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The Knowledge Loom - What Works in Teaching & Learning
     
   
   

About The Knowledge Loom:

Overview

The Knowledge Loom is a place for educators worldwide to do the following:

  • review research that identifies promising practices related to various themes
  • view stories about the practices in real schools/districts
  • learn to replicate the success of these practices in your own organization
  • add your own stories and knowledge to the collections
  • discover supporting organizations and resources, including annotated Web links

More importantly, using the Knowledge Loom makes you part of an active online teaching and learning community.

Why a Knowledge Loom?
Where does the content come from?
What's in it for you?
What are the Knowledge Loom policies?
How should I cite information from The Knowledge Loom?
What do educators say about The Knowledge Loom?
What awards has The Knowledge Loom received?
What articles have been written about The Knowledge Loom?
How did we get started?
Who are we?


Why a Knowledge Loom?
A loom metaphor suggests a work in progress, a workspace where threads of thought and experience can be drawn from many sources to craft a cohesive and useful body of wisdom.

An education-focused Knowledge Loom* suggests education-minded users accessing a workspace where they can weave distributed threads of information together in such a way as to create a fabric that wears well on their own conditions, needs, and visions for excellence in teaching and learning.

The Loom is available for all its users to continually add their own threads of wisdom and experience to the content.

* The name Knowledge Loom is used with permission from the Kellogg Foundation.

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Where does the content come from?
The content comes from many places.

  • Our technical assistance partner organizations
  • Private educational products and services developers/providers
  • Individual schools and districts
  • You!

On a regular basis, theme-based collections of promising practices are developed and spotlighted. The Knowledge Loom grows as we regularly add information about many areas that concern educators today. These include literacy and math instruction, equity, education technology, school organization, community involvement, and others.

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What's in it for you?
Use the Knowledge Loom collections to locate specific information when you need it. Contribute your own expertise via the Have Your Say interactive components. Regularly use the
Feedback form to let us know what you need and what you think.

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What are The Knowledge Loom policies?
The content and discussions on the Knowledge Loom are public and open for anyone to read. Anyone may also join the Knowledge Loom community as a registered user. Registered users obtain a log-in account with password and may post messages to discussion areas. Registered users also have the option of receiving e-mail updates (at most twice a month) announcing new discussions and events taking place on The Knowledge Loom.

For registration purposes we request minimal contact information, including name, e-mail address (if you have one), and a few other details designed to give others in the community a general sense of your role and location. Registration carries no obligation beyond the observance of basic courtesy in interactions with the Knowledge Loom community. We may occasionally send registered users brief e-mail surveys requesting feedback about the site in order to make improvements to The Knowledge Loom. However, we will not share your registration information without your permission in any other way than by inclusion in the headers of messages you post.

This site contains links to other Web sites. The Knowledge Loom is not responsible for the practices or the content of these other Web sites.

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How should I cite information from The Knowledge Loom?
The Knowledge Loom is a publication of The Education Alliance at Brown University. Please give credit to The Education Alliance whenever you use Knowledge Loom materials or cite the Loom in a paper or other publication. If you use links from the Loom to access other Web sites, please give proper credit to the publishers of those Web sites.

If you plan to cite The Knowledge Loom using APA format, we would suggest that you single out the particular spotlight you've used (e.g., "Adolescent Literacy in the Content Areas") and cite it as follows:

Adolescent Literacy in the Content Areas. Retrieved September 23, 2004, from The Education Alliance at Brown University, The Knowledge Loom Web site: http://knowledgeloom.org/adlit/.

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What do educators say about The Knowledge Loom?

The Knowledge Loom is used by educators around the country and the world. Selected feedback from users, including descriptions of how the Loom supports their work, is available at kudos.html. You can send us your own thoughts about the site by clicking on the "Feedback" tab at the top of any Knowledge Loom page.

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What awards has The Knowledge Loom received?

Since its launch in 1999, The Knowledge Loom has received a number of awards and commendations from organizations ranging from the Association of Educational Publishers to the Guidance Channel. A list of selected awards and commendations is available at kl_kudos.html.

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What articles have been written about The Knowledge Loom?

Web-based articles about The Knowledge Loom and its related projects are available at articles.html.

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How did we get started?
In October, 1998 the United States Department of Education (U.S. ED) assigned resources to the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University to develop a "...sustainable, customer-driven, distributed repository/database of information on best practices in teaching and learning."

After talking to many educators, we realized that a "repository" was not enough. Our vision was The Knowledge Loom -- a comprehensive electronic environment that moves from information delivery to information creation, from data to people, from a learning library to a learning community.

Please become an active part of our ongoing creation of new knowledge. Join The Knowledge Loom!

Meet the original Knowledge Loom concept and development team:

A photo of the Knowledgeloom team

Team members include: Mary-Beth Fafard, Jim Kirby, Julia Frizzell, Martin Huntley (Director of Technology), Brian Yoder, Philip Chen (Principal Programmer), Richard Giordano, Cathy Lalli (Content Manager), Phil Zarlengo (LAB Executive Director), Mary Anne Mather (Project Lead), Renie Cervone, Stephanie Feger. Not pictured: Hilarie Davis, Chris Dwyer (RMC Research), Eileen Ferrance, Karen Murphy, Kate Monteiro, Sidney Okashige, Jacque Russom (Brown STG), Peggy Simon (RMC Research).

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What are we?

The Education Alliance at Brown University develops educational products and services for school administrators, policymakers, teachers, and parents in New England, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Central to our efforts is a commitment to equity and excellence.

Information about Alliance programs and services is available by contacting:
The Education Alliance at Brown University
4 Richmond Square, 4th. floor
Providence, RI 02906
Phone:
Email:

Fax:
http://www.alliance.brown.edu

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Initial development of this Web site was funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (now, Institute for Education Sciences (IES)), U.S. Department of Education, under contract number RJ96006401, 1995-2000. Some site content was developed under contract ED-01-C0-0010, 2000-2005. The content of this site, including the views expressed by contributors to its interactive forums, do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of IES, the Department of Education, or any other agency of the U.S. Government.

In particular, this Web site includes information created and maintained not only by the U.S. Department of Education, but by other public and private organizations. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this outside information. Further, the inclusion of information or addresses or Web sites for particular items does not reflect their importance; nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, or products or services offered.