Where Have We Come From and Where Are We Going? Learning the Lessons and Disseminating Exemplary Practices from the Projects of the NSDL

Broad-Based Knowledge, Richmond CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is creating an open knowledge collection of promising practices and lessons learned from the work to date on the development of NSDL. This rich, dynamic resource consists of: i) reflections, stories and recollections (formal and informal) about what participants learned; and ii) an annotated bibliography of articles, papers, presentations associated with various NSDL projects. The project is using an open mechanism (wiki technology and the KEEP Toolkit) for collecting, creating and sharing the knowledge it is accruing; and by its very nature it is disseminating this knowledge to NSDL's communities, as well as the larger digital library and technology enhanced learning communities. Through an ethnographic approach the project seeks to identify and highlight the full range of experiences of the NSDL community. Two particular elements of the project speak to its intellectual merit. First is the team of investigators who have extensive experience with the NSDL and bring their individual backgrounds in technology and evaluation, along with their relationships with past and current funded NSDL projects. Second is that the project exploits social networking tools and mechanisms to collect and organize the stories and experiences of those involved with building the NSDL. The broader impacts of the project lie in sharing the NSDL "story" beyond the initial NSDL community of projects, to wield an influence on the future direction of other large-scale technology enhanced learning initiatives involving multiple institutions and collaborative projects. Examples of such efforts include those being undertaken by the Open Educational Resources movement supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and other nascent cyberinfrastructure projects underway at NSF.