Open Knowledge News - Summer 2008

In This Issue:

Welcome

Educational Technology & the Future

Community Conversations in the Commons

The KEEP Tookit Goes Opensource

We've Come a Long Way...
A Look Back into the History of the KML

Welcome to Open Knowledge News

Dear Readers,

This last issue of Open Knowledge News marks a period of transition for the Knowledge Media Laboratory, as the Carnegie Foundation explores new directions for its technology-enhanced work. In this issue, we reflect on the KML’s past decade of achievements, and on Carnegie President Lee S. Shulman’s leadership in developing new methods for using digital media to build teaching practice. We also invite you to join us in the Community Forum for ongoing conversations on open education and building a teaching commons.

While the KEEP Toolkit will not be further developed after August 2008, the KEEP 2.5 version will be maintained, along with The Gallery of Teaching & Learning and The Teaching & Learning Commons. Also, starting in August, instead of Open Knowledge News, you will begin to receive Carnegie Perspectives and Carnegie News, so that we may keep you informed of any new developments and upcoming events.

We’ve enjoyed interacting with you through Open Knowledge News, and hope you will continue to visit the Commons for more news and conversation about education and technology.

Sincerely,
The KML Team

Educational Technology and the Future

An Interview with Lee S. Shulman

A Longview of Technology & Teaching - Lee Shulman

In 1998, the Carnegie Foundation, under the leadership of President Lee S. Shulman, began to explore and develop new methods for using digital media to build teaching practice. Since then, the Foundation has made tremendous contributions, in understanding both the development of good teaching practice, and the ways in which one can grow his or her own practice. Dr. Shulman, who will retire as president of the Foundation on July 31, taught and inspired many with his research on making teaching visible for research and reflection. To understand more about his history with, and views on, teaching and technology, former Carnegie Research Scholar Cheryl R. Richardson recently interviewed him. We invite you to listen to their conversation.

Click to Listen

Community Conversations in the Commons

In April and June, The Teaching & Learning Commons hosted two WebEvents in which community members listened to interviews, reviewed articles, answered and asked questions, and gave thoughtful responses. We invite you to join in the ongoing conversations they sparked at the Community Forum.

Talking about a Teaching Commons

The first event, “Understanding the Commons,” was held from April 28 to May 2. Nearly 180 educators were invited to participate. A Webcast interview with Carnegie Senior Scholar Mary Taylor Huber and Vice President Pat Hutchings, authors of The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons (Jossey-Bass, 2005), kicked-off the event.

Guest facilitators Jennifer Robinson, President of the The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (ISSOTL); Kathy Takayama, Associate Director of Life & Physical Sciences at the Sheridan Center for Teaching & Learning at Brown University; Richard Gale, Visiting scholar at Douglas College and Royal Roads University; Anthony Ciccone, Director of the CASTL program at the Carnegie Foundation; and Whitney Schlegel, Associate Professor of biology at Indiana University Bloomington and director of IUB's Human Biology Program then engaged participants with questions and positions, encouraging comments from the community. The questions elicited over 50 posts in four days, and the thread remains open for further dialogue. Join in the conversation at the Community Forum.

Opening Up about Open Education

From June 16 to 19, the Teaching & Learning Common’s Community Forum hosted “Open Education Nightmares.” Subscribers to Open Knowledge News and visitors to the Commons’ website were invited to share their open education fears and hopes. They were also provided with several articles, where they could learn more about the different aspects of open education.

During the first four days of discussion, 20 people shared their experiences and opinions about the new genre. While all were hopeful about the future of open education—and the potential for increased access to resources for educators and learners—many also expressed a few concerns. Participants brought up issues around sharing, quality and educational culture. While others offered suggestions for overcoming these roadblocks. We hope you will add to the ongoing discussion at the Common’s Community Forum.

KEEP Toolkit Is Now in SourceForge

Open Sourcing KEEP

The KML has long embraced open source software, and the KEEP Toolkit has now been available as an open source application for over two years. In order to increase the visibility of the application, encourage other institutions to adopt it, and to make it easier for developers to gain access to the source code for the application, the KML has moved the KEEP Toolkit into SourceForge, an open source software development website. SourceForge provides many tools for developers working on open source projects, including version control tools, bug trackers, a wiki, forums, and mailing lists.

The project site can be found at:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/keeptoolkit/

We've Come a Long Way

A Look Back at the History of the Knowledge Media Laboratory

After a decade's worth of work, the Knowledge Media Laboratory would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the past and celebrate its many milestones. Over the past 10 years, many tools and technologies that further teaching and learning have been developed and utilized by the KML.

It all began with the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Workspace. The site allowed the CASTL scholars to collect and discuss materials, and create snapshots for their scholarship of teaching and learning projects. In the early days (1998-2001), their multimedia representations of teaching and learning were built by hand. The Gallery of Teaching & Learning was then created to display these works on the World Wide Web.

The KML knew that the process for creating online representations could be easier, less cumbersome, and more engaging. In 2002, the Snapshot Tool was first developed to facilitate the creation of online content. The tool grew rapidly, becoming more intuitive and flexible; and overtime, it became a collection of tools. The Knowledge Exchange Exhibition Presentation Toolkit (KEEP Toolkit), has continued to grow and evolve, with new users joining daily. Now a fully open source project, other institutions have begun running and developing their own instances of the KEEP Toolkit.

As the KEEP Toolkit was advancing, more inspiring work was being produced, and The Gallery of Teaching & Learning continued to grow with new submissions by Carnegie Foundation program participants. At the same time, individual teachers and educators took to the KEEP Toolkit. It became apparent that this vibrant and growing community needed a place to…well, commune.

In early 2008, The Teaching and Learning Commons went live and the IdeaBank was added to the arsenal of tools that help make teaching and learning public. Educators and students could mix and re-mix pedagogical resources, thoughts and ideas by creating their own collections of public snapshots, stitched groups and galleries. The Knowledge Media Lab had gone meta. Our original community has grown to the tens of thousands, and our humble projects have taken on a life of their own.

This fall, the much anticipated KEEP Toolkit 2.5 will hit SourceForge. This will be our final major version of the KEEP Toolkit produced in-house. Over the last 10 years there have been many changes at the KML, we have changed location and hardware, and many of our crew have come and gone, but we hope our colleagues around the world will continue to build upon and extend what our global education community has created. Thank you.

With Warmest Regards,
The Knowledge Media Laboratory Team