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>What is the Collective Action?
>Why is Collective Action needed?
>What is the Collective Action “end game”?
>What is in Collective Action for me?
>How do I get involved in the Collective Action?
>Which individuals, initiatives, and organizations currently are
involved in Collective Action?
>Any early projects that I can get involved in?
>Can you recommend some readings to better understand the goals and
rationale of Collective Action?
What is the Collective Action?
Ohio’s Collective Action is an organizing principle – and
a loosely coupled group of organizations and individuals working together
to accomplish common goals. Individuals in existing Ohio organizations
will act collectively:
To increase the successes of all Ohio learners by coordinating and leveraging
various state efforts contributing to better practices in the usage
of technology for learning and a sharable state infrastructure designed
to meet the needs of Ohio learners.
Combining different organizational perspectives and individual insights,
this group will identify and move to produce an integrated learning
technologies infrastructure useful to, and used by, Ohio pK-20 educational
institutions to demonstrate and accelerate student learning outcomes.
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Why is Collective Action needed?
There are too many Ohio pK-20 educational technology initiatives underway
to quickly collect and provide an inventory for users, policy-makers
and tax payers. Until now, these initiatives have not been linked to
leverage their development, lessons learned or impact on learning. This
disconnect has cost dollars, time and expertise in the common goal all
of these initiatives: to effectively use technology in the teaching
and learning process.
The importance of integration
While each component of Collective Action may offer improved accountability,
more efficient allocation of resources for technology, and measurable
improvements in student learning outcomes, the synergies from integrating
the pilots/projects within a common framework differentiates Collective
Action outcomes from the lessened benefits of running pilots/projects
in isolation. If Collection Action succeeds, the model will be accretive
and offer the opportunity for Ohio institutions to share in the benefits
as their technology decision and adoption cycles permit. It also will
serve to help Ohio reclaim a reputation for innovation among peer states.
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What is the Collective Action
“end game”?
By convening the various state stakeholders, the Collective Action will
deliver a functioning, integrated prototype of a tool set and workflow
process with the potential to support student learning cost-effectively
at either the state or individual institution level.
The Collective Action project team will:
• gather and articulate teacher and faculty developed learning
goals
• identify and link resources to these goals that will help students
learn and teachers teach
• provide a technical infrastructure to organize, index, store
and distribute these knowledge assets, and
• display concrete student learning outcomes that demonstrate
the higher order critical thinking skills needed for lifelong contributions
to social and economic betterment.
At its inception, the Collective Action will deliver four core learning
infrastructure components. Each of these connected projects builds on
current investments made by the state.
The four initial core learning infrastructure components of Collective
Action are:
(1) The Digital Bookshelf- a repository of modular instructional content
targeted to specific learning outcomes and specific student learning
styles;
(2) Applications for the 3rd Frontier network- an approach for developing
and delivering instructional resources within the state that facilitates
sharing and reduces redundancy of technological resources in the K-20
environment;
(3) Open Source Infrastructure- a suite of non-commercial content and
course management software delivered from a centralized- distributed
server infrastructure; and
(4) OhioSuccess ePortfolio- An electronic portfolio that will display
text, image, audio, and video representations of student learning and
thinking.
These initial components model an integrated technology-supported learning
environment useful to all Ohio educational institutions. The technologies
on which it will be built will interoperate with or supplement commercial
course management and content management systems currently in use in
Ohio K-12 and higher education institutions.
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What is in Collective Action for
me?
1. Leveraging Collaboration
Establish a working community of Ohio educational developers, instructional
personnel and policy makers to share current and emerging technologies,
lessons learned and successful projects impacting teaching and learning.
2. Increased Efficiencies
a. Educators- the Collective Action will allow instructors to focus
on the content, and not the limitations of technology, to infuse technology
effectively into their instructional pedagogies.
b. Developers- the Collective Action will provide a “blueprint”
for choosing and sharing technology solutions for developers based off
of shared successes and resource allocations
c. Policy Makers- the Collective Action will allow policy makers to
fund projects that are aligned with other funded projects to leverage
state dollars investment.
3. Sustainability
Traditionally, numerous projects have been funded throughout the state
that may or may not have had a learning impact but have not continued
due to lack of funding, administrative support or momentum. A systemic
approach to technology leveraging, including funding, will allow for
cross pollination of ideas and activities for greater sustainability.
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How do I get involved in the Collective
Action?
Incremental growth in the number of Ohio institutions participating
in Collective Action compounds value of this shared approach to innovation.
New members accrue the benefits of the previous partnership; and each
new partner further leverages the initial investment, adds to the bases
of experience that can reflect on future issues that arise, and may
contribute additional resources to the community at large. Once in place,
Collective Action will provide a statewide test bed in which to evaluate
the next set of educational innovations associated with student success.
Collective Action involvement is simple. Just become a part of this
open community of Ohio learning stakeholders sharing either existing
or proposed technological learning projects to ensure dissemination,
share experiences and alignment with other state initiatives. Contact:
Steve Acker (acker.1@osu.edu), alert your representative to OLN or OhioLINK,
or log onto http://ohiocollectiveaction.org.
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Which individuals, initiatives, and
organizations currently are involved in Collective Action?
Ohio Board of Regents
Jon Tafel, Vice Chancellor for Educational Linkages and Access
David Barber, Director of Technology Projects
Ohio Learning Network
Kate Carey, Executive Director
Cable Green, Director of Technology
Sheryl Hansen, Director of Professional Development
George Steele, Director Educational Access
OhioLINK
Peter Murray, Assistant director of Library Systems
Ohio Resource Center
Peggy Kasten, Director
Nicole Luthy, Reading Content Specialist
Carol Dodson, Resource Specialist
Sigrid Wagner, Mathematics Content Specialist (on leave from OSU)
Ohio SuperComputer Center
Steve Gordon, Director of Resources and Planning
eTech Ohio
Andrew Clute, Chief Information Officer, eTech Ohio
Ohio Department of Education
Amy Andres, Executive Director of Operations
Donna Nesbitt, Executive Director, Center for Curriculum and Assessment
Ohio State University
Steve Acker, Director of Special Projects and Convener of Collective
Action
Kay Halasek, Vice Chair of Rhetoric and Composition, Department of English
University of Cincinnati
Phil Luther, Professor of English
Marlene Rushay, Professional Development Administrator for OhioWINS
Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIF)
Larry Fruth, Executive Director
Jill Abbott, Learning Strategist
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Any early projects that I can
get involved in?
The
OLN open source pilot project (Shared technology infrastructure)
FAME (Resources
for universally accessible Ohio campuses)
OhioSuccess
(Ohio student success, ePortfolio, and Accountability)
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Can you recommend some readings to better
understand the goals and rationale of Collective Action?
Acker, S. & Murray, P. (July 19, 2006). Open source software: Should
you bet your career on it? SmartClassroom. (Click
here to read this paper) Retrieved from the web July 22, 2006.
Bok, D. (2006). Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much
students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
CALPPIRG-California Student Public Interest Research Group (2004). (Click
here to visit Make Textbooks AFFORDABLE.com). Retrieved from the
web 2/20/2006.
COOL- College Opportunities Online Locator (Click
here to view). A web resource created by the U.S. Department of
Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Search on institutions
by name and a variety of student success and institutional data are
returned.
Field, Kelly (September 22, 2006). Anticipating Federal Report, Higher-Education
Groups Suggest “Next Steps” for Colleges (Click
here to read this paper).
This article presents the response of six higher education lobbying
groups to Margaret Spellings’ call for higher education accountability.
The article clearly frames the issues and describes the role of information
technology in demonstrating institutional accountability.
Miller, M. & Ewell, P. (October, 2005). Measuring up on college-level
learning. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
National Center Report #05-8, 48 pages.
National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering &
Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2006). Rising above
the gathering storm: Energizing and employing America for a brighter
economic future (Click
here to view this document). The National Academies formed a committee
to answer this question: What are the top 10 actions that federal policy
makers could take to enhance the science and technology enterprise in
the United States to serve the country needs for economic competitiveness
in the 21st Century?
National Association of College Stores (2005). Where the New Textbook
dollar goes. (Click
here to read this paper) . Retrieved from the web February 0, 2006.
National Commission on Accountability (2005). Accountability for Better
Results: A National Imperative for Higher Education (Click
here to read this paper )
National Forum on Education Statistics (September, 2006). Forum Guide
to Decision Support Systems: A resource for educators (Click
here to view this document). This publication defines a decision
support system and describes what makes it useful. The goal of the Decision
support system is to make the information gathered in accountability
seeking actionable for school improvement.
Pascarella, E. & Terenzini, P. (2005). How College Affects Students:
A Third Decade of Research, Volume 2. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Twigg, C. (Jul-Aug 2003) Improving Quality and Reducing Cost: Designs
for Effective Learning. Change. v35 n4 p22-29. (Click
here to read this paper)
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