There is a growing demand for schools to produce a citizenry with 21st century skills and competencies. Among these competencies, the ability to engage in collaborative problem solving, knowledge creation, and lifelong learning is paramount. In response to this demand, dozens of innovative learning programs and classroom initiatives have emerged, with a shared focus on engaging students as active agents of knowledge construction instead of only consumers of knowledge. Some examples include: Teaching for Understanding (Perkins & Blythe, 1994), Project-Based Science (Krajcik & Blumenfeld, 2006), Knowledge Building/Knowledge Forum (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1999), Knowledge Integration and WISE (Linn et al., 2003), etc. Technology provides strong support in the design and implementation of these programs.

The "Knowledge Network for Innovations in Learning and Teaching (KNILT)" project represents the collective work of the graduate classes taught by Dr. Jianwei Zhang at the University at Albany, including ETAP 623 Systematic Design of Instruction, ETAP 687/887 Knowledge Media for Creative Learning. Our goal is to use our knowledge of instructional design and learning technology to produce a suite of professional development resources, organized as an open Wiki site, that can help teachers of different levels to understand new learning approaches and environments and work towards innovative classroom practices. Most of the class members are in-service/pre-service teachers or educational/training professionals. Drawing on the open nature of wiki, we have a long-term goal to extend this network to a broader community of teachers and involve them as both users and contributors. They can learn from these research-based resources and further contribute their ideas, questions, classroom design cases, experimentations, and reflections on the barriers and advances, so that they can become an important part of the innovation processes. Deep, sustainable learning innovation relies on the bottom-up innovativeness of school teachers, as "grassroot innovators." Nurturing and supporting teacher learning, collaboration, and innovation is central to our pursuit.

Link to server at UAlbany: http://tccl.rit.albany.edu/knilt/index.php/Main_Page

Kimberly Young, Graduate Student & Social Studies Teacher