I work with The Education Institute, College of Education, Texas State
University-San Marcos (www.tei.education.txstate.edu
<http://www.tei.education.txstate.edu/> ). Within the institute, I
specifically work with 2 projects: the Texas Family Literacy Resource
Center and Central GREAT (Getting Results Educating Adults in Texas). 

 

The Texas Family Literacy Resource Center is a statewide initiative to
provide professional development and technical assistance to Even Start
and other family literacy programs. The Central GREAT project provided
professional development and technical assistance to adult education
programs and their staff throughout the central Texas region; there are
a total of 8 of these regions in Texas that are coordinated through our
statewide Adult Education office, Texas LEARNS.

 

The Texas Family Literacy Resource Center professional development
activities are targeted for Even Start staff in Texas and directly
respond to statewide professional development needs assessment. Topics
for our professional development include Birth to Two Initiative, New
Coordinators, Home Inventory (Parenting Assessment), PALS Pre-K (Early
Childhood Language Assessment), Infant/Toddler Screening Tools, and
Program Evaluation/Improvement. Our web site was designed with the goal
of providing professional development to Even Start program staff, and
contains sections with informative content, resources and references for
each component of Even Start, such as Early Childhood, Adult Education,
Parenting, and Interactive Literacy Activities. Please view the website
at www.tei.education.txstate.edu/famlit.

 

Central GREAT professional development activities focus on a wide range
of adult education topics; a calendar of professional development events
and descriptions is online at
http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/projectgreat/central/calendar.htm. Though the
audience is largely adult education teachers, technical assistance and
PD is also tailored to meet needs of program administrators.

 

Both programs (TFLRC and Central GREAT) have offered distance training
in various capacities using several distance learning products, which
include Akiva Web Meeting, Akiva Web Board, Qwest audio and online
conferencing, and Adobe Connect (formerly Macromedia Breeze). Many times
our PD is offered in a blended approach and teachers and facilitators
meet in person and online over time. Types of PD events have included
teacher study groups, book studies, ABE/ASE Academies, New Coordinators
Training, and ESOL New Teacher/Master Teacher Institutes.

 

Currently, our online PD events are not open to the general public.
However, TFLRC is developing and posting static, self-paced PD modules
for Birth-Two and Home Visiting. Because we always need to plan ahead to
ensure that the teachers and program staff have access to the technology
they need for online PD, we tend to use targeted emails to announce the
events and register participants. Often one-on-one technology technical
assistance sessions are set up with participants to make sure that they
will be able to get onto the scheduled PD events and be able to navigate
and participate in them. 

 

Our training is available free of charge to adult educators. We do not
issue CEUs, but all of our PD events, whether face-to-face or online,
are awarded points that teachers may use towards their Texas Adult
Education Teacher Credential.  Please see
http://www.tei.education.txstate.edu/credential for information on the
Texas Adult Education Teacher Credential process. 

 

 

________________________________

From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Taylor,
Jackie
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2007 9:22 AM
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1027] Online professional
developmentopportunities

 

PD List Colleagues:

As you know, guests will be joining us next week (May 14-21) for a
discussion of online and blended professional development, including
professional development-at-a-distance. Given that our work in this area
is continually expanding, I thought this week could provide us a useful
opportunity to learn about what different states or organizations offer,
particularly in online professional development.

 

Over the next two weeks, I will also be encouraging you to 'take notes'
[yep! :-) ].  Keep a scratch pad nearby. Jot down ideas or questions as
they come to you. Save your questions for next week or send them in
advance of the discussion to help our guests prepare.

 

1) So please tell us about your program's, state's, or organization's
work in online PD -- What's happening in online professional
development?

 

Include considerations, such as:

 

* Provider:

* Website:

* Online PD topics:

* Open to the public?

* Cost?

* Are CEUs or other credits available? (if so, what type)

* What institution issues the CEUs?

* When offered?

* Unique options or features?

* Anything else you'd like to add?

 

Please give us a rich description from your perspective, or just send us
the basic information listed above.

 

I look forward to hearing from you ~ enjoy the day!

 

Best wishes, Jackie

 

Jackie Taylor, List Moderator, Adult Literacy Professional Development,
jataylor at utk.edu 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/professionaldevelopment/attachments/20070507/630c3a77/attachment.html