NCTAF Supports ISTE’s Petition Urging Congress and the Administration to Support Professional Development that Advances Digital Learning

Posted by NCTAF on July 30, 2012 in Announcements, Featured | 1 comment

America’s teachers deserve cutting-edge professional learning opportunities, so that they, like highly-skilled professionals in other industries, can take advantage of the latest technological advances for the benefit of their students.

For nearly two decades, NCTAF has been a strong voice in the movement to ensure that teachers get the training and ongoing professional development that they need to provide great teaching in our schools. Our Teachers Learning in Networked Communities (TLINC®) program is demonstrating how online communities and emerging technologies, including 3G-enabled smartphones and tablets, can connect teachers and student teachers with high-quality learning opportunities and each other.  Such efforts increase teachers’ readiness to enter the profession and to stay in it.

NCTAF emphasizes two key points as we support ISTE’s petition: 1) professional development, focused on innovative pedagogy, is essential for innovative use of technology in the classroom and 2) technology when used to its full potential by skilled, networked practitioners extends both the reach and depth of the curriculum, enhancing student learning and teachers’ job satisfaction.

Without the Enhancing Education through Technology Program funds, eliminated last year, it is now impossible to adequately support teachers as they strive to meet the increasingly complex demands of preparing students for college and career in today’s technology-rich, global economy.  It is imperative to restore funding for the programs that equip our educators with the tools and skills to help our students today to face a future we cannot even imagine.

Author

Sofia Rivkin-Haas, Program Manager, leads the Teachers Learning in Networked Communities (TLINC) projects and contributes to NCTAF’s research and grant writing. Sofia also co-manages social media outreach and writes for the NCTAF blog, in which she regularly analyzes and responds to current trends in education research and news.