectively integrate technology in teaching.   His video along with Karl Fisch’s video production Did You Know: Shift Happens—Globalization; Information Age might be used to spur discussion about how to change schools.   Each have been viewed millions of times and have been starter fuel for many exciting strategic planning meetings, retreats, and conversations about changing schools in the United States and around the world.

What is clear is that there is a need for a culture of openness.  Some might refer to this as a spirit of knowledge sharing.   Most important is the recognition and celebration of open courses and course materials developed internally.  As part of this culture, such resources might be openly shared across schools and districts. Patience is needed.  A sharing culture does not instantly appear.  It takes many months or even years of tender-loving gardening to flourish.  But it can happen.   A beautiful learning landscape can emerge!