Publications

Collaborative Technology: Using Web 2.0 to Advance Staff Development

Originally published online by Education Week

Cecilia Cunningham & Susan Restler

Collaborative Technology

Emerging generations of teachers will bring their Facebook communities and digital ways of securing information and contacts to their practice as seamlessly as they now use e-mail. Through technology, they will be able to solve problems for themselves, find and give help to others, and develop and pass along new ideas. The process could be thought of as just-in-time knowledge generation combined with community support, and it has become possible only with the advent of Web 2.0, todays broadened and enhanced online capabilities.

The American Graduation Initiative Jam Report

By Knowledge in the Public Interest staff

American Graduation Initiative Report

The Jam on the American Graduation Initiative (AGI) took place on September 16, 2009. It was sponsored by Knowledge in the Public Interest (KPI), convened by the Brookings Institution, the Education Commission of the States, and Jobs for the Future, with LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC/CUNY) as the lead college.

The AGI Jam sought to help a wide range of participants understand the benefits and consequences of what President Obama's administration is proposing, and to organize a community on behalf of every community college in the U.S. The conversation ultimately revealed what participants believe the Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, state leaders and national associations must know to ensure that the potential of the AGI is realized.

American Graduation Initiative Jam participants included an exceedingly diverse group of 484 registrants from 36 states and the District of Columbia. Community college presidents, full-time and adjunct faculty and staff, public officials, foundation program officers, policy researchers, and advocates participated in seven discussion threads moderated by 44 expert moderators and organized around key elements of House Bill 3221. According to the Post-Jam survey, participants are hopeful about the potential outcomes of the AGI and they anticipate that the Jam will lead directly to new ideas, recommendations and resources for community colleges and other stakeholders, policy action (bill revision, recommendations for legislation, lobbying priorities, and advocacy), increased awareness and involvement with the AGI by leaders in the field; and more dialogue among practitioners.

We hope that the Jam has made a contribution to the American Graduation Initiative. We believe that this is one of the most important higher education policy initiatives of our time. If our small company has helped move the ball down the field, we are certain that a large network of such small acts will get it through the goal posts.

Jam Report for Education Commission of the States on Aligning Education, Workforce and Economic Development

Diana Woolis, Susan Restler, Brenda Kaulback
and Lisa Levinson

ECS_Jam_Report.pdf

The leadership of the Education Commission of the States, at the fall 2007 meeting, identified the alignment of education, workforce and economic development as an area of primary focus. ECS committed itself to collecting data that would help states develop, implement and sustain policies that foster alignment. Wanting to work quickly, deeply, inclusively, and cost effectively, ECS chose to conduct some of its initial work online, and in the summer of 2008 secured the services of Knowledge in the Public Interest (KPI) to do so.

KPI worked with ECS to hold a Jam on Aligning Education, Workforce and Economic Development, focused on building effective partnerships. The Jam took place on October 22 - 23 2008. A survey was developed and administered prior to the Jam, which informed the discussion framework and collected data relevant to the topic. There were three Jam discussion threads:

1. Making the Case for Alignment: What's the Return on Investment?
2. Creating Powerful Partnerships: Connecting People, Perceptions and Policy
3. Building an Effective and Sustainable Strategy

This report is a summary, synthesis, and analysis by Knowledge in the Public Interest of the Jam discussion submitted to the Education Commission of the States.

Actors and Factors: Virtual Communities for Social Innovation

Susan Restler and Diana D. Woolis

Actors and Factors
Actors y Factores

Virtual communities of practice (COPs) are fast becoming a basic work unit in a networked world. The relationship between COPs, Knowledge Management, and the Learning Organisation is a question of priority for social sector leaders, researchers, policy makers, and practitioners as they seek to establish ways to maintain relevance and effectiveness in the volatile environments in which they work. When well executed, virtual COPs produce results because the knowledge is stewarded: organised for learning, poised for action, and planned for sustainability. In this paper, we document and analyse the actors and factors that, in our experience, contribute to success: Enlightened Leadership, Compelling Work, Appropriate Technology and Knowledge Sustainability.

The Revolution Is Online: Two Polilogue Case Studies

Susan Restler

The Revolution Is Online

Over the past two years we have worked with new online communities of practice in the public and non-profit sectors. Some communities took off, exceeding the goals they set out to achieve. Several didn't -- but the process still had beneficial effects on the organization and the team. And for many, it was somewhere in between. "The Revolution Is Online" explores how the successes prove the power of this approach to knowledge management, and what the underperformers suggest about setting the parameters for investment.

Human Services Dot Net

Policy & Practice, December 2003

Diana D. Woolis and Susan Restler

Human Services Dot Net
Servicios Humanos Dot Net

The human services field is fueled by knowledge. Insights into how human service programs work and why practices succeed or fail rests in the experience of exceptional practitioners. Systematically organizing agency staff to leverage knowledge remains a challenge, though. How can an agency make the best use of knowledge that its employees possess?

Between a Rock and Cyber Space
Nonprofits, Knowledge, and Technology

Diana D. Woolis

Between a Rock and Cyber Space
Entre una Roca y el Ciberespacio

Technology is moving beyond the mere crunching of data to connecting people and what they know. Survival is increasingly determined by the successful development of organizational knowledge assets --the facts, experience, and insights garnered from work. These public knowledge assets are at risk of being privatized, colonized or cannibalized.

Discourse Analysis and Role Adoption in a Community of Practice

Co-authored by Doris Reeves Lipscomb

discourse.pdf

This paper describes a discourse analysis project which studied learning through engagement in a seven-week online workshop. The workshop was an immersive community of practicebased experience, cultivating learning in a largely asynchronous environment. The paper identifies a range of theoretical frameworks currently available for online discourse analysis, and documents the processes involved in using the selected framework to examine higher phase learning in the online workshop. The paper also describes the contemporaneous development of a framework which analyses the roles adopted by participants in their discourse. The paper reports on the relationships of the levels of social interaction and role adoption to self reported aspects of meaningful learning.

A Near-Term, Human-Based Approach to Capturing and Disseminating Program Knowledge in the Nonprofit Community

Gary G. Hendrix

hendrix.pdf

This paper explores the near-term feasibility of providing technological and organizational support for the use of knowledge assets that result from service delivery and policy implementation in the nonprofit sector. It posits that the key to near-term progress is not to invent new artificial intelligence technology for the public sector. Rather, the key is to apply existing technology and human resources in a new way. In particular, progress can be made using the new generation of collaborative workspace tools now entering the market in conjunction with a new type of knowledge worker, a worker who aids nonprofit practitioners in gathering, organizing and distilling content.