During this Summer Institute we will work toward a 21st-century approach to 21st -century skills grounded in knowledge creation theory. Our focus will be on the creation of knowledge building environments in which modern technologies help magnify individual and collective abilities to integrate deep understanding, knowledge creation, and practical action. Formative assessment will be used to help ensure both full participation and continual advancement of all knowledge building community members.
International researcher-practitioner-engineer teams will assemble to produce research-based, technologically sophisticated innovations in practice. We will explore complementary innovations in assessment: assessment of individual achievement, with developmental trajectories defined by 21st century skills, and assessment of learning environments, with developmental trajectories defined by levels of productive interactivity of people and ideas.
During the Summer Institute we will (a) establish the teams and wherewithal to produce research results, video demonstrations, and new environmental supports to contribute to major new "21st century skills" initiatives; (b) develop partnership arrangements and new research initiatives spanning nations; (c) identify ways to secure funding for these initiatives; (d) establish advisory committees and procedures for our new international association, and (e) more generally and as always, share new ideas, findings, and techniques to advance education for a knowledge-building society.
Who Should Attend the Summer Institute?
Individuals:
Teachers, managers, graduate students, researchers, health care professionals, administrators, and policy makers who want to become better acquainted with knowledge building concepts and approaches and advance their work in light of "21st century skills" objectives.
Organizations:
Schools, ministries of education, universities, community organizations, businesses, health care organizations, etc. interested in introducing knowledge building into their organizations and establishing state-of-the-art approaches to knowledge creation.
Tomorrow's Innovators and Professional Development
In past years, the Summer Institute has featured school students ("tomorrow's innovators") carrying on actual knowledge-building work, with opportunities for audience observation and participation. Initially the students came from local schools. More recently they came together from several nations, as part of the Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP). For this year's Summer Institute, plans are under development for students to take part in knowledge-building activities that will also play an integral part in the Summer Institute's professional development offerings. An international team of teachers and students will introduce new teachers and practitioners across sectors to knowledge building. Professional development sessions will run throughout the Summer Institute focused on how to use new tools for assessing student achievement and enhancing the functioning of knowledge-creating communities. Research-practitioner-engineer teams will work together to ensure all parties are ready to produce research and development results, with data collection to begin September 2010. Issues to be addressed include: Can we actually engage all students in theory improvement and a broad range of 21st century skills, with measurable results? Can we keep them all on a continual improvement trajectory? Can we build visualizations of knowledge work that extend beyond knowledge sharing to address challenges of continual idea improvement in a worldwide network of knowledge builders?
Open-Source Knowledge Building Environments
Central to the work of this Summer Institute will be the design of new assessment tools and visualizations, new supports for knowledge-creating dialogue, and an infrastructure for data collection and analysis. For this we will need to design data-capture facilities, build bridges between environments so that data are available for analysis, reporting, and continual feedback to participants and sponsors, and create plans for next-generation knowledge building environments.
Date and Location:
August 3-6, 2010
Institute for Knowledge Innovation and Technology
OISE/University of Toronto
252 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1V6
Canada