General Professional Development

LA - Louisiana INTECH
http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/intech/index.htm is an intense, content-rich, hands-on, and technology based staff development program. Louisiana INTECH, an adaptation of the Georgia InTECH model, provides teachers with many examples of effective technology-based strategies that support and enhance curriculum and can serve as a catalyst for fundamental change in overall teaching and learning processes. Five critical areas characterize this integrated training approach: (1) classroom management techniques, (2) new designs for learning, (3) best pedagogical practices, (4) curriculum standards, and (5) modern technology skills.

NV – Professional Development Partnership. Partnerships between five rural Nevada school districts and the University of Nevada provide professional development to teachers to help them assess their students’ progress and use technology to increase student achievement in math and science. The ability of these teachers to have access to rigorous university research and professional development has been proven
successful in increasing student achievement in math and science.

FL – Florida Online Reading Professional Development Program (http://forpd.ucf.edu/) provides an online staff development course designed to serve as a primary delivery mechanism for improving teaching methods in preK-12 reading instruction. It was developed by the University of Central Florida with funding from the Florida Department of Education. The purpose of FOR-PD is to offer a free, intensive, robust, current, interactive, effective, and efficient multimedia professional growth program in reading.

GA - Online Courseware/Instructional Design http://www.georgiastandards.org  GeorgiaStandards.Org (GSO) provides a dynamic, interactive, online resource that enhances and supports teaching and learning in Georgia with the Georgia Performance Standards as the main focus. The GSO program supports the design, development and deployment of a Web presence for the Georgia curriculum and through a secure portal login, provides Georgia educators with online applications to create, store and publish instructional plans using one of several easy to use templates. In addition, Georgia educators can search or browse for standards, standards-aligned instructional plans, and instructional resources by keyword, grade, and subject. Portal users can also create online groups to view, create or collaborate online in the development of instructional plans. All data in the instructional plans are captured in a database and metagged so information can be shared, and made accessible for rapid development of subject/course curriculum maps.

LA – Effective Instructional Technology (EIT) Online Course Series http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/lcet/322.html provides a series of online courses for twelve weeks of intense professional development designed to help Louisiana teachers understand and apply the benefits of instructional technology in their classrooms, while meeting national and state technology mandates.

MA – Partnership for Professional Development and Partnership for Online Professional Development http://www.doe.mass.edu/edtech/teacher/ptpd.html The PTPD offers professional development courses for administrators and teachers with MassONE as the delivery system. This program provides a cost-effective way for districts to build their capacity to use technology in teaching and learning. The courses are offered at no cost to the participants on a first-come, first-served basis. Graduate credit is available for a fee. Course titles include:

MD - Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) - Professional Development Online (PDO) http://pdo.mcpsmd.org Professional Development Online (PDO) is a web-based system for maintaining, tracking, monitoring, and reporting professional development information for all MCPS staff. All MCPS staff members have access to PDO through a secure login. PDO empowers staff with information and tools to manage their own professional growth. Through the use of PDO, principals, teachers, support professionals, and central office staff can review professional development opportunities, register for workshops and classes, and keep track of the training they have received. PDO also saves MCPS time and money by modernizing the processes used to pay staff for participation in professional development. MCPS is partnering with True North Logic (TNL) to continue the development of PDO to meet the needs of staff and support system goals.

eTech Ohio – Online Courseware http://etech.ohio.gov/programs/elearning   eTech has implemented a program to provide online professional development courses for all Ohio PK-20 educators and professionals. These are anywhere, anytime, asynchronous courses with eTech Ohio certified facilitators. Facilitators are online on a daily basis to respond rapidly to the needs of participants. In many cases, graduate credit is obtainable by teachers who take the courses.

WA - Networked Learning Communities. Provides professional development, with eighty percent of it provided online and the remainder is provided in regional face-to-face meetings.

WI - The Milwaukee Public School District has established a strategic initiative, the Professional Support Portal, designed to use technology to support teacher induction, retention, and continued professional growth at all stages of the teaching career continuum.

ETLO (Ed Tech Leaders Online). http://www.edtechleaders.org The nonprofit organization, ETLO, develops programs to facilitate and implement online professional development.

Intel Teach to the Future. http://www97.intel.com/education/teach/index.htm. This free, highly regarded 40-hour program uses constructivist approaches to technology integration. Teachers are not compensated. There is a rigorous application process.

Technology Coaches

MD - Title II-B Mathematics and Science Partnerships Grants and Title II-D Enhancing Education Through Technology Grants Model for Coaching in Maryland. It is a partnership with the Title II-B Mathematics and Science Partnerships Grants and the Instructional Technology Specialist to participate in the National Staff Development Coaches Academy. Over the next two years this group will work to identify a common definition, vision, policy and organizational supports necessary to support successful and sustainable coaching elements in the districts and across Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) managed programs. They will work to identify the conditions that must be met in order to have a coaching program. They will also work in conjunction with the Maryland Professional Development Advisory Council to identify evaluation protocols that will help school districts and state program managers measure the effectiveness of the coaching and mentoring initiatives.

MO – eMINTS Program. eMINTS is being funded by Title II D and has 9 trainer/mentors statewide, roughly based in Superintendent's regions. Each mentor receives training through MLTI (One-one Computers initiative) and eMINTS and then in turn works with eMINTS teacher-leaders in their region in providing intense (200+ hours) training in teaching methods that optimize the utilization of technology. eMINTS students have access to high levels of technology: at least one computer for every two students, interactive whiteboard and projector, teacher laptop, digital camera, and printer. Software is limited to productivity tools including concept-mapping and video editing software.

MS - Embracing Technology, Enhancing Teaching (ET2) proposes a systematic change in the teaching and learning process in the Philadelphia Public School District (MS) through seamless integration of educational technology. The principal goal of ET2 is to improve student academic performance through onsite technology professional development and increased access to quality technology resources. With the assistance of a school technology facilitator, teachers and students will have the support needed to integrate technology into daily instructional activities. Elementary teachers for grades 4-6 will be provided a full-time onsite technology facilitator. One-on-one mentoring and coaching as well as small group trainings will be provided for teachers is reading, language, and math. One lead teacher from each school site will attend all training sessions and work closely with the technology facilitator. Additional training sessions and technology resources will be provided for the teachers and students in grades 4-8 for increasing teacher proficiency in using technology in their daily instruction. These acquired skills will help teachers to integrate technology into the curriculum for improving student achievement through student assessment, remediation and instructional activities.

NC – IMPACTS - North Carolina’s IMPACT model, outlined in IMPACT: Guidelines for North Carolina Media and Technology Programs, is a systemic school reform model of technology immersion enabled and sustained through collaborative planning. IMPACT schools rely heavily upon the expertise and facilitation skills of their school library media coordinator and technology facilitator to provide small group and one-to-one professional development and modeling as more and more technology is used in instructional units. To learn more about the IMPACT Model’s collaborative planning process, view the videos at http://www.ncwiseowl.org/Impact/toolkit.htm, http://www.ncwiseowl.org/Impact/media/03%20Collaboration-300Kbps%20Streaming.mov, http://www.ncwiseowl.org/Impact/media/04%20Collaboration%20Q&A-300Kbps%20Streaming.mov 

NM - Melrose Partnership. This partnership provides technology support and professional development for several rural districts in the eastern portion of the state. The program provided a technology coordinator for 8 schools and provided extensive professional development, which focused on student improvement.

TN – The Tennessee Educational Technology LAUNCH (TnETL). This model places a full time Technology Coach in selected schools for one year (using a competitive process for Title II-D funds) to help the teachers in those schools integrate technology in meaningful ways into the curriculum. The evaluation will examine the model’s impact on student achievement, teachers’ skills in and attitudes toward integrating technology with curriculum and State standards, the use of research-based teaching practices that address State content standards, students’ technology competence, and school-wide improvement in organization and school climate.

VA – Technology Coaches http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/ITRThandbook.pdf Virginia dedicated state funding to provide an instructional technology coach for all schools at the rate of 2 coaches for every 1,000 students. The role of the coaches is to work directly with teachers to integrate technology in the classroom, to train teachers to use technology effectively, and to assist with curriculum development as it relates to educational technology.

WV - Technology Model Schools - The project trains technology integration specialists who work in technology model schools. Districts select specialists, who receive 40 days of professional development. The state provides the content for 30 of these days and the rest is provided locally. Specialists take what they have learned and share it with the rest of the school-mentoring, coaching, modeling, and bringing in trainers. The days are during the school year and some districts use a permanent substitute during this time.

Curriculum Cadres

AL - The Alabama Best Practices Center. http://www.bestpracticescenter.org/21stcentury.htm. The Center has designed a two-year professional development program that engages educators from participating schools in powerful conversations about 21^st century learning. The Center, with support from Microsoft, recruited small teams from 20 forward thinking schools across the state and established a virtual learning community built around an online curriculum called, “Keeping Up with the Net Generation.”

MD - Maryland Technology Academy (MTA). http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy. MTA provides an intensive professional development opportunity for teachers across Maryland. A partnership among MD SDE, Johns Hopkins University and Towson University manage the MTA. The MTA provides a cadre of K-16 teachers throughout Maryland with professional development opportunities that focus on using technology to significantly impact student learning and promote school improvement. 

NE – The Learning Web Project http://tlw.k12.ne.us  Five teachers from a school or district in each ESU create technology integration projects to support a school improvement goal

OR - EDTech Professional Development Cadre http://pdc.oetc.org/index.php The Cadre builds partnerships to provide technology leadership with the goal of improving classroom teaching, student learning and professional development for all Oregon educators and pre-K to 20 students. The cadre provides a forum for networking and collaborative work, models effective instructional strategies, and demonstrates applications of emerging technologies.

MT - Montana is currently creating a consortium of rural school districts separated by great distances, through the utilization of partnerships with teacher education departments at the various campuses of the university system along with specialized mentors. The goal of this professional development is to build teacher technology and integration skills with the intended outcome of impacting student achievement. The consortiums are showing promise in the effective and efficient delivery of professional development, the use of outside mentors, and building working relationships with teacher education programs.

WA - The NO LIMIT! Network Learning Community Project (NLC) includes working with teams of teachers in grades 5-9 to improve teaching practices in mathematics using online tools such as My eCoach, the Internet, and research-based methodologies. Much of the instruction and professional development is delivered online after the initial face-to-face meetings. In the NLC, 3-5 teachers in a school building actively collaborate to solve math literacy problems. Learning together as they develop solutions in common, NLC participants take on the role of learners as well as teachers in such an environment. There is a dynamic exchange of knowledge between all participants (including from children to adults, and from adults to children); thus setting a foundation for construction of new knowledge.