Seattle Public Schools builds social-learning site for its tech-savvy teens
- Quote: The L3RN tool has amazing potential for students, teachers and
schools, said Ramona Pierson, who heads the district’s department of
education technology and oversaw the creation of L3RN.Schools can create “channels” where they can showcase their best
student work, such as class projects and school newspapers, she said.
Teachers at schools at opposite ends of the city could develop lessons
together. The district could begin offering online classes, or post
videos of teacher-training sessions or School Board meetings.Note: Very cool. This sounds like a school that is beginning to understand the pedagogies of connecting and publishing, though it’s unclear how widespread the use is in the curriculum.
– post by willrich
Hi Will,
I’m the development manager for L3RN. We just finished the pilot of L3RN throughout our district. It ran through fourth quarter of this year. The site will be open 24/7 all summer for teachers to create content. This fall we will be rolling out the gold release of the site which will add social networking for students and staff, blogging, discussion forums, electronic portfolios, galleries, and assistive agents to help students to manage their academic plans.
The beauty of social networking is that adoption can happen most authentically and successfully when it spreads organically and virally rather than through some top-down authoritative mechanism. We have embraced a grass-roots and relational approach towards educating our users about L3RN. We seek out the early adopters and work closely with them to teach them the technology and support their instructional goals. Then we let them work with other teachers and adminstrators to naturally incorporate L3RN into the transformation plans of their schools. I’m already noticing the viral effects. Teachers and schools outside of our initial beta group are starting to post content and the stuff they are posting is amazing. I didn’t even know it was possible for a second grade class to create a podcast but some of our best podcasts are created in elementary schools.
Lindell,
We are looking for this type of solution. Please feel free to contact us. We are looking for patnerships 🙂