It is fitting that the day after writing up an assessment of a best practices website on afterschool practices, I learn of the US Department of Education's GEM initiative, the Gateway to Educational Materials. This latest national effort is intended to facilitate educators' access to the tremendous number of lesson plans and other educational resources available on various federal, state, university, commercial, and non-profit Internet sites. It already boasts over 42,000 records from over 500 collections.
The Gateway offers educators a searchable catalog including educational resources originating from diverse organizations and individuals such as the Exploratorium, a teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy, Montessori, and even the Federal Aviation Administration. It is a daunting project, and given the wealth of information it will encompass, strong search capabilities are going to become critical.
If educators know exactly what they are seeking, the site will serve them well. A search for Bungee Barbie, the famed physics lesson, immediately displays the desired link and summary information. However, if an urban school teacher wants to search for a language arts lesson for ESL students that meets certain state standards, is research-based, and has been well-recieved in other urban ESL classrooms, the catalog falls short. What it offers today is simple, raw information that has been categorized along a set of common attributes (e.g., subject, level).
Once more context is added to these program descriptions, such as teacher reviews or related research and evaluation programs, the resulting knowledge base should become quite practical for most users.
Comments