Sharing Classroom IDEAS

IDEAS Director John Fischer works from two computers on his desk at UW Extension.

Wisconsin educators now have a place to go on the Internet to conveniently locate resources and materials that have been evaluated for quality and are aligned with the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards.

Search the web site: Need a lesson plan idea? Enter a keyword such as "geography" or "Civil Rights Movement." You'll access the IDEAS database of educational resources relating to your topic.

The IDEAS portal Web site is unique because all the resources are reviewed and approved by teams of Wisconsin educators. The site is located at: www.ideas.wisconsin edu.

Resources cover curricula, content, lesson plans, and professional development.

“Teachers don’t have three hours a day to look through 20 Web sites,” said Project Director John Fischer. “IDEAS provides that one central place to find it all.”

The IDEAS portal includes a powerful search engine and organizes information and resources by subject matter and grade level and by correlation to Wisconsin Model Academic Standards.
Subject areas include English, math, science, social studies, information and technology literacy, as well as subcategories such as astronomy, applied mathematics, speech, and state history.

In addition, users can suggest resources, provide classroom reviews on resources they’ve used, and e-mail resources to colleagues.

“Teachers like to hear something from other teachers. They trust what teachers say,” said Fischer, who taught English for seven years in the Menomonie School District before taking over as IDEAS director.

IDEAS was initially launched last year following about two years of planning by representatives of the University of Wisconsin System, the Department of Public Instruction, the Wisconsin Technical College Board, the Educational Communications Board, the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and other groups, including WEAC. It moved into a new phase this spring by offering organizations that have online resources for teachers and other educators the opportunity to catalog their resources into the IDEAS database. One of the pilot organizations is the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Every resource available through IDEAS is evaluated by one of several teams, each made up of pre-K-12 educators, CESA staff and UW educators. Team members are hired, trained and paid by IDEAS and mostly work from their homes, connecting with each other online.

As of mid-May, IDEAS contained 825 items, and the database is expected to grow quickly this fall as more organizations become involved and more users begin sharing resources. Already, Fischer said, IDEAS has a repeat user base of nearly 6,000 educators.
In addition, WEAC is working with IDEAS to make the resources available through OWL.org, a new nationwide portal geared toward NEA members. The initial launch for OWL.org is planned for June 30, with a broader product expected by fall.

Wisconsin is a pilot state for OWL.org, which will provide a wide range of classroom and professional development resources, as well as education and organizational news from the NEA and WEAC.

The IDEAS database will greatly enhance the value of OWL.org by pulling together resources that are tied directly to Wisconsin’s academic standards, said WEAC Public Relations / Communications Director Dick Vander Woude. More information about OWL.org will be provided at the NEA Representative Assembly this summer. In addition, OnWEAC and OnWEAC In Print will promote OWL.org next fall.

IDEAS is funded primarily by the Technology for Educational Achieve-ment in Wisconsin (TEACH) program, UW Extension, UW System, and grant money. Its annual budget is about $200,000. Fischer is the only full-time staff member. Programmer Nathan Trick, of the state’s Instructional Communications System, devotes about half his time to the project.

Fischer said he expects IDEAS to take off as more Wisconsin educators learn about its value. While there are unlimited resources on the Internet, IDEAS is the only place where resources for Wisconsin educators are evaluated by colleagues, categorized and aligned with state standards.

“This is the one central place for them to look,” he said.

Posted May 31, 2002