We provide Superintendent Conference Day planning, support and training, followed by online professional developing and project development support to teachers and teams. Our focus is teaching models that integrate in-class and online activities. To help develop the online environments that support this focus, we also offer technology planning development (expert advice, project management and team facilitation) and school intranet support (hosting, design, management and maintenance of file servers running web-based applications).
These services can be engaged separately, or as a comprehensive and complete partnership. Our services are billable hourly, by project, or by term. Each situation requires its own scope of work and associated but, but the following fee schedule is indicative:
The following are technology professional development projects that brought Learning 2.0 to one or more classrooms. Each includes a reference letter.
EXAMPLE 2: The Spanish Cultural Exchange Project began by identifying an international classroom partner, securing mini-grant funding, and connecting via videoconferences and forums. The first activity was teacher driven - creating webquest projects for partner comment. The second was student driven - making videos about life in their respective schools and communities, shared over videoconference for reactions.
REFERENCE: Jennifer Bentivegna-li, lead teacher for the project: jennifer.pdf, attached.
DESCRIPTION: Working with early adopters of instrucitonal technology to design, implement, and evaluate model projects, and seek funding for their replication and expansion.
EXAMPLE: The Oaxaca Project is cultural exchange project between 4th grade students in Poughkeepsie, NY and the residents of San Agustin, a small village near Oaxaca. After local news stories of a San Augustinian community in Poughkeepsie, our project design took advantage of community interest to secure a grant from IBM to send teachers and a computer (with dial-up Internet) to the Mexican town. A bulletin board sustained shared communication, and students collaborated on a website and a move about life in their school.
REFERENCE: Valerie Carlisle, lead teacher for the project: valerie.pdf, attached.
DESCRIPTION: Teachers form project development teams, learn software and collaboratory tools, interact with experts, and create projects they will implement in the coming year.
EXAMPLE: The Design Studio model was developed by the Institute for Learning Technologies (ILT), Teachers College based on the work of the Columbia University School of Architecture. Two funded school/university partnerships - The Living Schoolbook and the Harlem Environmental Access Project - funded stipends, equipment, speakers and staffing to support teachers from different schools in 1-2 week workshops.
REFERENCE: Pat Nicholson, supervisor during development of this model: pat.pdf, attached.
DESCRIPTION: Teachers, students, administrators, parents and other stakeholders form a Technology Planning Committee, learn collaboratory tools, interact with experts, and create technology plans for their teams, grades, or schools. Plans stress focus on commitments to process rather than specific end-results, because this is a moving target.
EXAMPLE: We are currently working with the Springs School District (Long Island, NY) on a new 5-year technology plan. Ostensibly to re-qualify for E-Rate funding, this plan will focus on taking the work of "Pioneers" (teacher who integrate technology without in-school guidance), "Early Adopters" (those who have been working with us this year on Learning 2.0 projects) and moving towards circles of consensus. Disparate projects hosted on various outside sites will be moved to the Collaboratory, depended and shared.
REFERENCE: Michael Hartner, superintendent: see hartner.pdf, attached.
PROJECT EXAMPLE: Civil War Personas
Students took on the personae of Civil War era historical figures to debate the merits of slavery through letters to the editor. We created two online newspapers, one pro-slavery (The Guardian) and one abolitionist (The Liberator) and uploaded articles from the period to inspire comment. Students commented on the newspapers that espoused opposite views, and then responded to letter-to-the-editor comments made to the papers that espoused their own.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| pat.pdf | 21.94 KB |
| linas.pdf | 71.64 KB |
| jennifer.pdf | 13.1 KB |
| hartner.pdf | 28.47 KB |
| valerie.pdf | 49.64 KB |