Online Communities

The Internet provides a powerful tool for building professional communities that are able to transcend the obstacles of time and distance. EDC has spent more than a decade researching and creating different approaches to online community building, including global forums, online professional journals, and tightly organized seminars.

A Network of Friends

A new network allows teens with cystic fibrosis to connect.

Because cystic fibrosis (CF) heightens risk of infection, teens are isolated from those who could give them much-needed support: other teens with CF. But now, with help from EDC, they will be able to connect via the Internet.

Digital Docents Evaluation: Engaging Museum and Library Visitors through Interactive Videoconferencing

At the request of Mote Marine Laboratory’s Center for Distance Learning, CCT is evaluating Digital Docents—a new program designed to help educators teach ocean science to visitors at museums and libraries across the nation. Digital Docents, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, combines traveling exhibits with live, interactive videoconference programs created at Mote and shown at participating institutions (a partnership of libraries, science centers, aquariums, and a zoo extending from Alaska to Florida).

Algebra 1 Online Module Development for the Louisiana Department of Education

EDC is developing a series of 11 online modules focused on targeted topics in the Louisiana Algebra 1 Comprehensive Curriculum where there is a need to strengthen teacher’s content knowledge and instructional practices, and improve student achievement on the Algebra 1 End of Course exam. EDC’s EdTech Leaders Online program is also providing online facilitator training to Louisiana math teachers to offer these online workshops the math teachers across the state.

E-Learning for Educators Model Course Development

EDC is developing a series of model online workshops in math, English Language Arts and science for the eight state E-Learning for Educators collaboration funded by a five year U.S. Department of Education Ready to Teach grant. These workshops will offered throughout the eight state consortium (Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) and will be used in large-scale experimental research on the impact of online professional development which involves elementary and middle school teachers in each of the states.

Logging on to Learning

EDC researchers are analyzing what works in online professional development programs by studying Teachers’ Domain, a program for high school science teachers. Offered by PBS TeacherLine, the program uses science materials and multimedia resources to deepen teachers’ knowledge of science content and enhance their teaching skills.

How Science Teachers Stay Up to Date

Staying informed about rapidly changing fields like genetics and evolution can be challenging for today’s science teachers, and many are turning to online programs to help them keep pace. But even as the number of online professional development programs is growing, very little is known about their effectiveness.

Global Knowledge for Development (GKD) List Archive Database

The GKD List has generated an enormous amount of global knowledge about the role of information/communications technologies (ICTs) in sustainable development, much of which could not be obtained in any other way. With support from infoDev, EDC is building a Web-based database of the GKD messages to provide a valuable user-friendly resource from the rich flow of information that GKD provides. The database will contain cases, guidelines, information about appropriate technologies, resources, and lessons learned, which can be easily accessed by query.

National Girls Collaborative Project

EDC works with The National Girls Collaborative Project to: (1) maximize access to shared resources across projects and with public and private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding girls’ participation in STEM; (2) strengthen capacity of existing and evolving projects by sharing promising practices, research and program models, outcomes, and products; and (3) use the leverage of networks andr collaborations of individual girl-serving STEM programs to create the tipping point for gender equity in STEM.

EdTech Leaders® Online Program (ETLO)

EdTech Leaders® Online enables state departments of education, school districts, regional educational service centers, colleges and universities, and other educational organizations to develop local capacity to provide online professional development for teachers and administrators and online courses for students.

Imagination Place!

Imagination Place! was a three-year project to develop an interactive, on-line design space for use in homes and informal settings by girls ages 8 to 14, although it is open to all. Using the latest Internet technologies, Imagination Place! engaged girls in collaborative design activities to explore the worlds of engineering and invention in their everyday lives.