PBS Teacherline of Virginia, Brian Callahan, WHRO ISTE NES T Capstone for Virginia S Itrts

PBS TeacherLine of Virginia Offers PBS TeacherLine/ISTE NES•T Certificate of Proficiency Capstone Program for Virginia’s ITRTs

WHRO developed a Grant Year 2 Local Innovation Fund project to utilize the PBS TeacherLine/ISTE NETS•T Certificate of Proficiency Capstone Program, as well as other TeacherLine courses, as the course of study for every instructional technology resource teacher (ITRT) in Virginia. In 2004 the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation recommended by the Virginia Board of Education to amend the Virginia Standards of Quality. In short, this legislation created a new position--the ITRT--per 1,000 K-12 students.

This project grew out of meetings WHRO had with educators at schools and conferences where they noticed that the ITRTs came from different backgrounds. They saw the importance of having the ITRTs go through the same training, and thus the opportunity to utilize the Capstone Program. This project has been branded as iCAN which stands for ITRT Certification and Networking. Resources available include a discussion board on WHRO’s PBS TeacherLine website, monthly newsletter for tips and promotion of the next course offerings, and an 800 number to call and talk to someone about the iCAN program. During the first year of this project, WHRO has a goal of 45 learners completing the Capstone Program (offered as a private national course). They’ve already had 15 educators complete the Capstone and they held a graduation ceremony luncheon with district administrators there to talk with them.

Update – September 2007

After a year of promoting the iCAN initiative via web, TV, email, direct mail, and face-to-face and conference presentations, nearly 100 ITRTs in 27 districts have become involved in the Capstone sequence over the last year, that’s a 7% market penetration. This has been a big success in the state. Norfolk Public Schools enroll all 34 of their ITRTs in the Capstone program, which was a $46,000 sale. Virginal Beach Public Schools has 23 ITRTs and Four Rivers EdTech Consortium has 17 ITRTs schedule to complete the program this year. There are another 21 ITRTs from various districts that are in the middle of the Capstone program.

The Virginia Department of Education took notice and invited key staff members from all of Virginia’s public broadcasting stations as well as Sandie Pedlow and Melinda George from PBS TeacherLine to discuss how to make the PBS TeacherLine/ISTE NES•T Capstone program available statewide. A follow-up meeting will be held in November in which an action plan will be developed.

eSchool News has written an article which highlights how WHRO and Norfolk Public Schools have implemented our courses and the PBS TeacherLine/ISTE Capstone Program to meet their professional development needs and instructional technology initiatives. This article was briefly discussed on will be in the April edition of eSchool News.

To find out more about WHRO’s PBS TeacherLine efforts, visit www.virginiateacherline.org. Click on the ICAN logo to find out how they are marketing the ISTE/PBS TeacherLine Capstone Program in Virginia.

To find out more about the Capstone Program, visit www.pbs.org/teacherline/capstone-program/.