Minnesota Digital Learning Plan Overview

iSeek Solutions has been serving the education and e-learning marketplace for nearly a decade. During this time we have seen a number of issues that have had a major impact on the digital learning market, our partners and our customers. Some of these shifts and challenges include:

• Mass adoption of the internet and electronic-based learning
• Recognizing a need for a Minnesota state digital learning plan
• Market expectancy of more and better ways to access learning
  

In 2003, the iSeek Solutions policy board formed a steering committee to oversee the development of a Digital Learning Plan for the state of Minnesota. This vision and action plan aimed to provide the foundation for meeting the digital learning needs in the K-20 learning environments. This plan addressed an array of needs, including:

• Digital learning curriculum practices and standards
• Digital business and student services
• E-commerce of education
• Teacher preparation for digital teaching and learning
• State policies for digital education
• Collaborative, cross-institutional procedures and processes (shared infrastructures, volume purchasing opportunities, interoperable databases, portals, etc.)
• Infrastructure support and technology standards to support digital learning

Minnesota Digital Learning Plan Goals

1. Produce an inventory of digital solutions that exist within Minnesota institutions in order to establish a benchmark for the state, to identify resources for collaborative efforts, and to identify and determine a strategic direction.
2. Identify resource gaps that must be addressed on a statewide level.
3. Provide statewide standards and direction that will encourage interoperability, collaboration, and that will assist individual institutions as well as the state to prioritize and maximize future development and expenditures.
4. Provide a timeline for action steps and recommend funding for individual institutions and statewide initiatives.
5. Provide guidelines for how individual institutions, local school districts, and regional organizations can map their own growth to be in line with and interoperable with each other.
6. Identify areas of state policy that must be addressed in order to facilitate digital learning and education management.

The Minnesota Digital Learning Plan was created under the auspices of iSeek Solutions and involved the participation of over 300 state leaders in K-20 education between the winter of 2003 and July, 2004. It was a collaborative effort among a variety of educational institutions and constituencies with a stake in digital learning. This included but was not limited to all public higher education institutions, the Department of Administration, the Minnesota Department of Education, and the Minnesota Private Colleges Council, K-12 and library educational leadership.

The Digital Learning Plan Steering Committee submitted its final report (pdf) to the iSeek Solutions Board in July, 2004. Subsequently, the iSeek Solutions Board has implemented the primary recommendation of the report -- to establish a collaborative body - The Minnesota Learning Innovations Council - to continue cross-institutional dialog and leadership on issues related to digital learning, and to support model collaborative initiatives.

Privacy Policy