Online Information 2008 ORT Argentina Virtual Campus V X

ORT Argentina Virtual Campus Project Forrester Groundswell Awards Finalist 2007/2008 Guillermo Lutzky ORT Argentina

Social Context 2. Organizational context 3. A Web 2.0 project 4. Outcomes 5. Conclusions … in a time of changes, where the only constant is change…

The Knowledge Society The attention economy Chaos management and flexibility Fragmentation of information Long tail, segmentation of markets Technologies of intelligence Communities of practice and social networks: the value of relationships

A new kind of stakeholder Digital natives? Need for speed Interactivity Multitasking Constant communication (Living on a mesh) Emotional involvement Personalization and participation (Students… and parents)

2 high-schools, 2 community colleges 7,000 students, 1,000 teachers Urban setting Pro-active community Diversity of backgrounds High expectations … however, Internet was “frowned upon” ORT Argentina

Organizational context Including the Internet as an institutional space As an educational organization, ORT Argentina looks to use its intangible assets by creating, sharing, and leveraging knowledge . We decided that our structure, our schools and teachers must be more open and flexible , to become a sustainable organization, and to prepare our students to deal with this context of accelerated change and innovation . Information, knowledge, and culture are central to human freedom and human development. And Internet is the highway to reach this goal .

Internet as a second skin Organization as a filter Organization as an interface users users organization organization

Organizational needs To improve its institutional quality, ORT Argentina decided to aim at redefining culture , to use Internet as an architecture for teaching and learning … but, we understand culture as an issue in permanent change , produced in the social practice. … and we feel that the concept of “emergent” seems to be essential in the near future. People were required to have flexibility, motivation and interrelation to face these singularities, which will become more frequent .

Organizational change We looked forward to create a knowledge network in parallel with our formal organizational pyramid. We checked and used every available social tool and technology . We wanted to achieve more interaction between students, teachers, administration, and parents, using the Internet as a learning platform , and to expose our community to collaboration technologies. We scrutinized the reaction of the community towards the commitment required to make teaching, learning and socialization public, transparent, flat and ubiquitous .

Goals of the Project To promote the creation of personal and organizational knowledge , based on students and teachers’ collaborative work . To use our Virtual Campus to reinforce the creation of transparent teaching and learning communities based on projects, and endorse the participation of different members of the educational community . To encourage teachers to redesign didactic strategies , and to incorporate audiovisual formats and new mobile devices as teaching and learning tools.

Vision and Effect Free Web 2.0 applications were used as scaffolding for collaborative work and production. Weblogs were chosen as the first technology to deliver the project. They were quickly adopted by teachers from every department. The experience had a great institutional impact which is reflected on the quantity and quality of the Internet sites and weblogs created (600+ at June 2008) . The project is starting to redesign knowledge management at our schools and into the organization itself.

Additional Guidelines From a pedagogical approach, these guidelines were suggested to every teacher and administrator: Recast teachers and students as researchers and producers of knowledge “Teaching to the future demands that we imbue students with a sense of intellectual purpose, instill in them a desire to make a difference, provide them with opportunities to reach a wider audience and do not shield them from innovation and innovative practices.” Craft activities that look both forward and backwards “When we teach only to the future, we abandon our responsibility as the curators of our intellectual and cultural heritage. Likewise, when we teach only to the past, we forget that our students have already booked tickets in the opposite direction”. A sense of urgency

Interim Results and levels of Innovation Audience : as recorded by Google Analytics: May 21 - June 20, 2007: 6,655 Visits 12,270 Pageviews 66.36% New Visits May 21 - June 20, 2008: 93,613 Visits 150,608 Pageviews 47.36% New Visits Production : from May 20th to June 20th, 2060 blog entries by teachers and students Visibility : The project appeared, five times into three of the main newspapers of Argentina, and two more times into the biggest Internet news site (from 11/07 to 06/08)

A classification of weblogs Blogs of a school subject, teachers and students publish Blogs of a school subject, only teachers publish Collective blogs: from teachers to teachers Collective blogs: from teachers to students Students’ Blogs Blogs about School Projects Institutional Blogs Event Blogs

A few examples… http://redblogs.ort.edu.ar … from the planet of weblogs

Interim Results The project furnished innovations, suggested by teachers, managers and even students : Thematic Planets of Weblogs Networks of Weblogs of Students Graduation Projects Wikis “ Live school transmissions” Parents as academic contributors Grandparents as “oral sources”

Other tools and applications To encourage collaborative work, we incorporated del.icio.us , a social bookmarking tool ( http://delicious.com/tags/campusvirtualort ) and ( http://delicious.com/ort_virtual ) To promote the creation of potential collaborative networks, we added Feevy , a sidebar blogroll tool to the weblogs. To organize the set of blogs of the Virtual Campus, we have a planet of weblogs , which aggregates others Virtual Campus’ weblogs ( http:// redblogs.ort.edu.ar )

Even more tools and applications There is also: a YouTube channel , http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CampusVirtualORT a collective RSS feed , a customized toolbar, http://campusvirtualort.ourtoolbar.com a FriendFeed account http://friendfeed.com/campusvirtualort and a Twitter microblog. http://twitter.com/ortvirtual Live Mogulus -style video transmission of events are routine Facebook and LinkedIn groups were created for graduates

Even more tools and applications A specially developed CMS ( http://campus.ort.edu.ar ) is being developed and implemented Web 2.0 powered and focused Complies with the school structure Allows distributed administration, communication, tagging and collaborative publishing Is scalable, and RSS-transparent Users can personalize its sources and desktop Has a Facebook-like social network for academic use

A few examples… http://campus.ort.edu.ar … from the Digital School CMS

1. Social Context 2. Organizational context 3. A Web 2.0 project 4. Outcomes 5. Conclusions … in a time of changes, where the only constant is change…

Lessons Learnt The project empowers institutional culture , and adds value , capitalizing production and collective expertise . Allowed management to detect hidden talent , teachers and of students. Provided scaffolding for different ways to teach, to learn, and to produce knowledge under a school environment.

Lessons Learnt Students and teachers incorporated and accepted the open nature and “permanent beta” of their productions . Teachers from non-tech subjects used digital spaces A LOT , and “contagion” patterns emerged. Institutional areas discovered the potential of direct channels with the educational community. New spaces for dialogue and action within the school emerged. Parents showed their enthusiasm and attention towards these “productive” aspects of the use of Internet .

Lessons Learnt It is mandatory To create an atmosphere which allows experimentation , innovation, and the opportunity to make adjustments. To find the pioneer , the teacher on each department who has ideas and enthusiasm, but not to fall into elitism. To think of everybody as a “ prosumer ” . To consider as a single process both action and communication . (It is also a strong marketing tool) To encourage people to work in networks , creating communities of practice.

Final Reflections At school, the “Knowledge Society” is affecting two axis: teacher-student-task , and teacher–parent–administrator-educational institution . Digital spaces –especially those where teachers and students publish– are alternative spaces for socialization , with an informal style that favors conversation within the school community. A greater sense of ownership, responsibility and belonging facilitates teaching and learning, and delivers a better service to all the stakeholders involved. 95% cultural change, 5% technological change

Thank you!!!! Guillermo Lutzky http:// campus.ort.edu.ar Email: [email_address] Weblog: http://adefinirlo.blogspot.com

Online Information 2008 ORT Argentina Virtual Campus V X

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Online Information 2008 ORT Argentina Virtual Campus V X