McREL’s Rural Technology Initiative Looking for Schools

McREL, the regional service center that serves South Dakota as well as 6 other states, is launching its “Rural Technology Initiative” (RTI), a new online staff development project aimed at helping rural schools, especially those in more remote locations, provide quality training in technology integration for both teachers and administrators. 

The school enrollment process is currently underway.  The project will deliver the training throughout the 2004-2005 school year.  A total of 16 schools will be selected to participate. Goal of the project is to increase the use of technology and effective teaching strategies to improve student learning.

The online format of the training is designed to save schools the expense of travel, substitute teachers, and lodging.  Participating schools will be grouped into a cluster of 5-8 schools, based on the level of technology integration that is already occurring in the school.  The level will be assessed via a survey that will be completed by the teachers and administrators in the school.  The online delivery system will include video conferencing, an internet portal, and teleconferencing.

College credit is available to participants.  The credit will be awarded in each participant’s curricular area to help the teachers meet the NCLB “highly qualified” requirements.  For example, a math teacher will earn a credit in Math Technology Integration, while a science teacher will earn a credit in Science Technology Integration.

An initial meeting of participating schools will be held in Colorado late February or early March.