Project

1. Title of your project. Max 15 words.

Novice Learners' Network

2. Briefly summarize your proposed project in one sentence. Max 50 Words.

The Novice Learners' Network takes learning out of the classroom and across the world by allowing anyone with something to teach to develop a curriculum that can be used by anyone who wants to learn; community-based resources online allow the creation of educational content and provide tools for distributing it.

3. Provide a one paragraph description of your project. Max 200 Words.

The goal of Novice Learners' Network (NLN) is to develop an international learning management system (LMS) that is accessible to anyone with web a web-enabled device (i.e. computer, cellphone, etc.). Learners have access to a community of their peers who are studying the same material they are. Educators have access to a community of other educators, so they can exchange ideas and educational content. All educational content is public, and individual modules can be re-purposed for other projects. One of the primary uses of the HASTAC/MacArthur support will be to enable "localization" which means rapid translation of content to other languages.

Rather than replacing school, the NLN is designed to collect knowledge on a topic and rapidly disburse it. The NLN fills a great need to focus on the first 10% of the journey from novice to expert in any field -- a.k.a "Shallow Learning". This approach blends DIY (do-it-yourself) sensibilities with blogging and social networking. It offers the benefits of mainstream LMSs (progress measurement, communication tools, grading, etc.) to individual folks and organizations who don't have a web development budget, and who would otherwise be forced to distribute content through a less-appropriate free channel (like blogs, listserves, etc.).

4. List up to 5 tags that best describe your project. Max 15 words.

5. Is your project targeted for use primarily by youth under 18?

NO

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