Knowledge of the Past: In Service of the Future
Editor's Column from LCV Fall 2011

Imagine a single website where you could research virtually every topic germane to Louisiana history and culture. The LEH’s newest and most dynamic educational technology initiative is a digital online encyclopedia of Louisiana history and culture called KnowLA. KnowLA is not only the first encyclopedia about Louisiana, its digital format ensures it will be the definitive, infinitely updatable source of information about Louisiana for foreseeable decades to come.

In its fullest development, integrating whole fields of interest, KnowLA is where a cultural traveler, a teacher, or a student could not only look up the biography of a monumental musical figure such as Louis Moreau Gottschalk or Michael Doucet or Hank Williams, but hear selections of their music and find links to musical influences, timelines of related events or people, and photo galleries of them and their contemporaries.

A decade-long development
A ten-year undertaking, KnowLA is currently in its fourth year of development. In December 2010, the LEH launched www.KnowLA.org with 300 entries and more than 1,000 media assets (images, audio recordings, and video files) in six categories: architecture, art, folklife, history, literature, and music.  Graphically and visually engaging, KnowLA provides a comprehensive, authoritative online reference guide to the people, history, and culture of Louisiana. Moreover, we make this information available to anyone with Internet access free of charge—a key feature in a state that continues to rank among the poorest in the nation. 

KnowLA will continue its expansion to include more than 2,000 entries in 20 categories over the next six years. By the end of 2011, for example, KnowLA plans to have added entries on all Louisiana governors, virtually every classical composer and related organizations, and every artist, painter, sculptor, and photographer from the colonial period to the present. In 2012, we hope to enter virtually every major historical building in the state and every musician of note. By 2013, KnowLA will have an entry on every major historical figure, every literary figure of any significance, and every ethnic and immigrant group.
KnowLA’s goal is to become the first point of reference for people seeking information of all varieties about Louisiana. Towards that end, KnowLA integrates important images, historical maps and documents, and multimedia assets with the latest (100-percent newly written) scholarship to present the state’s history and culture in an engaging format. Each entry is linked to related topics, making it possible for a user to move quickly from Louis Armstrong to jazz to African-American history. Unlike Wikipedia, KnowLA’s entries are written and edited by scholars and provide thorough sources and references.
Following new trends in digital scholarship and interactive learning, KnowLA’s content is organized in a variety of ways (alphabetically, chronologically, geographically, thematically, etc.). This allows users to explore Louisiana history and culture from multiple perspectives and angles. Additionally, complex internal linkages among entries and media encourage a non-linear approach to learning by highlighting contextual connections between interrelated encyclopedia elements. We believe this approach will be particularly useful in the 21st-century classroom environment that relies heavily on digital learning.

Special educational relevance
While our scholarly entries are written to appeal a general audience, K-12 teachers and students are among KnowLA’s primary target constituency. At present, KnowLA allows educators to identify resources for classroom presentations, while students can gather materials for reports and save their findings in unique portfolios, etc. However, in order for KnowLA to reach its potential as a relevant, useful, modern educational tool in the classroom, its content will be created and piloted to suit the specific needs of educators and students.    

“Kids are wired differently these days,”  write Sheryl R. Abshire, Calcasieu Parish chief technology officer, in Open Education. “They’re digitally nimble. They multitask, transpose and extrapolate. And they think of knowledge as infinite.” KnowLA will develop a new educational module. The encyclopedia’s content will be tailored and pooled into specific, grade-appropriate lesson plans which can then be collected into broader teacher professional development courses—all of which will be tied to state iLEAP/LEAP/GEE tests and K-12 Louisiana grade level expectations (GLEs).

KnowLA staff will broaden their outreach to key educational constituencies across the state to ensure that the project aligns with their specific needs. Building on long-standing relationships the LEH has with public schools, charter schools, and such community-based centers as the Mahalia Jackson Center in New Orleans’ Central City, a key part of this process will be to conduct focus groups of teachers, students, and public librarians to garner feedback and generate content lists in order to maximize teacher effectiveness in utilizing KnowLA in their classrooms.

Ironically, while Louisiana children continue to languish for the tenth year in a row in 49th place according to the annual Annie E. Casey Kids Count Report, here in Louisiana we are developing the most digitally cutting-edge resource of any state in the nation. Perhaps knowing the past will give us the tools necessary to change our future.

—Michael Sartisky, Ph.D., Editor-In-Chief