Teachers' Domain Pathways Stage II
Updated July 2010
Our work on the Teachers’ Domain Pathway over the past year continues to focus on several major activities:
1. Research and piloting of Web 2.0 enhancements to the Teachers' Domain platform:
We began this process in collaboration with EDC/CCT, who prepared a report based on the literature and their own research on how K-12 teachers are using or would like to use enhanced Web capabilities. Based on this information and our own research into Web 2.0 practices, we developed several scenarios for possible development, which EDC then used in focus groups with a number of teacher user groups. Based on these results, we have gradually been rolling out a number of features for use on the live service. First was the ability for users to upload media they generate; the second was for users to be able to rate and review resources, and to recommend them to a colleague; the third, to launch this fall, will be the ability for a user to create a searchable expanded profile and to integrate the folder and groups functionality on the service into that profile. In addition, users will be able to create a linked account, so that, for instance, a teacher will be able to assign work to students and then monitor student work through a portfolio feature. This will be incorporated into an enhanced "self-paced lesson format" that is being developed under other project funding. This feature will also be used for teacher professional development certification.
EDC will perform an analysis on use of these features over the 2010-11 school year.
We are currently implementing a major design change that will help support and promote these features; v 5.0 of TD is scheduled for a Sept 1 launch.
2. Investigation and preparation for archiving of master video material in a digital asset management system, with investigation of attendant metadata records
We have completed the work of re-digitizing all the WGBH video in our collection at the highest possible quality. Preservation quality digital masters have been ingested into our Digital Asset Management (DAM) system. The process of locating our tape masters and re-digitizing them was timely, as we found two tapes had suffered enough degradation to not be readable. Luckily, we have been able to reconstruct materials for those two resources.
We completed the recompression of video from the re-digitized masters. This is one of the highly anticipated parts of the project, as re-compressed video now allows us to offer higher-quality video, in a format that supports larger captions and full-screen video. As these have been two of our most frequent user requests, we're looking forward to satisfying this user need. Higher quality digital masters also mean that we can pursue other distribution opportunities—such as iTunes U, or PBS's Digital Learning Library (DLL). By the end of the summer, most WGBH-controlled video on the site will be playable at full screen using a Flash player.
Unfortunately, we underestimated the time and effort required for this activity, and we have not been able to pursue a similar
process and rigor with non-video materials. In particular, we have not yet worked out how to preserve the source code and graphics associated with
interactive resources.
We have made some progress with metadata—crosswalking internal TD formats to our DAM format. This process is still ad hoc and we are disappointed that we weren't able to make better use of PBCore (the public television metadata standard) for this purpose. However, on a positive note, this effort is forcing us to reconsider our metadata integration practices and we are actively looking for a consistent, scaleable way to manage metadata exports, integration and sharing with partners. We have had preliminary discussions with Mike Wright of TNS about ways to develop an XML metadata export protocol that will work with the NSDL NCore Repository and other consumers of our metadata. This has taken awhile to get underway, but plans are to reinvigorate the discussion at the August PI meeting.
3. Development of training protocols for teachers, to be used by other public media organizations as well as NSDL partners:
We have been working with four other PTV organizations, Penn State Public Broadcasting, WNET New York, KQED San Francisco, and Iowa Public Television, to develop and pilot test these materials. We began the activity with a planning teleconference in January 2009, with followup in which each organization, including the NSDL Resource Center, provided sample training materials they had already used. We determined that it would be best to divide the workshop protocols into a set of shorter modules that could be used together or separately as needed. There are five modules:
- Introduction to Teachers' Domain target="_blank">http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdtrg10.workshop.tdintro/
- Using Teachers' Domain in the Classroom http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdtrg10.workshop.tdclassroom/
- Technology Guide to Teachers' Domain http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdtrg10.workshop.techguide/
- Using Folders and Groups in Teachers' Domain http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdtrg10.workshop.foldersgroups/
- Creating User Generated Media with Teachers' Domain http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdtrg10.workshop.creatingmedia/
The five modules were pilot tested by each of the five partners, who piloted them with groups of local educators last fall and winter. Based on feedback from the pilot testing, we revised the protocols, and have now redistributed them for another set of trainings, to be run later this summer and into the fall in each location. They are available for community use through Teachers' Domain, at the URLs above.
4. Marketing, Dissemination, and Metrics:
Our marketing team remains very active. Their role has been to provide awareness of the project, increase its reach, collaborate with the Resource Center on outreach, and provide training and support to our user base. Because other Pathways work more directly with post-secondary audiences, the TD team focused on our K-12 audience.
We led workshops at several educator conferences, educational service agencies, and school districts across the US. Most
face-to-face events were done at local and regional venues convenient to Boston, although staff attended several national conferences and worked closely with the Bureau of Indian Education. Events for more distant groups were often held as Webinars.
The purpose of these workshops has been to:
- introduce educators to Teachers’ Domain and the NSDL
- showcase the media on the site, along with the various tools such as standards-correlation, folders, and groups
- facilitate the use of resources in their classroom
- do a hands-on activity allowing teachers to experiment with the site first-hand
- trouble shoot any problems/answer questions about the site
- introduce our media-rich professional development online courses in science
There were also a number of e-mail marketing messages sent to TD registered users and other targeted audiences. The purpose of these email campaigns is to:
- promote new Teachers’ Domain resources
- promote upcoming workshops or professional development opportunities
- highlight lesson plans and other existing resources
We have also been working with a number of public media organizations around the country to expand the reach and utility of Teachers' Domain. Custom state editions are now implemented in Massachusetts, New York, and Kentucky (launching at the end of August 2010). Over 35 public television stations now offer locally branded versions of Teachers' Domain and participate in teacher training in their regions; a number more have expressed interest in either custom editions or local branding options.
Among the results of our marketing and dissemination work were that as of 6/30/2010, there were close to 512,500 registered users, a significant rise from 387,000 one year earlier. We now have at least one registered user in over 78% of U.S. K-12 schools. Note that TD v.5 will include an automated metrics reporting system.
5. Content:
New STEM content launched on TD this year, or soon to launch, includes:
- Advanced Technological Education
- Biotechnology
- Climate Literacy
- Environmental Health
- Enhanced Middle School Literacy Activities
- PRI's The World Science Reports
- Where Words Touch the Earth (Native American Perspectives)