Professional Development

23 Things that you can do on the web to explore and expand your knowledge of the Internet and Web 2.0.

Using Blogs and Wikis to Foster Literacy - University of Rhode Island: This course focuses on the pragmatism of using Web 2.0 tools in education. Participants will learn how teachers and librarians, from around the globe, are using the ‘Read/Write Web’ to foster literacy in and out of school, to deepen learning and increase student achievement, to create opportunities to bring these technologies to the larger school community, and to identify assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of Read/Write Web technologies in their personal practice and with their students.
DaveFontaine1@gmail.com To register or inquire: Christine Dolan christine@uri.edu

Using the Internet for Teaching and Learning - University of Rhode Island: Students will learn how to find relevant information among the abundance of raw data found online, evaluate its worth and credibility, and effectively use it to solve an issue or problem. Students will also learn “Information Literacy Skills” (how to develop their own ‘research and evaluation’ skills) and transfer this knowledge to the students in their classrooms. This will occur by continuously integrating practical application, real research projects for their individual classrooms, and discipline specific lesson plans.
DaveFontaine1@gmail.com To register or inquire: Christine Dolan christine@uri.edu

Online Texts in the 21st Century Classroom - University of Rhode Island: Participants will explore and use collaborative, online tools like wikis to improve instruction, as well as create digital textbooks from Open Source material. They will also contribute, and gain access, to unlimited amounts of free digital textbooks that can be used in their classrooms, schools, and districts and create an Open Source chapter/subsection that will be shared with the world! Most print texts are out-of-date before they reach the classroom. Teachers only use a fraction of the material, and the costs have skyrocketed; even the smallest districts spend over $100,000/year on textbooks! Some of the greatest minds are banding together to harness their Collective Intelligence. They are collaboratively writing textbooks and giving them away for free for the common-good. Learn about this movement, share your own knowledge, and let your district benefit from the generosity of others. Save and retain each week's lesson in its entirety so that you may review it repeatedly and manipulate it for your own classroom use. DaveFontaine1@gmail.com To register or inquire: Christine Dolan christine@uri.edu