Apple certainly seems determined to regain lost ground in the education market. They’re planning a big presence at next week’s National Education Computing Conference. They’re also sponsoring a Colleges of Education Institute as reported here earlier today. In addition, Apple is joining the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) in a multi-million dollar initiative with the AT&T Foundation to provide student teachers with models for teaching with technology and strategies for addressing national technology and content standards.
The participating organizations will present the “Digital Edge: Accomplished Teaching with Technology” project in a media briefing next Monday at the NECC. The project will position NBPTS as mentors to student teachers. The online environment will include opportunities for collaboration and professional development, portfolio artifacts, access to a digital library of standards-based lessons created by NBCTS, and expert commentary on how these lessons meet national content and technology standards.
The first education communities to benefit from the initiative include pre-service teachers and faculty from three Partner Teacher Preparation Institutions: California State University San Marcos, George Mason University (Virginia) and Louisiana Tech University.
“This initiative is an example of how the business community is stepping forward to recognize the importance of high quality teaching,” said NBPTS President Betty Castor in a statement. “We thank AT&T and Apple in helping us recruit and retain top-flight teachers for America’s classrooms. This project will demonstrate how technology is a great asset for teachers and their teaching practice. The cooperative effort provided by these four organizations for the benefit of accomplished teaching is extremely powerful.”
Through participation in this project, Apple continues its support for educators and educational organizations by contributing technology resources and expertise, she added.
“Too often, the student teaching experience fails to address the complex challenges and opportunities new teachers will face in today’s classrooms,” said ISTE NETS Project Director, Lajeane Thomas, “The Digital Edge offers powerful technology-based resources for demonstrating innovative applications of technology for learning, and promotes a mentoring model actively supporting prospective teachers with feedback on problems faced daily in the classroom. This support and these resources create an environment where the potential of the student teaching experiences to prepare new teachers for the classroom can be realized.”
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