Big step forward for the K-12 OER Collaborative

The K-12 OER Collaborative has taken a great step forward as Karl Nelson has agreed to join the organization full-time as of later this month.

Karl has been the Director of Digital Learning for Washington state’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for five years and prior to that worked with Puget Sound ESD. He is a creative thinker about digital learning and a skilled manager. Karl has been instrumental in getting the Collaborative up and running in its early days as the Washington state Collaborative member.

Hiring Karl full-time is a great coup for the Collaborative and will undoubtedly help move their efforts forward.

For those unfamiliar, the K-12 OER Collaborative is a state-led initiative  involving 12 states and other organizations working to develop core, free, openly-licensed K-12 math and ELA curriculum aligned with state college ready standards. This is a ground-breaking initiative and is particularly important for its ambitious scope.

[Note: Some of my OER time this year, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, is being spent on thinking through implementation and business model strategies for core OER curriculum in the K-12 space with the K-12 OER Collaborative being a prime example. My “Positioning ‘open'” posts are part of the thinking going into this. Stay tuned for more.]