I will be presenting an expanded look at NEA's Partnership with the Gateway to 21st Century Materials to participants of this year's NEA/AFT Higher Education Conference.

To view my presentation, click here...

John Wilson submitted to Diny Golder, Executive Director of JES& Co.and the Gateway to 21st Century Materials (GEM) Monday a letter outlining support of a proposal by JES&Co. to The National Science Foundation that will help bring NSF funded Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) resources to all of our public school teachers across the U.S.

[see LOS]

The following is a presentation that outlines plans for integrating Web 2.0 functionality into GEM architecture.

Since GEM has reached critical mass in terms of usage--some one million visits a month-- and a number of those visitors are active participants in vetting and commenting on resources, we want to expand the opportunities that GEM visitors are presented with once they visit the site--opportunities to share resources with their colleagues by direct email from within GEM, ability to rate resources or to submit them to other online forums (DIGG), etc.

Additionally, we’re planning a redesign that will keep the search interface “simple” –like Google—yet introduce a “social networking” interface allowing users to interact. Think “Facebook for Educators.”

I met with Eric Sherman--a marketer who represents partnership between NEA/Saturn--to discuss GEM. They’ve agreed to publish a white paper that will help the GEM partnership become an educators "household term" much like Google is to the Net user--"Just Google it!"

Additionally, GEM will be working with Living Library--a Web-based, intergenerational mentoring program --to determine possible integration scenarios.

[view presentation]

Given the number of dedicated daily visitors to GEM, there's no doubt that this 21st Century teaching tool is the single most popular Net-based resource for finding lesson plans and related pre-K - 16 classroom resources.

But NEA has even bigger plans for GEM. NEA believes that GEM can become the educators' "google"...

..."did you "GEM" that lesson plan?" ...

... and a viable social network for educators.

NJEA added their recently published Web-based resource for parents titled "Back to school tips about riding the bus" to the Gateway to 21st Centry Materials (GEM).

Additionally, over the coming weeks, GEM staff will work with NJEA to catalog other valuable teacher and parent publications and resources. This opportunity is available to all "branded" affiliates. NJEA is the first branded affiliate to leverage this benefit.

NEA and its affiliates produce quality content for distribution via Web sites. GEM is working to ensure that NEA and affiliate free/open content makes it to the top of GEM search results whenever GEM users search for content. This ensures that members and non members alike will experience some of the value that association membership affords.

[NOTE: GEM simply serves up metadata about resources. It points the user of GEM to the actual Web site containing the resource described by GEM. In other words, NJEA has cataloged their “Back to School Tips” with GEM. Educators who search GEM will view the metadata describing the resource and will be directed to NJEA's site if they wish to access the brochure.]

For a list of other NJEA soon-to-be-cataloged resources, visit the "For Parents" section of NJEA's Web site.

Editors of District Administration magazine for K12 School Superintendents and other district education leaders selected the Gateway to 21st Century Skills Web site as this week's featured "Dr. Hotlist Site of the Week."

The listing is also added to the Site of the Week online archives, and daily announcements sent to subscribers of the District Administration Daily e-newsletter.

[visit DistrictAdministration Magazine]

Clayton County Education Association, an affiliate of GAE, has successfuly branded with GEM.

The term "branding" is used to describe an association whose brand identity--logo, content or other association-specific content--is prominently displayed on the opening screen of GEM whenever members of that association log in to use GEM.

GEM has also received and is processing other requests from locals to brand with the internationally recognized Partnership for 21st Centry Materials.

GEM has branded with several NEA constituent groups over the last year--State Retired Associations, Student Chapters, etc.

Additionally, a number of local associations are adding directly to their Web sites, blogs and social networks a "GEM Widget"--a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed by an end user without requiring programming or design-- The GEM Widget enables association members to add a search box directly to their Web presence. This phenominon helps spread NEA, state and local brand in a viral fashion.

NEA has partnered with the GEM Exchange, Gateway to Educational Materials, and JES & Co to support Gateway to 21st Century Skills, a website that combines state-of the art search technologies and a complete database of state academic standards for core subjects.

GEM or The Gateway to 21st Century Materials is getting ready to launch a new design that promises to engage educators with updated social media tools.

Members who use the Gateway want to engage--want to be engaged! They're using Facebook, Ning, and other social media tools to manage their work in and out of the classroom. GEM is an important resource to our members and, therefore, should be an interoperable component to the social media tools they’ve become accustom to using every day!

Check out this presentation to view GEM's new look and "social media" feel!