1. University of Michigan Media Union
Building Instructional Communities: Next Steps for Distributed Education
Barbara J. O’Keefe
University of Michigan Media Union
May 18, 2000

2. A Model for Faculty Development
Provide faculty with tools that help them improve their current practice….
And then provide them with tools to help them reorganize their approach to teaching and learning
In short, support a developmental trajectory for faculty

3. Tools to support current practice
UM CourseTools
Web course construction kit
UM Lessons
Clipboard 2000

4. Where do faculty want to go?
Development of digital content libraries to support curricula
Discipline centered
Content-focused
Inquiry learning
Organization of instructional communities to aid in content development

5. Illustrative Examples
Global Change Curriculum
Teamworks Curriculum
Electronic Quad Project
Animal Diversity Web
The Inquiry Page
U of Arizona Southwest Project
Others

6. Global Change Curriculum
Two semester course on global change at University of Michigan
Web site to support the class
Resources
Films, lessons, assignments
Available for use by other instructors
Team teaching by UM faculty

7. Teamworks Curriculum
Cooperative project to support engineering education at UIUC
Development of a website by students and faculty
Resources
Lectures, readings, activities
Available for use by others

8. The Electronic Quad Project
Developed by a cross-institutional faculty community (organizational communication)
Shared curriculum developed in a set of web sites
Resources
Lectures, lessons, activities, assignments, readings
Team teaching using collaboration technology

9. Animal Diversity Web
Developed by Phil Myers and others at the UM Zoology Museum
Database of information about mammals, birds, others
Resources
Films, interactive video, audio, images, text, lessons
Student participation in site construction

10. The Inquiry Page
Developed by Chip Bruce and Deborah Dillon to support a community of practice
Database of lessons for inquiry learning
Resources
Lessons, links to standards
Teachers can draw on or contribute to the database

11. The Southwest Project
University of Arizona faculty have developed a digital library of information about the American Southwest
Collection of databases
Resources
Images, maps, documents, geographic data, interactive visualizations

12. The Southwest Project (cont.)
Use across the curriculum
Integration of cultural data into GIS database
Model of Santa Rita range
Interactive visualization and public art
Web exhibits on history of Tucson
K-12 web exhibit project for teaching history
Tree ring teaching module and argumentative writing classes

13. Southwest Project (cont.)
Sustainability
Broad participation
Institutionalization
Extensibility
Read about it:
The University of Arizona Southwest Project: A Study of Shifting Learning Roles by Robert MacArthur:

14. Other examples NEEDS Exchanges in Chemistry Education
Educational Objects Economy

15. How will universities support such work?
Infrastructure issues
Design
Support
Organizational issues
Leadership and initiative
Boundaries and faculty workload

16. Will other organizations support learning interchanges?
National Science Foundation
Educause, NLII, and IMS
Apple Learning Interchange
Other possible enterprises