CLARENCE CENTER, NY March 22, 2004โ€"-Current and prospective K-12 teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals can now go to OnlineTeacherEd.com (OTE) to find which regionally accredited colleges and universities in the U.S. are offering teacher-education degree and certificate programs in a distance-education format.
Located at http://www.onlineteachered.com, OTE features an online Degree Finder Directory to more than 260 undergraduate-level and graduate-level degree and certificate programs in teacher education that are currently being offered primarily in a Web-based (online) distance-education format at more than 120 institutions in the U.S and growing. OTE also features two free-subscription, monthly, journalistic-style eNewsletters that cover teacher education issues, as well as a Web-based clearinghouse to resources, research and reports that are relevant to K-12 educators.
RESPONDING TO NCLB AND STATE POLICIES
OTE founders, Gordon Freedman and George Lorenzo, explained that they developed OTE as a response, in part, to the Federal Government's No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
NCLB, among its many specifications related to teacher education, stipulates that all education paraprofessionals hired after June 8, 2002, โ€œwho provide instructional support, must have completed two years of study at an institution of higher education; or obtained an associate's (or higher) degree; or demonstrate through a formal State or local assessment, knowledge of and ability to assist in instructing reading, writing and mathematics. Existing paraprofessionals with instructional duties must meet these requirements by 2006.โ€ Additionally, NCLB stipulates that all teachers teaching in core academic subjects, by 2005-2006 โ€œmust have State certification or have passed a teacher licensing exam and hold a license to teach.โ€ Similarly, many state programs are adding their own qualification mandates either in sync with NCLB or in addition or opposition to NCLB.
FOR ADULT LEARNERS
Since the vast majority of these K-12 educators are adult learners with full-time job, family and community-related responsibilities, earning higher-education credit to help advance their teaching careers can now be more easily accomplished through the convenience of anytime, anyplace Web-based distance-education programs, which are growing in popularity and numbers throughout the country.
According to recent figures out of the National Center for Education Statistics, 72% of all 2-year colleges and 79% of all public 4-year colleges offer distance learning courses. Of those, 25% offer complete degrees at a distance.
FEATURED INSTITUTIONS
In addition to providing a free listing in its Degree Finder Directory to any U.S.-based regionally accredited institution offering teacher education programs in a distance-education format, OTE provides marketing services to education providers that become listed as Featured Institutions on the OTE Web site. Currently, Lesley University, UmassOnline, University of Illinois Online and Western Governors University are listed on the launch of the OTE Web site as Featured Institutions.
โ€œWe feel that OTE provides teachers, administrators, and schools of education a missing resource in this time of great change in the teaching profession. Access to distance-education programs fits the lifestyle of busy teachers who may not want to go back into the classroom to advance their career. For teachers who have gone through online programs, there is genuine surprise with the quality of the education and the closeness they develop with fellow learners,โ€ said OTE Co-founder Gordon Freedman.
โ€œCovering distance-education as a journalist over the past four years has taught me that this form of teaching and learning has really come of age in our Internet-connected world,โ€ said OTE Co-founder George Lorenzo. โ€œAdult learners, in particular, can and do learn in an online course, and the degrees they are earning are no different than traditional degrees earned in a face-to-face environment. In fact, in many instances, learning online can be more of an academic challenge with more learning and interaction occurring than in a traditional class.โ€
PARTNERS
OTE was created through a partnership with DynaPortal Software Company (http://wwwdynaportal.com), a privately held Texas corporation formed in 1995 by a group of seasoned professionals that combine years of traditional IT and business expertise with the new energy of the Web. The company offers two products for educational institutions, DynaPortal EDU for higher education and DynaPortal EDU K-12 for school districts. Both products are used for a wide variety of educational web-based solutions.
Other OTE partners include TappedIn, Knowledge Base, LLC, and Educational Pathways. TappedIn (www.tappedin.sri.com) is an online workplace where K-12 teachers, librarians, administrators, and professional development staff, as well as university faculty, students, and researchers gather to learn, collaborate, share, and support one another. TappedIn was created by SRI International to transform teacher professional development (TPD). Knowledge Base, LLC, is a consulting company in the eLearning and ePublishing space. Educational Pathways (http://www.edpath.com) is a subscription-based newsletter that covers distance learning and teaching in higher education.