Digital Curriculum Institute – Launch Concept

eb60218DigitalCurriculmInstitute.doc

The Digital Curriculum Institute is seeing favor with the Arizona legislature with 8-1 and 10-1 votes in the Senate K-12 Education and Appropriations committees. If the bill passes and the funding is unchanged, implementation will be within the Arizona university system. The funding is $1 million launch funds with additional $3 million from the state to match $6 million from other sources (business, foundations, …) There are three primary launch tasks:

1. Research: Survey all sources of existing digital curriculum. Determine which have educational effectiveness for specific courses and grade levels, and align with Arizona academic standards.

2. Provide Knowledge Access with a web portal for the data and knowledge base to support acquisition decisions of digital curriculum to school administrators, staff, teachers and parents. Data from the Arizona Department of Education’s IDEAL (Integrated Data to Enhance Arizona’s Learning) system will provide field data from digital curriculum being used in Arizona’s schools.

3. Support: Develop and field a cadre of specially trained education technologists who work as on site agents with school administrators, staff, mentors, teachers and parents.

Operating under the auspices of Arizona’s Board of Regents the Digital Curriculum Institute could and maybe should be distributed within the five current campuses. The following concept suggests the readiness of Arizona’s university system to create a flourishing Digital Curriculum Institute.

Location: Arizona Polytechnic (Mesa) would house the main DCI because of their focus on a practical education and support. Also the Air Force Research Laboratory is on their campus, one of the world’s leading distributed eLearning research operations.

Research: All Arizona universities conduct eLearning research and their research communities would be linked to the DCI. ASU’s Technology Based Learning and Research entity could be the linkage point for DCI.

Knowledge Access: Lots of talent and systems expertise from early ASPIN to current level is available to develop and maintain a high accessible and open K-12 digital curriculum knowledge management system. Linkage, collaboration and two-way knowledge flow through ADE’s IDEAL would be critical.

Support: ASU College of Education graduate program graduates instructional technology experts who could seed the extension program. Arizona School Services through Educational Technology (ASSET) under KAET at ASU has been delivering support statewide to teachers for decades. UofA Agriculture College has vast experience in organizing and operating extension services. NAU has been delivering online/video distance and remote site education statewide for decades.

There is the talent, experience and the will within our university system to build an effective digital curriculum knowledge system and deliver the goods to Arizona’s 50,000 going on 65,000 teachers and curriculum directors.

But why stop there? Lets pick up the concept in my next blog.

Cheers!

Ted

Theodore C. Kraver Ph.D.

President

eLearning System for Arizona Teachers and Students Inc.

Not-For-Profit 501 c(3) volunteer advocacy organization

225 West Orchid Lane

Phoenix, AZ 85021

602-944-8557(d) tkraver@qwest.net azeLearning.org