Abstract:
The National Inventors Hall of Fame School...Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Learning is a bold collaboration by the City of Akron, Akron Public Schools and The University of Akron to house a STEM focused middle school within the renovated National Inventors Hall of Fame. Effective and innovative teacher preparation is critical to the success of this initiative. This presentation demonstrates a professional development course that effectively integrates the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) framework and 21st century teaching principles to empower teachers to meet and exceed Ohio Content Standards in learning environments where emergent Internet technologies (EITs) support student interaction and collaboration.

How do we engage learners who have to unplug their emergent Internet technologies when they get to school? How can we encourage teachers' personal use of emergent Internet technologies to facilitate their seamless use in the classroom? How do we ensure that these activities are aligned with standards and truly enhance learning?

These are questions we struggled with as we developed an online course for teachers in the Akron Public Schools anticipating their involvement in a new STEM school. With high expectations for ubiquitous technology use to support science, math and engineering studies, these teachers knew that they would be teaching in a new world.

In this presentation, we share our journey, challenges and teacher produced products. If you bring your laptop, you can explore with us some of the EITs that we introduced to teachers and see their online products. We will involve you in a collaborative emergent technology project. Are you still driving a car without seat belts?