NASATalk as a Discovery Learning Space

Abstract

The NASATalk online collaborative (www.nasatalk.com) gives educators a virtual place to talk about the many opportunities available from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASATalk participants include K-16 educators, NASA-affiliated educators’ support staff, and others interested in advancing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. This chapter examines the self-discovery learning opportunities afforded by NASATalk for a three-day professional development workshop from the perspectives of the NASATalk team members, two NASA Aerospace Education Services Project specialists, and the workshop participants. For the conference, NASATalk hosted a public collaborative named the NASA STEM Educators Workshop as well as several blogs. The analysis discusses how various needs are met for orientation and entry, learner decision making, individuated learning, intercommunications and collaboration, and original discovery in the NASATalk content collaborative. A professional virtual community emerges where educators gathered onsite to receive instruction, but they turned to NASATalk to share their ideas and experiences by posting articles, blogs, comments, multimedia, links, and other educational resources.