Teachers to learn tech techniques
Arizona Republic, April 9, 2009
Corey Schubert, media communications manager for ASU College of Public Programs, submitted this information.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/citizen/articles/2009/04/09/20090409phx-nbytech0411.html
Many K-12 teachers across the Valley soon will learn new ways to use technologies to better teach and inspire students. Educators from six underserved schools will take part in “Teach-Tec,” a certificate program that will show how technologies such as podcasting, text messaging, and videoconferencing can serve as high-impact tools to enhance the learning experience.
This is the result of a partnership of Arizona State University, the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the Arizona Telemedicine Program at the College of Medicine. “Through this outstanding partnership teachers will better understand how to teach core subjects like science and math using cutting-edge technology,” says Catherine Eden, director of ASU’s Bob Ramsey Executive Education Program, which is awarding the certificate.
Faculty from the three program sponsors will train teachers in schools that were selected for their diverse student body, interest in the project and a history of successful collaboration. Course content will be recorded for future use by other educators throughout the state.
Participants will include teachers from schools in Maricopa County, Pima County and the Navajo and Hopi reservations. Schools include Lowell Elementary School and Genesis Academy High School, both in Phoenix. “This will help teachers bring exciting innovation into the classroom,” says Gail Barker, PhD, co-director of administration and finance of the Arizona Telemedicine Program and a faculty member at the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. “They’ll be using existing technology, so there won’t be much expense putting what they learn to use right away.”
The program is funded through the Arizona Regents Reach Out grant, which supports innovative, university-based distance-learning projects that are collaborative and help workforce development. “We will make this training available to all K-12 teachers in Arizona through such things as podcasts,” said Kathryn Coe, associate professor in the UA College of Public Health, who also is collaborating on the program.
Teachers will take the 12-hour course in June. “This program wouldn’t have come together so easily if the two campuses weren’t so closely positioned in Downtown Phoenix,” Eden says.
The Arizona Telemedicine Program site in Phoenix, called the T-Health Institute, is housed in the historical Phoenix Union High School building on the campus of The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University. For more information, visit www.telemedicine.arizona.edu, or call (602) 827-2116.