Open Source Teaching

Stakeholder 1: Students. They will develop the skills necessary to excel in a knowledge economy through relevant, rigorous, and engaging learning opportunities.

Stakeholder 2: Leading Business Executives. Each school will collaborate with at least 3 regional chief executive officers in strategic planning and collaboration related to The Open Source Teaching Project (fall of 2007). This collaboration will involve at least the following:

• Participation by the Executive leader in at least one Open Source Teaching session. It is anticipated that participating Executive leaders will find this process so simple and valuable for students that additional referrals will lead to larger numbers of Executive leader participation within the process.

• Participation by the Executive leader in at least three half-day strategic planning meetings, most likely virtual, over the span of 12 months. Strategic planning will ensure a very high level of implementation.
  
  
• A commitment to underwrite a locally agreed upon stipend for a specified number of local teachers or local teaching teams or local leadership teams for participation in The Open Source Teaching Project (based on locally agreed upon terms). This specified number of teachers may include part or all of the teachers participating in The Open Source Teaching Project on behalf of the school or partnering schools.

Stakeholder 3: Classroom Teachers, Teaching Teams, and/or Leadership Teams. Each school will identify a specified number of school teachers, teaching teams, and/or leadership teams within all academic disciplines, including both middle and secondary grade levels. They will be immersed in The Open Source Teaching process (academic year or summer), working onsite with content captured from the world's leading researchers, business executives, foundations, non-profits, and social entrepreneurs. Additionally, for participants that are interested, real world connections may include the opportunity for high school students to reach out and digitally archive the perspective of small business owners and local professionals within their surrounding community, including direct support from The Open Source Teaching Project in regards to project design, digital archival, professional editing, and onsite implementation.

Academic year fellowships are specifically customized based on the preferences, academic calendar, and needs of the school or partnering schools.

The following is a representative example of a summer fellowship. Both fellowship opportunities (academic year and/or summer) include a combination of onsite and virtual professional development strategies.

• Week 1 (4 days onsite, 1 day virtual): Introduction to the OST archive and the identification of interdisciplinary areas for collaboration, including a specific product deliverable at the end of the week that will be shared with the world.
  
  
• Week 2 (3 days onsite, 2 days virtual): A self-examination of content specific areas in which the OST archive can be used to incorporate questions of relevance within the specific content area or project theme of the teacher, teaching team, or leadership team. For example, all teachers are asked the question, 'how does this stuff relate to real life?' The Open Source Teaching new media archive will allow teachers to select from multiple collections of individuals actually using and/or describing their use of such skills in their real work and their daily profession. Further, these examples will provide in-depth insight on how individuals enjoy a professional life of learning by becoming an expert in virtually any area imagined. The end of week 2 will also include a specific product deliverable that will be shared with the world.
  

Stakeholder 4: Twenty-five (25) schools with a demonstrated commitment to teacher and leadership professional development, including technology integration that is relevant and meaningful for students.

(a) Each participating school will allocate funds or adopt a funding partner to cover the cost of this high quality onsite professional development at a flat domestic rate of $3,750 per semester (academic year fellowship) or $5,000 (summer fellowship), beginning in the academic year of 2008-2009. International rates are contingent upon location.

(b) The flat domestic rate for academic year fellowships ($3,750 per semester) covers three days of onsite professional training per semester and immersion in The Open Source Teaching process. Two of these three days per semester will be consecutive followed by an additional day of onsite support per semester.

(c) During each visit, OST educators (successful, experienced, and innovative classroom teachers) will collaborate with each school based on localized needs.

(d) This onsite support may include working with an entire staff, teaching teams, individual teachers, leadership teams, parents, and/or students in hands-on strategies to support the effective implementation of Open Source Teaching.

(e) The flat domestic rate for summer fellowships ($5,000 per summer) covers two consecutive weeks of professional development training based on similar education strategies and principles.

(f) Both options also include ongoing web-based strategic planning, support, and the assignment of a dedicated representative within the geographic region from The Open Source Teaching Project. This additional representative, collaborating with the onsite OST educator and school, will be a highly talented graduate student majoring in the computer sciences at a nearby or regional post-secondary institution. This individual will have undergone an extremely rigorous evaluation and review process conducted by The Open Source Teaching Project, including top tier recommendations from multiple higher ed faculty.

(g) All schools will be provided the option to annually renew this same flat rate for a period not to exceed three years.

(h) This flat rate will be applied to additional future program teacher development offerings of The Open Source Teaching Project which includes free, on-demand ACT / SAT prep for all students within a specified school and on demand teacher professional development strategies.

The result of this immersion over the span of three years is the creation of a new corps of Open Source Teachers and Leaders within each participating school that can train other teachers and leaders in their newly developed skills, relevant to the demands of a knowledge economy.

(i) At the conclusion of three years, each school will be provided with a two-year option renewal, providing complete access to all of the future program offerings of The Open Source Teaching Project at a domestic rate of $6,000 annually. This will provide access to ongoing professional development, specifically customized to the needs of each school and fully immersed in the demands of a knowledge economy. International rates will vary based on location.

(j) Academic year international flat rates (6 consecutive work days of onsite teaching and learning support) are contingent upon location. The following are general estimates, in U.S. dollars, for schoolwide academic year fellowships per international school. International rates include the onsite support of two professional educators from The Open Source Teaching Project.

Seoul $9,250
Sao Paulo $12,777
Bombay $15,628
Jakarta $11,688
Moscow $16,734
Istanbul $15,798
Mexico City $9,287
Shanghai $13,246
Tokyo $11,401
Bangkok $19,490
Beijing $15,406
Delhi $13,770
London $15,903
Hong Kong $13,501
Bogota $11,132
Lima $14,372
Rio De Janeiro $10,615
Santiago $11,499
St. Petersburg $18,527

(k) Summer international flat rates (two consecutive weeks of onsite teaching and learning support) are contingent upon location. The following are general estimates, in U.S. dollars, for schoolwide summer fellowships per international school. International rates include the onsite support of two professional educators from The Open Source Teaching Project.

Seoul $15,000
Sao Paulo $13,037
Bombay $20,838
Jakarta $22,251
Moscow $28,979
Istanbul $14,398
Mexico City $12,382
Shanghai $10,995
Tokyo $18,534
Bangkok $19,319
Beijing $13,874
Delhi $15,026
London $11,204
Hong Kong $11,335
Bogota $14,843
Lima $19,162
Rio De Janeiro $17,487
Santiago $18,665
St. Petersburg $18,037

Stakeholder 5: The Open Source Teaching Project. Open Source Teaching is the new form of public service for a knowledge economy allowing learners to empower themselves through new media, innovation, and choice. OST offers unparalleled access to expert content knowledge and engaging onsite professional development relevant to the demands of a knowledge economy.

All professional development of The Open Source Teaching Project will be delivered by a cohort of the world's best teaching practitioners which have undergone a rigorous screening and selection process including demonstrated results in improving student performance on national and international indicators of student performance, supported by multiple indicators of classroom fluency with technology integration. All professional development trainers of The Open Source Teaching Project will have direct hands on experience in teaching students within a variety of socioeconomic and geographic environments. The Open Source Teaching Project is the knowledge economy teaching option for the world's best practicing classroom teachers.

Our 3 Simple Steps

Step 1 - Interviews of the world's Academic, Research, and Innovation Leaders (30 minutes, onsite). Nobel Laureates, Chief Executive Officers, MacArthur Fellows, Guggenheim Fellows, Social Entrepreneurs, and Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows are interviewed, based on a standard interview protocol related to their core profession. This process will be recurring and take place annually. Interviews begin in the fall of 2007 and are captured via an on-demand, searchable format that can be applied to any technology platform able to transmit digital media (stand-alone computers, laptop computers, the internet, mp3 players, cell phones, satellite radio, and all other forms of emerging technology).

Step 2 - Interviews of Leading Undergraduate, Graduate Students, and Post-Doctoral Fellows. It is anticipated that portions of all interviews will contain terms that are potentially new to undergraduates and high school students, thus, after all interviews are captured, we bring in exceptionally talented undergraduates, graduate students, nominated by faculty within the world?s leading universities, to identify specific terms and phrases potentially needing further explanation for the targeted audience (Grades 9 - 12 and undergraduates).

We capture these explanations via a similar process as the initial 30-minute interview of academic scholars. Interviews of students are divided into two stages, the first focusing on academic issues related to the content of the captured media from experts. The second stage focuses on affective measures related to our college access strategies. For example, students in many underserved communities rarely have the opportunity to hear and learn directly from the perspective of students enrolled in college. We are going to change that.

Step 3 - Immersing Teachers, Teaching Teams, and Leaders (Academic Year Fellowship or Summer Fellowship). A cohort of the world's leading middle and high school teachers, teaching teams, and leadership teams are sponsored during the academic year or summer to react to the open source new media library. Over the course of an academic year or summer, these teachers, leaders, and teams are charged with a single question. In what ways can you use the captured media to improve your own teaching and make additional real world connections in your school or classroom? This single focus is used as the basis for teachers, leaders, and teams to generate new and engaging opportunities for students, all of which are captured via new media. Fellowships begin in the summer of 2008.

The Teaching Fellowship (academic year or summer) will provide an unprecedented opportunity for teachers, teaching teams, and leaders across at least 25 schools to collaborate on innovative teaching ideas that maximize effective technology integration and instruction for the benefit of students. This collaboration will make meaningful real world connections, based on the content knowledge of the world's leading academic researchers, fortune 500 CEOs, and non-profit organizations. Real world connections may include the opportunity for high school students to reach out and digitally archive the perspective of local business owners and professionals within their surrounding community, directly supported by The Open Source Teaching Project.

The Result. A free on-demand, new media library of the world's leaders, supported by additional student-based tutoring and classroom applications.

This library will be free and accessible through any digital medium, ranging from the internet to multimedia cell phones and mp3 players. Thus, all information will be on-demand and adaptable to whatever communication tools become prevalent in a knowledge economy.