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Teachers from all over the globe came together last fall in virtual classrooms to improve the work that they do in schools. And all because David Perkins and other colleagues at the Harvard Graduate School of Education decided to up the ante on their cutting-edge WIDE World web site—short for Wide-scale Interactive Development for Educators.
The WIDE World initiative, funded by Kate and Al Merck, who are committed to transforming teaching through distance learning, builds on a pair of resource sites for professional development that has gained a substantial following over the past three years: the Active Learning Practices for Schools site (ALPS) and a sister site, Education with New Technologies (ENT), developed by Martha Stone Wiske, co-director of the Technology in Education Program at HGSE. "Trailheads" to Resources The award-winning ALPS site dazzles the viewer with its mountain vistas and diverse educational offerings. Teachers can point their browsers to http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/ and go to three "learning regions"—The Thinking Classroom, Teaching for Understanding, and Education with New Technologies (the ALPS sister site)—and take any number of "trailheads" to specific information. One path, for example, leads to a unit about colonial biography, where teachers can learn how Lois Hetland, Ed.D.'00, a Project Zero researcher, taught a 7th grade history course. ALPS's popularity among school practitioners worldwide, as well as practitioners' responses to the ENT site, prompted Perkins to join his colleague Stone Wiske and speed up plans for online courses. "As the site gained in richness, it became apparent to us that participants needed the structure that an action-oriented course provides," says Perkins. "So we decided to offer courses aimed at changing professional practice on the ground—that would get teachers doing things differently in their classrooms very early on," Perkins continues. In pilot courses, for instance, a teacher preparing to conduct a summer course on basic math skills and a teacher seeking to critique theatrical monologues by students sought online assistance, Perkins says. Classmates, coaches, and an instructor helped these teachers think through goals and strategies that most effectively engage students and lead to deep understanding. Scalable—But Sustainable? Perkins and Wiske are eager to discover whether the Internet can truly serve as a vehicle for the development of school practitioners throughout the globe. Helping small numbers of practitioners change their behavior by offering them courses in a face-to-face setting works, Perkins says. "But we like to say that the trick with the Internet is showing up without showing up! Can one do things via the web that build enough of a relationship, sustain enough of a presence—albeit electronic—so that people feel they're part of a supportive community and getting direct regular feedback?" he asks. "I am hopeful, but I am also an empiricist. We will have to see." For More Information About the Article
HGSE News, Harvard Graduate School of Education
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