Structuring repositories of educational experiences: A case study

Until now, a large amount of effort has been spent on structuring educational repositories. During the years, standard formats to describe learning resources have been provided, reference content models to exchange them among repositories and between repositories and Learning Management Systems have been specified, large repositories have been deployed both from academia and from private organizations (as IEEE and ACM, for example). Researchers observe that open and widely available educational resources can significantly reduce the time required to prepare lectures; other authors argue that repositories facilitate education, combining different learning style theories with technology preferences. The focus is mainly on learning content. In this paper we give a different perspectives on repositories for education, having as a central point the educational experience. We report on a case study we are completing structuring a repository to collect credible evidence from Italian teachers who create innovation in schools using technology. We describe the technical issues we encountered developing an online repository of hundreds of experiences, carried out in classes of all levels of schooling, where technology was skillfully combined with pedagogical solutions to generate substantial educational benefits. © 2012 IEEE.