Online Communities

Generating classroom discussions with high school students can be arduous work, requiring both careful planning and quick thinking. EDC’s Center for Science Education has developed an online course focused on helping teachers pose questions and manage classroom discussions that are both more engaging for students and more scientific in substance.

For students who are struggling with math, finding exciting and engaging ways to interest them in the subject and help them succeed can be a difficult task. There is no shortage of web sites and software packages that help students practice their skills, but these can often lead to frustration for students. Integrating math with other disciplines into hands-on, project-based learning activities can transform math from a daunting and overwhelming subject to an approachable and practical set of skills.

Community-level programs are often at a loss when their funding ends. How can they continue to offer services to clients? What aspects of their programs should they work hardest to sustain?

In an effort to provide more choices and expanded educational opportunities to their clients, many community technology centers (CTCs) are turning to online learning. ACC recently spoke with two programs funded under the Department of Education CTC grant program that provide online courses as part of their program offerings. These experiences capture both the promises and pitfalls of online learning and show its potential to complement the great work CTCs across the country are already doing.

This fall nearly 800 new teachers have entered classrooms in the Milwaukee Public Schools for the first time. According to recent statistics from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, upwards of half of them will be gone by the fall of 2008. Like school leaders across the country, administrators in Milwaukee are working hard to slow down this revolving door in the profession and keep their best teaching talent in the classroom.

For EDC Senior Vice President Vivian Guilfoy, who has spent more than a decade working in the fields of community technology and youth development, one of the signs of progress is a blurring of boundaries. “The days of distinction between formal and informal education have come to an end,” says Guilfoy, director of EDC’s Center for Education, Employment, and Community (CEEC).

How can a university with 80% of its teachers unfamiliar with the internet successfully integrate and manage the largest IT network in Mali? In a word–training.

The End-violence Virtual Working Group is an Internet discussion list sponsored by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the World Bank, and the Global Knowledge Partnership, and developed and moderated by EDC’s International Development Division (IDD).

It is fitting that Mildred Solomon named the book she edited The Diagnostic Teacher. In her two decades of work at EDC, she has researched and designed numerous professional education programs for teachers and health care professionals.