Transforming Teaching and Learning

Summary

The NSDL vision was to provide a nexus of resources and services to support STEM education that would build the foundation for transformative shifts in what and how we teach in the STEM disciplines (Macdonald et al, 2005). Because NSDL made innovation in STEM education easily accessible, planners envisioned that it would improve the teaching and learning capacities of teachers and students alike. NSDL's promise or potential was (and still is) in its ability to assume the following roles:

  • Engage learners with authentic scientific practices and assessment
  • Identify quality educational resources
  • Empower content consumers to become content creators
  • Support collaboration among diverse communities
  • Integrate technology into teaching, learning, and professional development
  • Support personalizing learning through context and metadata
  • Help shape federal policy

Lessons Learned

  • The context of where, how, and why learning takes place is important.
  • First provide quality resources, and then design complementary services to help users discover them.
  • Fostering user communities is essential to sustainability and growth.