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Although I am not a superstitious person by nature, I figure it can only serve as a good omen to launch the blog for NSDL’s STEM Exchange Initiative by referencing the first Apple 1 computer prototype (via a Wired article, no less). Invoking the spirits of the young Jobs and Wozniak as a talisman for disruptive innovation and general envelope-pushing will hopefully bring good fortune to this project—a collaborative effort exploring off-axis approaches for surfacing how educators are using digital learning resources.

Background information about the project including the initial concept paper, presentations, plans, and reports can be found at the STEM Exchange pages of the NSDL Community Network site.  With the launch of this blog, we will chronicle our development toward useful tools and protocols that can capture and share how digital resources from NSDL and its partners are diffusing through online teacher networks, and what value they add to teaching and learning as they are tagged, downloaded, favorited, recommended, retweeted, and incorporated into practitioner-built instructional assets.

NSDL launched this initiative with the cooperation of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation.  At that first meeting in March 2010, we were honored by the caliber and expertise of the organizations that showed up to learn about our ideas — truly a Fantasy Cyberlearning League of professional teacher communities, state educational coalitions, nonprofits, professional societies,  public media, and federal agency advanced thinkers.  We were equally fortunate that several of these groups were at favorable moments in their own development cycles to experiment with us in the NSDL equivalent of Steve Jobs’ garage.

We are nearing the point where we can present some prototype models built in partnership with fantastic people at the Butte County (California) Board of Education, Florida State University, and Intel.  Once we’ve nailed our test cases to plywood we’ll be presenting our story here, and looking for the rest of our community (i.e., you the reader) to provide your thoughts and help move the creative process forward.

- Susan Van Gundy, NSDL Director of Education and Strategic Partnerships

Watch this space for the launch of the STEM Exchange blog.