Nothing truly innovative, nothing that has advanced art, business, design, or humanity, was ever created in the face of genuine certainty or perfect information. Because the only way to be certain before you begin is if the thing you seek to do has already been done.
– Jonathan Fields, author of Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance
For the past 18 months, as a researcher and lead on ISKME’s Primary Source Project, I have been part of a group of twelve educators across eight states to create an open collection of primary sources and lessons that meet the Common Core’s requirement for increased used of informational and non-fiction literary texts across core subjects. We have also been working together to develop an instructional design toolkit to help teachers both create and also implement new curriculum to meet the Common Core State Standards.
We started off the project with four primary goals:
The capture and use of video was a rare activity for most of us until recently. Shooting video was reserved for momentous events, and was not widely considered a tool for everyday life and learning. Enter new tools like the GoPro Hero 4, the iPhone, and the Flip camera. Combined with easy-to-use editing software and resources, such as ISKME’s OER Commons, for posting and sharing video, we can use video anywhere and anytime to document and share our lives with the world.
Bringing expertise in education, information technology, and project management, Dan Gwaltney joined ISKME in August 2013 as OER Services Manager. For much of his career, Dan has striven for improvement in educational practice and design through the increased use of engaging, effective, and efficient technologies in the K-12 space. This is a perfect match with ISKME’s established focus on continuous improvement of Open Educational Resources (OER).
As districts and states begin to prioritize and structure their roll out of Common Core State Standards (CCSS), they are also looking at how to implement formative assessments to capture and understand specific CCSS-aligned shifts in learning. These shifts include, for example, students’ ability to do critical thinking and evidence building through close reading of materials, logic and inquiry.