April 2003 — Features
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Redesigning Schools to Meet 21st Century Learning Needs
Building community among teachers, as well as opportunities for their growth and continual learning. Online communities extend the range of collegial support and mentoring available to teachers. These virtual communities provide a new means for sharing and building expertise, breaking down the barriers of time and location that otherwise keep teachers isolated from each other. Networked learning communities can provide options for timely, flexible and targeted professional development, whether they are formal courses or informal links with experts and knowledgeable peers within a school or across a continent. These online communities provide an important benefit to new teachers who find it difficult to achieve the support they need in local schools, as illustrated in projects like Illinois' Novice Teacher Support Project and The University of Texas at Austin's online mentoring program, WINGS Online.
Providing opportunities for broader replication of successful practices. Researchers, teachers, policymakers and parents can all share knowledge through online communities, video exemplars, and other means of communicating and sharing best practices, as well as by discussing common concerns. Online communities of practice are making it possible for redesigned schools to learn from each other's successes and challenges. Less time is spent reinventing the wheel or experiencing the same missteps of those who first pioneered many of these break-the-mold school designs and practices. In breaking down the walls of time and space, we are also breaking down walls that closed out innovation and creativity.
Copies of NCTAF's reports, including "No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children," are available online at www.nctaf.org.
References
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Dede, C. 1996 "Emerging Tech-nologies and Distributed Learning." The American Journal of Distance Education 10 (2).
Donovan, S., J. Bransford and J. Pellegrino, eds. 1999. How People Learn: Bringing Research and Practice. Washington, D.C.: NAP.
Lemke, C. "EnGauge: 21st Century Skills." 2001. North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Online: www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/skills.htm [July 2002].
Raywid, M.A. 1997/98. "Small Schools: A Reform That Works." Educational Leadership. Dec./Jan.
Vygotsky, L.S. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Wasley, P.A. and R.J. Lear. 2001 "Small Schools, Real Gains." Educational Leadership. March.
