The Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative was designed to provide educators with collaborative time to build digital curriculum content. The 2014 Collaborative will take part over four days this summer so that educators can have several hours to work together by content area to curate and create digital resources, materials, lessons, and assessments.

Participants can expect an informal experience where the conversation and collaboration drive the day. There will be support for participants to learn new and emerging tools for digital content creation and distribution, including guidance on the best website for essay writing to help streamline the process.

The Collaborative sessions are not traditional presentations. These content area teams are led by everyone in the group as educators share ideas and begin the process of building digital content for their classrooms. While four days are usually not enough to create entire digital courses, MADPC presents a starting point for educators. Please use the time to make connections with educators from other districts and continue the creation process after the event.

The 2014 MADPC Collaborative Content Sessions

Truly the essence of MADPC…Educators will work together to curate, collaborate, and create digital content for the classroom. Participants will have the opportunity to search for online content and Open Educational Resources. Participants will share content – both digital and analog – that can be used to build fully interactive digital resources, lessons, and courses.

Warning. Simply purchasing powerful technology tools is not enough.

It’s time to work together and build our digital curricula. It’s time to forget about educational content curation being a corporate activity. It’s time to take over the production of the materials that we use to teach. It’s time to collaborate and share across districts and communities.

It’s time to revisit each curriculum. In some cases it’s time to simply integrate new digital resources and materials. In other cases it’s time to completely start over.

It’s NOT time to simply recreate your current curriculum in digital format. It’s NOT time to take your old documents and simply make PDF versions. It’s NOT time to take the easy way out of the curation process.

Four years ago we created the Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative because we wanted to provide educators with a starting point. MADPC helps educators learn about the critical skills needed in digital content curation, production, and distribution. When we started MADPC many Massachusetts schools were just starting to consider 1:1 environments. We realized that the biggest challenge we would face is the fact that we often complete the curriculum development process in isolation. There is no longer time for isolation.

This process takes commitment. There is no magic formula. We must help each other learn about the resources available to us and how best to use them. We must support the technology related skills needed to complete the work. We must provide opportunities to share and collaborate. We must build a network of curating educators.

Join us for the 2014 Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative this summer at Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, MA. This year’s Collaborative will be part of the BPS Summer Edcamp Series hosted by Burlington Public Schools and the BPS EdTech Team.

There is a growing buzz in the education community about the possibility of moving away from traditional textbooks. While the objective seems clear as to why we should be making this move, the question of how to transition this great shift remains. Educators creating their own digital resource for the classroom possesses great value, but at this point there are still more questions than answers.

The more education evolves, the more it stays true to its roots. Technology does not dramatically change education; it allows us to open it up in different directions. Teachers will always teach, and dynamic pedagogy will always drive the education vehicle forward. The education field always need experts in specified content areas that are able to adapt and innovate their practices from year to year. What technology allows us to do is create broader communities from which we can learn and share.

—- Andy Marcinek, Director of Technology Groton-Dunstable Regional School District

The Burlington Public Schools EdTech Team has hosted the Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative for the past three years in an effort to provide educators from around New England with support for curating and creating digital content. Our team believes that educators must work together to build powerful digital curriculum materials and resources that can be shared and edited by anyone across the country. We hope to break down the isolation of educational content creation and provide educators with the skills needed to build digital content as well as the time to collaborate with each other.

Please join us for the 2014 MADPC sessions at Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, MA. These free sessions will be part of the BPS EdTech Team Summer Edcamp Series. The sessions will feature professional development support, collaboration time, and an opportunity to work with other educators in your content area to curate and create digital content for your classroom.

Follow this blog and the BPS EdTech Team on Twitter for updates about the event.

@bpsedtech      #MADPC

Elements of the Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative:

Digital Literacy Skills
Digital Media Resources and Applications
Copyright Concerns
Creating an ePub
Content Collaboration

Contact the event organizer if you have any questions:

Dennis Villano
Director of Technology Integration
Burlington Public Schools
@dvillanojr