Distance Education for Teacher Training: Modes, Models, and Methods

Distance Education for Teacher Training: Modes, Models, and Methods builds on EDC’s extensive international and domestic experience in the field of distance education and gathers research and lessons learned from numerous programs in over 100 nations and territories to help distance education policymakers, planners and designers develop distance education systems focused on producing high-quality teachers. The publication focuses on the following areas:

1. modes of distance education—types of distance-based delivery systems and their strengths and weaknesses from print to digital gaming to online learning to mobile
2. models of distance education for teacher training programs—actual examples of various programs from each continent
3. methods or best practices necessary to develop a high-quality distance education program

Contact Info: Mary Burns mburns@edc.org

Published by: Education Development Center, Inc.

Download a copy of Distance Education for Teacher Training: Modes, Models, and Methods (PDF, 2.6 MB): http://go.edc.org/07xd

Price: Free
(327 pp.) PDF

New book on social media and communities of practice--Mary Burns and Petra Bodrogini

Mary Burns and Bodro's presentation in Hangzhou-UNESCO Bangkok ICT Conference

Threading, Tagging and Higher Order Thinking: June 2009 E-Learn

Resources on Concept Mapping

A few resources on graphic organizers, mind-mapping, concept-mapping. Scroll down this page to see even more.

1. Mrs. Dobbs
The motherlode of graphic organizers, focused on reading comprehension, and links to dozens of other concept mapping site and resources.
URL: http://www.clevelandschools.org/training/graorgan.html

2. The Graphic Organizer Home Page
URL: http://www.graphic.org

3. Teachnology
An online generator of graphic organizers. This can supplement those found in Inspiration.
URL: http://teachers.teach-nology.com/web_tools/graphic_org/

4. Write-Design Graphic Organizers
More information on graphic organizers, including different types, strategies for when to use, and learning benefits of each type.
URL: http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/

5. Inspiration
All sorts information, templates, demos and Kidspiration, too.
URL: http://www.inspiration.com

Technology as a Catalyst for School Communities

New Book, Technology as a Catalyst for School Communities: Beyond Boxes and Bandwidth, Shows How Technology Can Change Teaching, Learning, and Schools

A new book co-authored by EDC Senior Technology Associate, Mary Burns, and SEDL program director K. Victoria Dimock has been released by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. Technology as a Catalyst for School Communities: Beyond Boxes and Bandwidth shows how three very different schools handle the many challenges of integrating technology into their classrooms. The book has received rave reviews from administrators and professors around the world.

“The book is more about creating a community of practice than it is about integrating technology into the classroom,” say the book’s authors. “We present a framework of professional development to help teachers to become a community of practice as they learn to integrate technology into their classrooms. This framework makes it possible for teachers to collaborate and adopt new ways of thinking and learning. As they collaborate and learn together, teachers become much more enthusiastic about teaching, learning, and technology.”

Burns and Dimock refer to the framework as the 5J approach. It ensures that each professional development activity has the following characteristics:

• Job-related: The professional development is focused on instructional and curricular needs.
• Just enough: The professional development emphasizes increased comfort, not proficiency with computers.
• Just in time: The professional development provides teachers with skills when needed and focuses on using only the tools they have at their disposal.
• Just in case: The professional development encourages teachers to plan sufficiently in the event of a computer malfunction.
• Just try it: The professional development includes enough pressure and support to compel teachers to use computers in their classrooms.

The three case studies illustrate how the teacher-centered professional development created around the five J’s and the technology helped bring about personal, interpersonal, and institutional changes over a 2-year period that led to the formation of communities of practice.

Kathleen Fulton, director of Reinventing Schools for the 21^st Century says, “The cases presented give one optimism that even veteran teachers can become the vanguard of school change in the right circumstances. The framework Burns and Dimock present shows what is at the heart of teacher change: a supportive community.”

Judi Harris, the Pavey family Chair in Educational technology at the College of William and Mary, states that Technology as a Catalyst for School Communities “Mary Burns and Victoria Dimock do what few have done… like a breath of fresh air in a field that can stagnate in simple technology-based solutions to complex educational challenges…(the authors) emphasize the importance of teacher-centered, not technocratic, professional development, illustrating and explaining how it really happens in real schools with real people.”

That support, the authors say, is essential in adopting technology practices that will lead to improved student learning. “As we wrote in the book, technology may promote revolution, but educators must aim for evolution. That evolution is possible when a supportive community is in place that helps members adopt new practices at their own rate. The support network can be a safe harbor for individuals who may resist and fear change but also welcome it and will work toward it, if the change means improved outcomes for students.”

Web Resources: Using Technology to Improve Student Reading Comprehension

Resources
As we've seen from Marzano's Classroom Instruction that Works, nonlinguistic representations and advanced organizers are highly effective instructional strategies in reading comprehension. Below are web sites that should help you as you use technology to assist in student reading comprehension.


Audio Aids
1. Teen Reads
URL: http://teenreads.mypodcast.com/
2. PodOmatic
URL: http://www.podomatic.com

Graphic Organizers (Resources)
1. Map the Mind
URL: http://www.mapthemind.com/
2. Peter Russell's Mind Maps
URL: http://www.peterrussell.com/MindMaps/mindmap.php
3. Inspiration
URL: http://www.inspiration.com
4. Graphic Organizers
URL: http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/drafke/Graphic%20organizers.htm
5. Printable Graphic Organizers from TeacherVision
URL: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-organizers/printable/6293.html
6. Graphic Organizers from NCREL
URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1grorg.htm
7. Map Your Mind
URL: http://www.mapyourmind.com/

Research/General Information on Mind Maps and Graphic Organizers
1. CAST
URL: http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_go.html

2. Tony Buzan: Wikipedia
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Mapping

Resources for World Links Manila Conference

Plenary Session: 1:1 Computing

• University of Southern Maine Center for Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation
• EDC Lessons Learned About Providing Laptops to All Students
• Ubiquitous Computing Evaluation Consortium
• Partnership for 21st Century Learning: ICTs
  

Track 2: Student-Centered Learning
Working Definition of Constructivist Learning
Levels of Technology Integration-Burns (Threshold Magazine. Select "A Means to an End')

Track 6: Evaluation

• Analysis of Process
• Professional Competency Continuum
• Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow
• Levels of Technology Integration-Burns (Threshold Magazine. Select "A Means to an End')
• Levels of Technology Implementation
  
• National Educational Technology Standards
• National Staff Development Council Professional Development Standards