Educators' Exchange

Educators' Exchange

(1999-2002)

Principal Sponsor: Office of Learning Technologies, Human Resources
Development Canada

An Initiative of
The Public Knowledge Project

Executive Summary

Educators’ Exchange (EdEx) is a project to design, develop, and field-test amultilingual knowledge management system for educators. EdEx will be an online learning resource for teachers, with the capability of including a wider community of educators, policy makers and the public. EdExwill contribute to existing learning technology research and development initiatives and accelerate the diffusion of quality learning technology implementation in Canada by:

(1)improving the management, organization, structure, presentation and access of learning technology knowledge

(2)building sustainable links between learning technology research and practice

(3)delivering online knowledge management practices and resources to educators as a prototype for a new model of teacher professional development.

EdEx will manage and extend current TeleLearning National Centres of Excellence (TL*NCE) and Office of Learning Technologies research, in both official languages and incorporate Canadian and international research and implementation experience into its learning technologies database. As a “knowledge management engine”, EdEx has a potential revenue model for education and other social service sectors if this project demonstrates that linkages between research and practice can deliver an improved approach to professional development, organizational performance, and public knowledge.

This proposal is for a three-year plan of iterative participatory design, development, and testing with adult learner constituencies (teachers, educational researchers, learning technology product developers, school administrators and education policy-makers), progressing from paper version to working website. Field implementation and research will be focused around the usefulness of a knowledge management approach for teacher professional development, specifically as it links research and practice around learning technologies. Methodology and evaluation of this project will be based upon (1) metrics that track improvements in participation, engagement and the formation of communities of practice in teacher professional development, (2) identification of research publishing and database issues using metadata and convergent analysis models, and (3) the value of knowledge management processes within the educator community that link information-sharing, action, innovation, and improved knowledge and experience with learning technologies.

This project has an application for fund-matching from TL*NCE[1]. It has received the initial Theme Leader level of clearance, and is under funding review. The project has supplemental fund development strategies with public foundations, educational research services and school consortia. It involves a bilingual and pan-Canadian collaborative team that includes researchers from UBC, McGill, and Université de Montréal and is managed through the channels of the UBC Faculty of Education Technology and Learning Consortium (UBC-TLC)[2]. Participatory design partnerships have been established with British Columbia Teachers’ Federation, and with administrators and teachers in a school district that has demonstrated leadership in the implementation of learning technologies (School District #45, West Vancouver). The B.C. Ministry of Education has been informed of the project and is evaluating the project’s objectives within a forthcoming policy development proposal (Summer ‘99). Invitations for participation have been extended to public research initiatives such as the Canadian Educational Research Information System (CERIS).

[1] TL*NCE Theme 7: EdEx proposal Jan/99 - tentative funding, to be confirmed Feb/99.

[2] UBC Technology and Learning Consortium, a new (1999) applied research and consulting services organization that provides leadership in the integration of educational research, learning technology product development, and teacher professional development.