VTCITE Phase II Community Projects

Community Projects are one way to get more people involved in the Community. During Phase II of this building a professional learning community project we hope to bring up to 50 additional people into the VTCITE community through project participation.

If you are interested in participating in a project or just want to learn more about it, please contact the Project Facilitator.

Listed below is a brief description of some of the projects. Others are still under development and will be posted on the VTCITE web site when they are ready.

Learning in a Virtual Environment –
VITA-Learn in Second Life

Facilitator: David Wells

Second Life is an engaging virtual environment that promotes learning and collaboration across geographic boundaries. 
Our group will establish a presence for VITA-Learn in Second Life where members can collaborate and learn both among themselves and with leading educators from across the globe.

Contact Information: dwells@ejhs.k12.vt.us

Number of Participants Needed: 5 additional ones welcome but no stipend.

Compilation of Professional Development Contacts to
 Support Technology

Integration Facilitator: Joanne Finnegan

Professional development is crucial for implementation and integration of technology in education. I propose to form a team to gather resources that other technology integration specialists have used/are using when they offer professional development in their schools and districts. Many of us tend to create what we need as we need it. If we have a central database of materials to choose from, including handbooks, tutorials, outlines for classes and workshops we have taught, reading materials we have used, and links to online resources, it would save us all time and effort as we prepare for our own in-house offerings. I also propose that we form a list of Vermont educators who are “experts” in one area of technology integration upon whom we could call for ideas, information and help.

Contact Information: Joanne.Finnegan@cesu.k12.vt.us

Number of Participants Needed: 5

Mapping Implementation of Tech GEs

Facilitator: Eric Hall

Our goal is to collect Vermont examples of integrated units and projects aligned with Tech GEs. Teachers who are just beginning to incorporate technology into their instruction need strong peer models and concrete local examples of successful and effective integration.

Contact Information: ehall@wdsdvt.org

Number of Participants Needed: 4

Professional Development to Go

Facilitator: Lucie deLaBruere

Mobile, flexible technology has increased our ability to participate in professional development where we participate from different locations and even at different times of the day.

This project is for the Teacher on the Go, who is looking for a way to distribute and receive professional development without the constraints of participating at the same time and from the same location as everyone else. We will learn to use I-Tunes, I-Pods or alternative mp3 players, and Web 2.0 tools to organize, distribute, and receive professional development. We will learn the tools and strategies, as well as develop a series of "playlist" around professional development topics that can be used by others who chose to offer professional development using these "PD To GO" strategie. Participants who don't already own an IPOD can apply their stipends towards the purchase of a a new I-Pod.

Contact Information: ldelabruere@gmail.com

Number of Participants Needed: 5

TANDBERG Video Systems Professional Development

Facilitator: Jerry Piette

The ORLEANS CENTRAL SUPERVISORY UNION (OCSU) become part of a USDA for Distance Learning Technology grant in collaboration with the University of New Hampshire. (documents detailing more specifics of the grant are available). It is my proposal to create a team of teachers from the various schools in this Supervisory Union to develop and implement a strategy plan that will best utilize this video system among teachers as well as members of the community.

Contact Information: jpiette@ocsu.org

Number of Participants: 3

GEOSS: Grade Expectations using Open Source
Software

Facilitator: Bob Sargent

A group of teachers will work together to produce activities that address the Vermont Information Technology Grade Expectations (VITGE)
using free and open source applications (FOSS). These might be pre-existing activities, like those made at the Milton school, that are adapted to open source applications, or brand new activities. The main idea behind the project is to develop a library of activities that support Grade Expectations using Open Source Software, GEOSS activities. The GEOSS activities would be posted as resources on VTCITE in the form of ISO CD images that could be downloaded and burned to make a project CD with everything a teacher would need in the way of support materials and computer applications to implement the activities on the
CD. A project forum would be established for threaded discussions concerning the coordination and development of activities.

Contact Information: rsargent@wrvs.us

Number of Participants Needed: 5

Turning Data into Information

Tommy Walz  twalzbsu@u61.net
Rob Stalling  rstalbsu@u61.net

Click here for to download presentation given at Dynamic Landscapes, May 16, 2008