Learn.Pgh (learnpgh.org)

a proposal for the connected learning platform

tl;dr We propose the creation of a new web platform—Learn.Pgh—that aggregates, connects, and supports all non-traditional local learning opportunities for ages Kindergarten through Adult. In the end it could operate as a central hub for recruiting students, doing registrations, and offering Open Badges across the city. Join us!

The MacArthur Foundation-supported Connected Learning project describes an educational life that is Openly Networked. In their infographic, they describe its value:

“Connected learning environments link learning in school, home, and community, because learners achieve best when their learning is reinforced and supported in multiple settings. Online platforms can make learning resources abundant, accessible, and visible across all learner settings.”

In order for the connected learning concept to come to fruition in Pittsburgh, we need a dynamic web platform that acts as a hub for community learning opportunities; It is required so that students can explore passions locally, and make connections between learning environments. Current offerings do not provide good access, abundance, legitimacy, or visibility to the excellent learning opportunities currently available in our city.

Right now, the only openly networked online platform that provides learning resources in Pittsburgh is the lo-fi, spam and scam-filled Craiglist community classes page: https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cls/. The Carnegie Library provides a very limited list for Art Classes; it also has a list of local schools, but the sparse directory does nothing more than link you out to provider’s websites (like this one). The Craigslist page is nothing but detrimental, while the Carnegie Library page is underwhelming and obviously not a priority.

If truly connected learning is to approach viability, a platform of this nature needs to exist. Currently, neither local nor digital learning resources exist in a single framework. While the digital resources project will require a tremendous amount of work, the local project is relatively simple. Hopefully, someday these will merge into a truly connected learning platform, but for now, it is time that we had an excellent platform for interested learning to easily find local classes and events.

The Platform

Ideally, the learnpgh.org platform would, someday, live at www.learn.pgh that is, once Pittsburgh gets around to applying for its own TLD with ICANN (unfortunately, .nyc already beat us to it). The goal of Learn.Pgh is to act as a front-facing website for learners (both children and adults) to find great learning opportunities. Instead of a fragmented mix of course catalogs, quarter-sheet ads, posters, organizational websites, announcements, newsletters, and facebook events that only reach audiences within the small network of each organization, Learn.Pgh could act as a funnel for students of all ages from around the region to identify great learning opportunities that are not immediately on their radar. This is the much-improved, much-needed digital evolution of the coffee shop windowsill (or bulletin board) full of course brochures and pamphlets.

currently, the only central place for finding non-traditional ed. opportunities:

Learn.Pgh could roll out in stages:

1. Basic Directory and Guide: Create a well-curated and up to date index of all early, easily identifiable partner organizations. Provide a brief description of their offerings and link out to their course or event pages. This could quickly provide a platform to start building recognition and help to identify other educational organizations. Learn.Pgh can also have a rough Guide for learning our City, helping inspire and direct learners on how to use the City as their campus.
2. Dynamic Directory and Guide: With the help of developers and a simple back-end log-in for partners, it could require education providers to update their own offerings and give learners a searchable directory that is browsable by subject area, date, age level, geography, etcetera. The Learn.Pgh Guide could mature into something that might appeal to visitors in the form of Educational Tourism.
3. Hosting Platform: Going still further, the platform could become a centralized platform for the creation and offering of digital badges, as well as the visualization of personal learning pathways that utilize local opportunities. Additionally, the platform could provide centralized registration and payment systems for partners to alleviate the technological and administrative burden and offer services tailored to the needs of these offerings.

Benefits

1. The Learn.Pgh project can free up educators to do what they do best by centralizing marketing, registration, and administration. Learn.Pgh can let them spend less time finding students and figuring out payment systems and more time making great programs and working with students.
2. If the Connected Learning idea is to gain traction, community learning options need to be embraced as full, legitimate members of the educational network. By creating a well-curated, well-designed platform, Learn.Pgh can provide serious legitimacy that no small non-profit educator could reach on their own and elevate these offerings so they can approach peer status with other, more traditional educational offerings.
3. Looking back to the language from the Connected Learning project, the Learn.Pgh platform would dramatically increase the access, visibility, and abundance of non-traditional ed. offerings in Pittsburgh by housing opportunities and fostering a serious culture of community learning. The marketing reach of Learn.Pgh could be greater than any small organization on their own, and could help increase recruitment for partners. Over time, it could become the place where Pittsburghers go if they want to learn something.
4. The Learn.Pgh platform not only has exciting ramifications for expanding the visibility of out-of-school learning opportunities, it can also connect learners with in-school programs that are open to the public and encourage schools to offer more of them. Over time, it can enable the lines between in-school and out-of-school to blur significantly.
5. Could help the Open Badges concept to gain traction by giving it legitimacy and infrastructure city-wide. For some context, read about the Chicago Summer of Learning project, the first attempt at this large-scale rollout of badging.

Technical Notes

• The code behind the web platform should be open-sourced and shared internationally for use in other cities. As far as we can tell, nothing like this exists anywhere else. An open-source developer team could help build and maintain the project and be funded on Gittip.
• Content on the site should be limited to partners only (so as to avoid the craigslist problem). Partners will be vetted and curated to ensure only good quality opportunities are listed. To be accepted as a partner, organizations will go through an application process with Learn.Pgh to prove the value and quality of their work.
• The platform’s overhead can be financially self-sufficient, supported primarily by partners paying a small yearly membership fee, as well as the possibility for relevant, carefully chosen sponsors to pay for additional advertisement space (the children’s museum, for instance). Local partner support (paid on a sliding scale) plus sponsorship revenue would bring in enough to pay for technical costs and some staffing to maintain and consistently improve the platform.

Current Supporters and Partners:

• The Saxifrage School
• The Environmental Charter School
• Winchester Thurston School
• The Sprout Fund
• Tree Pittsburgh
• The Union Project
• Grow Pittsburgh
• TechShop Pittsburgh
• The Mattress Factory Museum
• Artist Image Resources
• Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
• The Green Building Alliance
• Steel City Improv
• WYEP
• Garfield Farm
• Join us! E-mail tim@saxifrageschool.org