Learning Resources

California Launches Open Resources, Professional Development Network

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 08/02/16

The California Department of Education has launched Collaboration in Common, a professional learning and resource sharing network for California educators.

Collaboration in Common is the state's first initiative to support the United States Department of Education's #GoOpen campaign, an effort to encourage the use of openly licensed education materials.

California ED's partners in the project include the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation, a non-profit that incubates and elevates statewide education initiatives, and Declara, a company that uses machine learning and natural language processing to improve content discovery.

Declara's platform is designed to facilitate resource sharing across multiple libraries, peer-to-peer learning and collaboration for teams to solve challenges in teaching and learning.

"Collaboration in Common is a prime example of how California continues to remodel its education system to prepare our next generation of innovators and leaders," said Tom Torlakson, California superintendent of public instruction, in a prepared statement. "Transitioning to new state standards requires patience and persistence, and it's critical that educators have access to ongoing professional learning experiences. By leveraging silicon valley technology, we've created a first-of-its-kind professional learning community for continuous improvement, that will save teachers time and allow them to collaborate across the expanse of our diverse state, anytime and anywhere."