Learning Landscapes
Seminar
The Knowledge Building Center:
A Foundational Element of the Virtual Learning Commons
David V. Loertscher
Professor,
San Jose State University
Reader.david@gmail.com
S
School Libraries and Computer
Labs: Transform into a
Learning Commons
Physical
Space
Open
Commons
The
Learning
Commons
Virtual Space
Experimental
Learning’
Center
The Major Switch
No Website
School Library
Web Site
Virtual
Learning
Commons
Virtual Learning Commons
S A giant conversation
S A collaborative workspace
S A place of experimentation
S Knowledge Building Centers as its foundational elements
KBC Characteristic:
Easy to Build and Use
S Google Sites; Moodle; Wiki; Blog; Google Aps Education
KBC Characteristic:
Collaborative Inquiry
S Everyone working, building, contributing, developing,
solving…
S Classroom teachers, students, teacher librarians, teacher
technologists, other specialists, experts, parents
Personal Expertise and
Collaborative Intelligence
KBC Characteristic:
What I
Know
What We
Know
21st Century Skills Drive
Content Understanding
KBC Characteristic:
21st
Century
Skills
Content Deep
Understanding
Specialists at the Center of
Teaching and Learning
KBC Characteristic:
Teacher
Librarian
Parents
Classroom
Teacher
and
Students
Other
Specialists
Teacher
Technologists
Experts
KBC Uses
S Single-class explorations
S Cross-class inquiry
S Cross-district, community, state, world inquiry
S School projects/initiatives
S Professional development
S Professional learning communities
Kamiliah Jackson’s VLC
Documented Evidence
11
Loertscher and Koechlin 2009
The Parade of KBCs
12
Loertscher and Koechlin 2009
Marzano’s iObservation Model
Marzano, Robert, Peggy Schooling, Michael Toth/
Creating an Aligned System to Develop
Great Teachers Within the Federal Race to
The Top Initiative
Solution Tree, 2010
(Based on Marzano’s The Art and Science
of Teaching)
Sound Instructional Design
S UBD (Wiggins and McTighe)
S Think Models (Loertscher/Koechlin/Zwaan)
S The best technologies that boost learning
S Co-Teaching by classroom teachers, teacher technologists,
teacher librarians, and other specialists.
End with:
The Big Think
S Why?
S What it is.
S
S
S
S
Activity 1: What I know; What we know about content
Activity 2: How I learned this; How we learned this
Conclusion: So what? What’s Next?
Activity 3 (with adults) What they learned; How they learned it. So
what? What’s next?
S Help: Nin strategies for Big Think Activities from:
Loertscher/Koechlin/Zwaan. The Big Think (LMCsource.com)
S Important: Have administrators participate!
Who is Assessing?
Classroom
Teacher’s
View
Specialist’s
View
Student’s Administrator’s
View
View
Parent’s
View
What’s Ahead?
Make Connections
S State / Provincial / National Documents and Initiatives:
S Ontario and Alberta documents
S Common Core Standards: U.S. National Governor’s
Conference
S State initiatives such as Ohio’s Learning Commons
More Connections:
S Tune to great ideas through great professional books:
S Will Richardson’s 3rd ed. of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other
Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press, 2010
S Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel’s 21st century Skills: Learning
for Life in our Times. Josey Bass, 2009
S Robert Marzano, ed. On Excellence in Teaching. Solution Tree,
2009.
S Alan November’s Empowering Students with Technology. Corwin,
2009
Even More Connections
S Create your own personal learning network
S Joyce Valenza’s blog and ning
S David Warlick’s blog
S The Blue Skunk blog by Doug Johnson
S ISTE Sig Webinars
S Free Technology for Teachers – Richard Byrne
S Schoollearningcommons.pbworks.com