TUSTIN, Calif., Jan. 20, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- T.H.E. Institute, the outreach division of T.H.E. Journal, has announced the development of four new professional development courses focusing on integrating technology into teaching and learning. Each course will focus on a core content area, including, language arts, science, math and social studies. The first course, social studies, will be available Jan. 30, 2004, with a subsequent course becoming available each month through April 2004.
Individual courses will be priced starting at $209 per person per course with discounts available for volume purchases. Teachers will have an option to take the courses for graduate or CEU credit. In an attempt to address a variety of on-line learning styles, T.H.E. Institute also will offer two kinds of moderation for the courses: one-to-one or many-to-many, or educators can take the courses without the guidance of an expert.
T.H.E. Institute hopes that its new offerings will help school districts comply with the Technology section of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which has three key provisions. The first provision focuses on assisting "every student in crossing the digital divide by ensuring that every student is technologically literate by the time the student finishes the eighth grade, regardless of the student's race, ethnicity, gender, family income, geographic location, or disability." The second provision requires that every state plan describe "how the state education agency will ensure ongoing integration of technology into school curricula and instructional strategies in all schools in the State, so that technology will be fully integrated into the curricula and instruction of the schools by Dec. 31, 2006." The third provision dictates all school districts receiving funds "use not less than 25 percent of such funds to provide ongoing, sustained, and intensive, high-quality professional development. The recipient shall provide professional development in the integration of advanced technologies ... . to lead to improvements in classroom instruction in the core academic subjects."
These courses will help teachers integrate technology throughout the curriculum, and because they focus on grades 7-12, they will help teachers ensure their students are technologically literate.
"We are excited to build upon our experience and expertise in providing these courses to educators across the country," said Dr. Geoffrey H. Fletcher, executive director of T.H.E. Institute. "We realize that districts need to address these requirements of NCLB, but more importantly, we realize that teachers need help in integrating technology into their classrooms. Districts have invested significantly in infrastructure and hardware, but they also need to invest in their teachers. On-line professional development on integrating technology makes sense as it models the use of technology as well as provides maximum flexibility for the teacher."
William Topaz, COO of ETC Group LLC, noted, "Our goal with these expanded offerings is to empower school districts to spend their technology dollars more wisely by making the investment in teacher training."
He added, "In addition, we have proactively recruited two market leaders, netTrekker and United Learning, to make the courses more valuable. Each course offered by T.H.E. Institute includes free trial access to the entire netTrekker site. In addition, registered students will have access to videos from United Learning as well as access to UL's entire image library."
"netTrekker fits perfectly into T.H.E.'s new Professional Development courses," Lillian Kellogg, vice president of Strategic Relations of netTrekker, stated. "It's an easy to use instructional technology tool that allows any teacher to seamlessly integrate high quality web-based resources and their state's academic standards into their everyday curricula."
Special pricing is also being provided from Glencoe/McGraw-Hill for educators in districts that have purchased Glencoe/McGraw-Hill's TechCONNECT!
Educators interested in signing up for the courses can visit: http://www.thejournal.com/institute/.
About T.H.E. Journal
T.H.E. Journal, founded in 1972 as Technological Horizons in Education, is the original and foremost publication dedicated to covering the application of technology to the learning process. Covering the entire education market, from K-12 through higher education, T.H.E. Journal reaches key policy makers and those involved in or influencing the technology decision-making process. The magazine offers in-depth articles and case studies on high-tech applications from leading educators, new product information and special issues highlighting specific technologies. The magazine is published 12 times per year and reaches more than 160,000 educators worldwide (controlled circulation; BPA audited). The publication also sponsors, in cooperation with ISTE, the annual Sylvia Charp Award for District Innovation in Technology. T.H.E. Journal serves as the foundation of a rapidly expanding suite of information-based products and services offered by the company. For more information, visit www.thejournal.com or phone 714-730-4011.
About T.H.E. Institute
T.H.E. Institute offers educators a range of professional development services, including accredited workshops and courses that can be delivered on site and on the Web as well as in a combination that combines the best of both known as site-to-Web. In addition, T.H.E. Institute offers educators -- and businesses serving education -- an array of consulting services. Headed by a nationally known expert in education and technology in education, Dr. Geoffrey H. Fletcher, T.H.E. Institute provides high quality professional development and consulting services to educators and businesses around the world.
About ETC Group
ETC Group LLC, based in Tustin, Calif., is the privately held holding company that owns T.H.E. Institute and publishes T.H.E. Journal. Its online properties include thejournal.com, the web home for T.H.E. Journal, with additional features such as the Educators Road Map to the Web and T.H.E. Source. Other ETC Group online properties include TheConferencePlanner.com and TheConferenceCalendar.com plus links to thousands of sites and resources. For more information, visit www.etcgroupllc.com.
About netTrekker
netTrekker is the award-winning trusted search engine for schools that saves K-12 educators and students time. Through fast and easy access to relevant educator-selected online resources, netTrekker enhances teaching and learning. netTrekker delivers results across the curriculum, and links resources directly to each state's academic standards and benchmarks. It features an interactive timeline, famous person list generator, and easy-to-use collaboration tools. netTrekker integrates technology and standards-based curriculum resources into the classroom and daily education experience. Find netTrekker online at www.netTrekker.com.
About Thinkronize, developers of netTrekker
Thinkronize, the developer of netTrekker, is located in Cincinnati, Ohio and was founded by Robert Reinders. Find Thinkronize on the web at www.thinkronize.com.
About United Learning
Founded in 1954 to bring high-quality educational content into the classroom, United Learning is a division of Discovery Communications, Inc., the leading global real-world media company, and creator of the Discovery Channel. In addition to health education and prevention materials, as well as VHS and DVD content, the company launched unitedstreaming, an award-winning, research-validated video-on-demand streaming and downloading subscription service, in 2001 that is now available to 10.5 million students in more than 25,000 schools across the United States. For more information, visit www.unitedlearning.com or call 800-323-9084.
About Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
The Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Division of The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading publisher of educational materials for grades 6 through 12. Our instructional materials are used in public and private schools, and other organizations that educate our youth and improve the literacy, general knowledge and vocational skills of our nation's citizens. Glencoe's goal is to ensure that the software, Web sites, textbooks and other printed materials it publishes are consistently high in quality and genuinely effective in the classroom. Our materials are shaped by the insights and experience of active educators.