Developing Knowledge Brokers

I just read an article by Larry Rosen in Educational Research called Teaching the iGeneration.  The focal question is how can schools respond to the growing use of technology by our youth to make education relevant.

In Tech Tidbits 6-2, I wrote about teaching and thinking with technology.  Rosen’s article brought me right back there with ideas of how we can do that –by identifing knowledge brokers.

A knowledge broker is “someone who helps you identify online resources.” There is so much online available for free that a teacher, especially one who isn’t very comfortable with technology, can feel completely overwhelmed when s/he does a Google search for a topic and receives millions of hits (i.e., “revolutionary war primary sources” = 5,290,000 hits or “multiplication facts remediation” = 2,370,000 hits).  Who has time for all of this?

So, I have some suggestions for helping you navigate the sea of free online resources:

• Split the work among the team. Teams can consist of any person, located at any site across the district, who teaches the same topic.  Fortunately very few of our courses/subjects are taught by only one person in the district. Once excellent resources are identified, they can be shared across the district. I would be more than happy to help you with that.

• Get students involved.  Give them a head’s up that a certain topic is coming up and ask them to do some research into online resources that both covers the curriculum and interests them.  Of course, the teacher has the final say in the validity of the sites, but at least it will pare down the bulk.

• Get older students involved. Many CHS students love the web and need community service hours. Combine the two and everyone comes out a winner.

• Get parents involved.  There are many parents who would love to volunteer in their child’s classroom, but simply can’t get to the school.  Asking them to become a knowledge broker will give them the opportunity to be involved without requiring them to be at school.  They can research at home and share their finds via LoopMail.

• Share what you discover. Not every resource has to be geared towards a specific curricular area.  Many are productivity tools that help with organization.  Take a few minutes at grade level, subject area, or school wide staff meetings to share a favorite online tool of yours.  Don’t forget a follow up email with a link to the resource to assist your fellow staff members in locating it online.  Include me, too, please.