Collective Roots' Website

Using Information Technology to Provide More Dynamic Educational Experiences

Despite advances in educational technologies, education today is still mainly paper based and is overloaded with traditional content and is not keeping pace with the advances in information technology. In fact, the "digital divide" is growing according to a recent study. Students today are exposed to technology and information at home and in the market place. Unfortunately, students can not always rely on their schools and colleges to understand and utilize this information technology effectively. Many schools and colleges simply have not been able to keep up with the changing technology.

Antiquated "spoon feeding" methods of lock-step, one-size-fits-all, teaching wherein all students use the same curriculum, are evaluated on the same parameters and are expected to have similar knowledge outcomes leave students, teachers, and society at large desiring more. Of course, this approach has advantages, such as meeting test scores, and getting everyone "on the same page." However, our educational model will also benefit from building upon the power of discovery, independent learning, and heuristic teaching methods that are based upon the paradigm of inspring passion to learn and cultivating creative thinking, versus the mechanical tasks of conveying and retaining subject matter.

Informational Technology Tools for Building Community

We also are interested in joining a global community that is sharing "open source" educational content in the public domain, allowing education to be more accessible to students and teachers in communities that lack the resources to purchase curriculum or other proprietary educational resources.

Collective Roots recognizes that the role of the Internet is becoming increasingly important in education. It is the predominant media of information exchange and is poised to become the primary means of delivering information and resources that support the desired changes in the education system around the world. This website is supported by a powerful Learning Management System / Content Management System, called "Drupal" .

Open Source for Everyone

Drupal is a free open-source content management tool (CMS) that provides individuals and organizations a way to publish to the web and interact with their communities. This site was produced and is supported the by professional services of Erica Clary and MsJones. Erika has provided a case study of the site on her web site (click here to view).

Want to Know More?

Community Technology Network is an organization local to the Bay Area, is providing excellent resources and information to people and organizations interested in utilizing this technology. Please click here to visit the Drupal resource page on their website.

Educational Technology Strategy Encourages Collaboration

Collective Roots' website provides new multimedia approaches to learning on the internet, improving the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and services as well as remote (virtual) exchanges and collaboration. Online learning is important new strategy in schools and colleges because it has the potential to revolutionize teaching and learning processes. Teaching and learning skills are enhanced and students are prepared for a workforce capable of adapting to rapid socio-economic changes driven by technology and innovation.

Online Resources for Students and Teachers

Online learning environments allow schools and colleges to share information and knowledge with an amazing range of choices that help make learning a more inspiring and appealing resource. The Internet is fast becoming a primary source of study material. Collective Roots website has the potential of storing and managing a team projects and work (reports, essays, research papers, hypertext bibliographies, etc.) and sharing it with teachers, co-students, parents, and community members.

Collective Roots’ website is now a portal for schools and colleges offer myriad benefits, including the following:

• Make learning resources available to students on the Internet
• Increasing retention through interactive learning environment
• Make available wider choice and flexibility to the learner
• Reduction in unnecessary photocopying
• Extra tools for teaching such as “wikis”, blogs, forums, surveys, calendars, interactive maps, digital photos, service learning, hypertext bibliographies, etc.
• Project based learning online
• Alternate communication with students
• Anytime, anywhere learning
• Increase in IT infrastructure and IT academic and vocational skill
• Pace the knowledge sharing at the pace of each individual student
• Shift from a teaching to a knowledge-sharing model
• Students technology competencies are increased, shifting from passive users to active creators of content
• Teachers and students can look beyond traditional sources of educational material, and promote community based service learning

User Friendly and Accessible

As we have referenced, Collective Roots website is built in an open source content management system (CMS) called Drupal. This web based software allows you to log in remotely and contribute content online, working in a framework very similar to MS Word. This is a perfect job for "virtual volunteers." While we would love to meet you in person, you might not live near our physical offices, or perhaps you don't have a lot of time available. This effort allows you to contribute your talents on a flexible schedule anywhere you have access to the internet.

Skills Required
You might be good at any of the following:

• Research
• Bibligraphies
• Summaries or Abstracts
• Blogging
• Creative writing
• Web design

The Most Important Thing

The most important requirement is your commitment to creating high quality content that inspires learning and teaching! Please join our efforts to blaze new trails in Garden Based Learning. For information on how to volunteer, please click here.