Knowledge Networks On the Web

Knowledge Networks on the Web (KNOW) is a web-based system developed with the goal of creating a self sustaining community of teacher learners engaged in knowledge building activities that enhance their ability to use complex new curricula.   KNOW is built around standards-based, inquiry-oriented, and technology-rich curriculum materials, and adds a collection of videos, student artifacts, and other enhancements designed to help teachers understand how to interpret curriculum so that it becomes more useable in their local context.   This kind of customization is impossible to achieve using traditional materials, but is ideally suited for the web.   Furthermore, KNOW supports ongoing asynchronous conversation about how to teach specific curricula, linked to an organically growing set of examples and elaborative information, usually generated by the community of teachers using KNOW regularly.   In a sense, logging on to KNOW is like walking into a room full of teachers talking and sharing their personal stories of curriculum enactment with its multiple challenges.

It is important to note that network-enabled professional development has been tried before in a variety of situations and with a range of success, but to our knowledge no one has used them in a systemic reform environment that strives to engage all teachers, not just volunteers or technologically advanced teachers.   In addition, KNOW is also the only professional development web site working from an existing curriculum base.   This is significant because a past failing of such resources is that their content is too general.   Asking questions such as "What is constructivism?" or "What are techniques of alternative assessment?" is essentially a luxury that busy teachers often cannot afford.   When teachers are consumed by the daily challenge of learning new curricula or pedagogy while managing a challenging classroom environment and student population, more targeted help is needed.   KNOW is designed to answer teachers' questions such as, "How should I assess student work on the activity coming up next week?"   The theoretical basis of the content is the same as that of earlier systems but the context through which it becomes available is more readily accessible by and useful to teachers.

 

Funder:

W. K. Kellogg Foundation
Hewlett Packard Corporation

Principal Investigators:

Barry Fishman
Ron Marx (now at Univ. of Arizona)

Partner Organizations:

Detroit Public Schools
Michigan Middle Start Partnership

Status:

Completed in August 2003