Advancing Community Public Health Systems in the 21st Century: Emerging Strategies and Innovations from the Turning Point Experience

The findings presented in this report were generated from: NACCHO's technical assistance efforts supporting two years of community planning, including four national Turning Point forums; evaluation reports compiled by The Lewin Group; all written reports and systems improvement plans submitted by the 41 community/tribal Turning Point partnerships; and findings derived from activities implemented by the Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health at the New York Academy oF Medicine

Promoting Diversity in Teaching Cybersecurity Through GICL

In summary, it is necessary to develop a diverse group of K-12 students’ interest and skills in cybersecurity as cyber threats continue to grow. Evidence shows that educating the next generation of cyber workers is a crucial job that should begin in elementary school. To ensure the effectiveness of cybersecurity education and equity at the K-12 level, teachers must create thoughtful plans for considering communities’ interests and needs, and to continually reconsider what’s working and how to adjust our strategies, approaches, design, and research plan to meet their specific needs, challenges, and strengths, particularly with students from under-served and underrepresented populations in the cybersecurity fields. By building a series of guided inquiry collaborative learning activities in the cybersecurity area, we hope that our approach could build a diverse group of students which creates a more holistic view of the problem and delivers a range of valuable problem-solving hard and soft skills. Professional development must be provided to teachers to get them prepared for adopting guided inquiry collaborative learning activities in classrooms

Understanding Collaborative Sensemaking for System Design — An Investigation of Musicians\u27 Practice

There is surprisingly little written in information science and technology literature about the design of tools used to support the collaboration of creators. Understanding collaborative sensemaking through the use of language has been traditionally applied to non-work domains, but this method is also well-suited for informing hypotheses about the design collaborative systems. The presence of ubiquitous, mobile technology, and development of multi-user virtual spaces invites investigation of design which is based on naturalistic, real world, creative group behaviors, including the collaborative work of musicians. This thesis is considering the co-construction of new (musical) knowledge by small groups. Co-construction of new knowledge is critical to the definition of an information system because it emphasizes coordination and resource sharing among group members (versus individual members independently doing their own tasks and only coming together to collate their contributions as a final product). This work situates the locus of creativity on the process itself, rather than on the output (the musical result) or the individuals (members of the band). This thesis describes a way to apply quantitative observations to inform qualitative assessment of the characteristics of collaborative sensemaking in groups. Conversational data were obtained from nine face-to-face collaborative composing sessions, involving three separate bands producing 18 hours of recorded interactions. Topical characteristics of the discussion, namely objects, plans, properties and performance; as well as emergent patterns of generative, evaluative, revision, and management conversational acts within the group were seen as indicative of knowledge construction. The findings report the use of collaborative pathways: iterative cycles of generation, evaluation and revision of temporary solutions used to move the collaboration forward. In addition, bracketing of temporary solutions served to help collaborators reuse content and offload attentional resources. Ambiguity in language, evaluation criteria, goal formation, and group awareness meant that existing knowledge representations were insufficient in making sense of incoming data and necessitated reformulating those representations. Further, strategic use of affective language was found to be instrumental in bridging knowledge gaps. Based on these findings, features of a collaborative system are proposed to help in facilitating sensemaking routines at various stages of a creative task. This research contributes to the theoretical understanding of collaborative sensemaking during non-work, creative activities in order to inform the design of systems for supporting these activities. By studying an environment which forms a potential microcosm of virtual interaction between groups, it provides a framework for understanding and automating collaborative discussion content in terms of the features of dialogue

A 10-Year Investment in Community Building to Improve Children's Health: Evaluation of the Community Partnerships for Healthy Children Initiative

Assesses the impact of community building as an approach to improving health, with collaboratives planning and implementing programs and evaluating results. Shares lessons learned for activists, funders, technical assistance providers, and evaluators

The road less travelled: leadership and engagement of learners in a collaborative learning environment

[Abstract]: Historically at USQ we have taught information literacy classes in a very traditional instructional format. The training labs have rows of seating facing forward, and large computer monitors in front of participants. The trainer stands at the front with a whiteboard and projection screen. With innovations in teaching styles and developments in learning spaces, we are this year initiating a change to information literacy classes. Traditional training labs and teaching styles have been replaced by collaborative group learning spaces and a guided teaching style. As part of a refurbishment project, one of our training labs and an office area of the library have been set up to support collaborative learning. Subsequently in Semester 1, 2009 we will begin using the new collaborative learning facilities for all generic information literacy classes, and some faculty classes. In the past our training has focussed on the transmission of information and we have not fully engaged our students in the learning process. We have used PowerPoint’s and the Library website to conduct classes. Whilst the basic information we want to impart to students will be the same, the way we do this and hopefully the learning outcomes will change significantly with the shift to a collaborative teaching style and environment

AfL with APP: developing collaborative school-based approaches: guidance for senior leaders (National Strategies)

"Schools are now taking forward Assessing Pupils' Progress (APP) as a continuing priority to personalise learning for all pupils across all phases, plan for progression and overcome barriers. This document brings together a range of key published materials for the first time. It provides quality standards to enable schools to evaluate the progress they have made together and plan further development, offers information on arrangements for school to school support and a summary of collaborative approaches such as lesson study. For many schools, development of Assessment for Learning (AfL) with APP now depends on the emergence and sharing of excellent school-based work to generate sustainable improvement. This publication is consequently of particular relevance to headteachers, senior management teams and subject leaders/curriculum coordinators as they plan and develop effective partnerships for APP." - National Strategies website

Student Learning Plans: Supporting Every Student's Transition to College and Career

Student learning plans (SLPs) represent an emerging practice in how public schools across the country are supporting the development of students' college and career readiness skills. Learning plans are student-driven planning and monitoring tools that provide opportunities to identify postsecondary goals, explore college and career options and develop the skills necessary to be autonomous, self-regulated learners. Currently, 23 states plus the District of Columbia require that students develop learning plans, and Massachusetts state policymakers are considering whether all middle and high school students should be required to develop learning plans. Legislation is currently pending that calls for the Executive Office of Education to convene an advisory group to investigate and study a development and implementation process for six-year career planning to be coordinated by licensed school guidance counselors for all students in grades 6 to 12.The purpose of the policy brief Student Learning Plans: Supporting Every Student's Transition to College and Career is to provide policymakers in Massachusetts with a better understanding of what student learning plans are as well as how and to what extent their use is mandated in other states. The brief is organized into five major sections: an overview of SLPs and the rationale for their use in public K-12 education; an overview of the research on the effectiveness of SLPs on improving a variety of student outcomes, including engagement, responsibility, motivation, long-term postsecondary college and career planning; current state trends in mandating SLPs for all students, including the structure and implementation of SLPs, their connection to other high school reform initiatives and their alignment with state and federal career awareness and workforce development initiatives; promising implementation strategies; and, considerations for state policymakers.Considerations for Massachusetts policymakers include: learn from states that are pioneers in the implementation of SLPs for all students; develop a comprehensive implementation plan; and, strengthen career counseling and career awareness activities in Massachusetts schools.The policy brief was the subject of discussion during a public webinar on June 30, 2011

Using Evaluation to Foster NYCETP Goals: Case Studies and Intercampsus Collaboration

This article describes the use of case studies as part of the formative evaluation conducted for the New York Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation (NYCETP). While case studies are often conducted for evaluations by outside experts, consultants, or evaluators themselves, we developed a strategy for case studies that used NYCETP faculty to case-study each other. This strategy involved cross-campus collaboration and cross-discipline (Arts & Science and Education) collaboration, and thus actively supported one of the NYCETP goals. The case study strategy also included the development of a faculty (peer) review form for evaluation of documentation of new and revised courses. Procedures for case studies and examples of case study benefits for faculty and evaluators are also described