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Curriki – A Meaningful Teacher Collaboration Tool |
"We are using Curriki in San Jose Unified School District to maximize the impact of individual teachers' lessons, ideas and teaching resources. Curriki has been a wonderful partner in these efforts and we look forward to expanding our program with them next year to continue enhancing teaching and learning across our district." |
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Felicia Wells San Jose Unified School District, California, USA Instructional Technology Resource Teacher
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2) How is Curriki being used in your school district? During the Spring of 2009 we participated in a Curriki pilot in which 46 Technology Leadership teachers from 19 sites in San Jose Unified School District were trained to access and add content to the San Jose Unified Technology Leadership Forum group on Curriki. From March through May, these teachers uploaded completed Units of Practice into the Curriki group, used Curriki group features, and explored each other’s submissions. After the pilot, many of the participants reported that Curriki was a useful tool for online collaborations organized by grade and subject. Therefore, this year we are using Curriki with an expanded group of teachers to share resources and collaborate with one another. As of January 1, 2010 our teachers have contributed over 430 resources to Curriki making us the #3 contributing group!
3) Given your experience using the Curriki with teachers in your district, do you have any advise for districts that wish to use Curriki? Curriki groups are great for collaboratively building learning resources. Here are a few tips for making Curriki groups a success within your school/district:
- Size — Keep groups small (10-12 members).
- Theme — Organize groups by common interests or goals.
- Time — Allocate time or compensation for collaboration, development, and posting of lessons and teaching resources.
- Expectations — Group members should agree on expectations for what they will do with their group in advance (e.g., post one individual lesson per grading period, develop one group lesson per semester).
- Leadership — Each group should have a leader that keeps the group on track, encourages group collaborations, etc. This person should be a teacher leader, administrator or curricula expert within the district.
4) Is there anything else you’d like to share with the Curriki community? Our 2009 Curriki Pilot with our Technology Leadership groups helped us determine the direction we wish to go with Curriki in San José Unified. As we begin 2010, we are creating a District-wide Curriki group for the purpose of collecting and collaborating on teaching and learning resources. Our goal is to eventually have our entire district repository of teaching and learning resources in our Curriki group. We look forward to the enhanced availability of resources and the easy, on demand, online access that Curriki provides, as well as the vast possibilities. As we move forward in our efforts, Curriki will be an invaluable partner!
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