From Open Education Resources to Digital Textbooks, Collaboratories and Sustainable “Knowledge Garden” Communities Ted M. Kahn

1. Learning to Curate Quality Learning:
From Open Education Resources to
Digital Textbooks, Collaboratories and
Sustainable “Knowledge Garden” Communities
!
Ted M. Kahn, Ph.D.!
Co-Founder & CEO!
DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc. &!
DesignWorlds for College & Careers!
!
Founding Director & Chief Curator!
Bay Area Science Museum Learning Collaboratory &
Mindseum!

2. About DesignWorlds
n 18-year old CA corporation dedicated to
developing and supporting new kinds of online,
collaborative learning & knowledge-making
communities!
n Web-based collaboratories: Building bridges
between K-12 schools, higher ed, museums &
other informal learning centers,workplaces,
research labs, and homes)!
n DesignWorlds for College & Careers: Helping
high school and college students make informed
choices about college & (post) graduate
education and designing alternative career paths!

3. Views of LearningViews of Learning
Illustration
© 1991-1996
Gary Lund
Illustration
© 1991-1996
Gary Lund

4. Current View of AssessmentCurrent View of Assessment
Illustration
© 1991-1996
Gary Lund
Illustration
© 1991-1996
Gary Lund

5. Views of LearningViews of Learning
Illustration
© 1991-1996
Gary Lund
Illustration
© 1991-1996
Gary Lund

6. What do we curate in the digital world?

7. Learning is fundamentally social:
Curating the informal:
Shared conversations and face-to-face/email/video
transactions
Informal Learning at WorkInformal Learning at Work
Illustration
© 1991-1996
Gary Lund
Illustration
© 1991-1996
Gary Lund

8. Some Historical Models:
Collecting, Editing, Curating
Museum at Alexandria => !
Exploratorium & Virtual Museums!
Libraries => National Science Digital Library!
Collecting Questions => Quora!
Conversations & Layered Annotations (e.g.,
Talmud) => Hypertext & Hypermedia!
Oxford English Dictionary &!
Encyclopedia Britannica => Google & Wkipedia!
Books & Textbooks => OER & OpenSTAX!
Scientific & Academic Journals => ArXiv &
Collaboratories!
Oral Storytelling => “Story Corps” & !
Digital Storytelling!

9. CommunicationCommunication
CommunityCommunity
CreativityCreativity
LearningLearning

10. Learning Community Stakeholders
Institute for the New California,
Learning in the Information Age:
A Conversation for California’s Future (1997).

11. From the Learner’s Viewpoint...
Institute for the New California (1997). Learning in the Information Age:
A Conversation for California’s Future (1997).

12. A Case Study:
The Bay Area Science Education
Collaboratory (2002-2008)
Helping science teachers & parents!
be even more successful !
helping their students learn science
& develop scientific literacy—!
using billion$ of museum & other
informal science learning resources!
!

13. Leveraging Over $1 Billion Investment
To Increase Access & Use of
Museum, Media & Other Informal Science Learning Resources
n Goal – Scientific literacy for all; initial focus on middle
grades (4-8): teachers, parents and students!
n Problem – CA students not learning science and/or
lack of continued interest in learning or doing
science (especially after 4th grade). Average of 1 hr
per week dedicated to science in grades K-5.!
n Need to “bridge the gap” between informal learning
and needs of standards-aligned formal science
education !
n A Partial Solution: Web-based “open source”
learning=> Bay Area Science Education Collaboratory!
!

14. Why Science Learning
Collaboratories (2001-02)?
• Bridging informal, “free choice” science learning with
formal education:
• “Before It’s Too Late” (Glenn Commission (2000);
Business Roundtable (2005), National Academy of
Sciences (2006)
• Most Bay Area middle school science teachers still lack
B.A.’s in science; few have had real science-related work
experience
n Science textbooks are expensive and focus largely on the
past, not the future in which students will live
n Teacher professional development is expensive (time & $)
n Parents want to know how to best help their children learn
science…

15. Why science collaboratories?
n Teachers know there are better resources for
inquiry and hands-on science than textbooks…
n But the wealth of billions of $$ invested in
informal science education resources is still
greatly under-utilized by the majority of teachers

16. Why not just use the Web?
The Web is full of information & resources…

17. Information Overload
n Teachers and parents often don’t have time to browse
and find the best non-textbook resources that may fit
their students individual learning/thinking styles and
needs.. and which are aligned with CA standards…!
n Google search: “middle school plate tectonics” !
(Oct. 2003) =>17,000 hits!
• Same search (June., 2015): 202,000 hits !!
!!

18. The Bay Area Science (Museum)
Education Collaboratory
Regional Science Learning Community Resource,
co-designed by/for SF Bay Area Middle School Teachers

19. 6th Grade Bay Area Science Collaboratory
Museum Web links aligned to California
Grade 6 Science Standards (Focus on Earth Sciences

20. Bay Area Science Collaboratory
Three clicks from California grade-level science
standards/topics -> subtopics ->…

21. Bay Area Science Collaboratory
Two best teacher-selected resource for each
subtopic, selected from local museums & Web

22. Bay Area Science Museum Collaboratory
Community Content Aquisition & Curation
Flow Model

23. Collaboratory Users
Developmental Model:
Increasing Participation =>
Increased Depth & Social Spread of Learning
n Users of open content resources
contributed by other community members!
n Author-creator-designer of new resources!
n Editor & Curator of Topics of Interest and
Learning Journeys /“Knowledge Quests”!
n Federator-Pathfinder of topic connections
across disciplines!
n Mentor-Coach & Community Advocate!

24. Experienced Teachers as Designers,
Users, Contributors & Mentors

25. Bay Area Science Collaboratory
Nexist Wiki (Jack Park) Topic Map
Resource Matrix aligned with CA standards by teachers,
academic science specialists and
museum educators

26. Creating a New Collaboratory
(Example: 4th Grade Science (CA):
1. Design Visual Topic Map
Interface to Standards (thanks to Eileen Clegg)

27. Creating a New Collaboratory
(4th Grade Science (CA):
2. Create Wiki Standards Matrix Database & Topic Map

28. Process to Create New Grade Level
Collaboratory
3. Find and rate two best resources for each standard
and benchmark (subtopic)

29. Examples:
“Hands-On” Demos & Activities

30. Virtual Museum Field Trips
with Video Commentary
n Chabot Space &
Science Center
(Oakland)!
n PlanetaryLandscapes!
n Exhibit Curator “Point of
View” Commentary!

31. Authentic Assessment of Learning:
Virtual Peer Teaching
(“Showing what you know”)
n Using videos of
museum visits to help
introduce exhibits and
teach concepts to
other students—
virtually!
n 8th Grade Students @
Chabot Space &
Science Center!

32. Bay Area Science Collaboratory (2002-08)
With thanks to the support of:
The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation &
The S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
n Classroom or home access to the best middle grades (4-8)
science lessons, demos/activities & other resources from 6
museums, aligned with grade level California Science
Standards !
n Selection of over 1,000 learning resources found & curated by
over 180 CA Bay Area teachers and museum educators!
!
n Started annual review of the two best resources for each
science standard/benchmark in grades 4-8 by Bay Area
teachers, museum educators, higher education faculty and
science education experts!
n Online classes used for teacher professional development in
building “communities of practice”!

33. Science Collaboratories:
Demonstrated & Measurable Goals
n Increase in student science achievement & science
literacy!
n Increase in teacher science knowledge!
n Integration of new emerging science & technology
into standards-based science curriculum (e.g.,
nanotech, biotech, biophotonics, etc.:!
n Broader & more extensive teacher & learner use of
Billion $$ of local museum & informal learning
resources!
n Engagement of parents & guardians in the students’
learning and doing of science!
n Establishment & active participation of regional
science education “communities of practice!

34. Newer Models:
TopicQuests
* Thanks to Jack Park, TopicQuests Foundation.

35. A Social CMS Garden Portal*
* Thanks to Jack Park, TopicQuests Foundation.

36. Web Services to TopicSpaces
* Jack Park, TopicQuests Foundation

37. Mindseum.org

38. Mindseum.WujiTech.com

39. “Tagomizer”
Jack Park, TopicQuests Foundation
www.slideshare.net/jackpark

40. Collective Sensemaking
Knowledge Gardening
Blooming and buzzing
ideas that need
collection,
deliberation, and
organization

41. Collaboratory and
Knowledge Gardens:
Common Goals & Social Structures
n Common Vision & Shared Goals!
n Crowd Sourcing: Social Co-design & Participation!
n Dynamic & Federated Social Knowledge Architecture!
n Rapid Iterative Design, Prototype & Development!
n Collaborative Talents/Strengths & Skills
Development (Assessment & Continuous Learning/
Improvement)!
n Collaborative Technologies AND Face-to-Face
Relationship Building!
n Multiple levels of participation & development!

42. “Inch by inch,
Row by row...”

43. Towards Sustainable Knowledge Gardens:
We’re ALL:
Visitors, Learners, Content Contributors/Creators, Guides &
Curators
Aggregate/Federate (link & connect)/Guide =>
Crowd Source/Create/Experiment/Curate =>
Share/Monetize/Sustain & Scale
A Global Community Learning and Knowledge Garden

44. Questions?

45. “Discovery consists of seeing the same things
that everyone else sees—but thinking what no
one else has thought.”
—Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
(Nobel Prize-Medicine, 1937)

46. Some Important Related Web
Links & Resources
n Bay Area Science Museum/ Education Collaboratory!
n www.designworlds.com/collab/project.html!
Home Page: !
! ! www.designworlds.com/collab/!
!
! !• 2007 Museums and the Web Conference Presentation:!
www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/kahn/kahn.html!
• Jack Park’s SlideShare Presentations on
TopicQuests, Federated Knowledge Gardens,
OpenSherlock, etc: www.slideshare.net/jackpark!
!
!

47. Special Thanks To:
The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
The S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
TopicQuests Foundation
My DesignWorlds Science Collaboratory Colleagues:
Rick Berg
Eileen Clegg
Susanne Commisso
Bill Daul
Jack Gottsman
Bob Kahn
Frona Kahn
Jack Park
Saul Rockman
Sherman Rosenfeld
Belinda Lowe Schmahl
Alex Wenzowski
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48. Ted M. Kahn, Ph.D.
DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc.
ted@designworlds.com
www.designworlds.com
408.252.2285
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