Teachers get technology training through Rice program

Teachers
get technology training through Rice program
…………………………………………………………………

BY LIA UNRAU
Rice News Staff

Some 6,000 K-12
students each year will benefit from more- skilled educators,
thanks to a program aimed at providing teachers with advanced
technology training.

TeacherTech,
developed by Rice’s Center for Excellence and Equity
in Education, is a professional development program that
was conducted this summer in Houston, Boston and San Diego.
In the coming months, the program will be expanded to even
more U.S. cities.

In June and
July, more than 60 K-12 teachers participated in one- or
two-week training courses through TeacherTech to meet the
following goals:

• To equip
teachers with knowledge and strategies that will encourage
full participation by all students — especially those
from underrepresented groups — in computer technology,
especially in scientific computing.
• To enable teachers to effectively use and produce
Web resources that support student learning.

“What makes
this program so successful is the dedication of the teacher
participants,” said Cynthia Lanius, executive director
of the Center for Excellence and Equity in Education. “They
sacrifice part of their well-deserved summer vacations in
order to learn how to use technology more effectively in
the classroom. And we have numerous stories of how the teachers
then generate this enthusiasm back in the classroom with
their students.”

The ultimate
goal is to develop students who understand and are able
to use computer technology effectively.

“It’s
clear that we must prepare students to use technology as
a scientific tool, and intensive, long-term professional
development is a key component of how comfortable teachers
will be using technology in this way,” Lanius said.

Expansion of
the TeacherTech program was made possible by the Verizon
Foundation, with the aid of a $10,000 grant. In 2002, Lanius
will work with the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
to expand the program to Chicago public schools.

TeacherTech
is the teacher training component of Rice’s GirlTech
program, which is made possible by support from the National
Science Foundation through the Education, Outreach and Training
Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, the
RGK Foundation, the Verizon Foundation, Rice University
and Rice’s Center for High Performance Software.

“GirlTech
has been recognized locally as a quality program since its
inception in 1995,” Lanius said. “We now have
the potential, using the National Science Foundation’s
Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure network
of partners, to expand throughout the country.”

For more information
see <http://ceee.rice.edu/>
and <www.crpc.rice.edu/CRPC/Women/GirlTECH/>.