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| College Opportunity Networks and Technology Access for Childcare Teachers | ||
| Project Home / Staff / Executive Summary / Distance Learning Tools / Distance Learning Projects / |
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| College Opportunity Networks and Technology Access for Childcare Teachers | ||
| Project Home / Staff / Executive Summary / Distance Learning Tools / Distance Learning Projects / |
Project ACCESS
Principal Investigator(s): Debra Torrence, Mary Ruth Coleman
Project Dates: 05/01/03 to 06/01/04
Providing child care experiences that enhance a child's readiness for school requires a strong network of qualified professionals working within a supportive environment. In order to achieve this, higher education must be accessible to child care teachers regardless of geographic location. Recent research shows that child care teachers in rural communities across our state have limited access to college courses and attain degrees at a lower rate than their counterparts in urban areas. To address this problem, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) proposed creating networks of support to enhance the capacity for rural counties to offer distance education.
Project ACCESS helped child care directors and teachers in rural counties/county clusters access Internet-based distance learning opportunities. Partners in each community built a technology-based network to support students seeking early childhood courses through a community college. This was done by creating teams of key community members to develop a distance learning plan based on assessments of the larger community needs. Each team received assistance assessing its community's existing resources and needs related to distance learning and technology. Information gathered during the assessments will be used to develop a community-based Distance Learning and Technology Access Plan.
Throughout this project, FPG staff provided the vision, expertise, training, and funds to local teams to ensure their success. We assisted each team in its work with key state and local partners to collect information needed to develop its Access Plan. A third component of this project was to provide training to community college instructors on how to develop and teach an Internet-based course.
Participants were expected to use their new skills by developing a distance learning course within two semesters of participating in the training.
FPG coordinated the project and work in close collaboration with each local team, as well as other state and community partners. Partners were selected because of their expertise in either distance learning or early childhood professional development, and agreed to assist the local teams in plan development and to facilitate access to courses as well as needed equipment and training. Key partners include the NC Partnership for Children, the NC Community College System, the NC Division of Child Development, local Smart Start partnerships, local child care resource & referral agencies, local community colleges and universities, and various professional early childhood organizations.
Early Learning Image Gallery
Principal Investigator(s): Debra Torrence, Mary Ruth Coleman
Project Dates: 04/01/03 to 03/31/03
The early childhood electronic image gallery pilot sought to increase access to visual images and print and auditory resources to illustrate best practices and current research supportive of early childhood curriculum standards and course competencies.
Two curriculum topics (literacy and outdoor learning) served as the platform for the initial image collection. Images collected served to demonstrate teacher competencies and the application of research and best practices in the curriculum areas.
The gallery provided field test participants with asynchronous access to:
- virtual observations of teaching practices in early care and education settings
- still images of practices/settings
- video clips of practices/settings
- audio streamed interactions/observations
The early childhood image gallery pilot has become part of the FPG web site and serves as a platform for expansion, allowing users to search for images of best practice anytime, anywhere.
HANDS-ON
Principal Investigator(s): Debra Torrence, Mary Ruth Coleman
Project Dates: 01/01/03 to 07/31/03
The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute partnered with the North Carolina Head Start Collaboration Project to leverage existing distance learning resources in an effort to develop a model technical assistance strategy to support Head Start teachers in accessing early childhood courses online.
HANDS-ON provided training and resources coupled with assessment strategies utilized by FPG's Project CONTACT to:
- increase the capacity of two Head Start programs to support anytime, anywhere learning opportunities for their teachers.
- increase the number of resources available to prepare and support teachers utilizing Internet based courses as an additional method for achieving education goals and completion of professional development plans.
-develop a replicable distance learning implementation plan for Head Start programs.
Early Childhood Rural Distance Learning Initiative
Principal Investigator(s): Debra Torrence, Mary Ruth Coleman
Project Dates: 12/01/02 to 11/30/03
Providing child care experiences that enhance a child's readiness for school requires a strong network of qualified professionals working within a supportive environment. In order to achieve this, higher education must be accessible to child care teachers regardless of geographic location. Recent research shows that child care teachers in rural communities across our state have limited access to college courses and attain degrees at a lower rate than their counterparts in urban areas. To address this problem, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) created networks of support to enhance the capacity for rural counties to offer distance education.
The Early Childhood Rural Distance Education Initiative helped child care directors and teachers in 6 rural communities access Internet-based distance learning opportunities. Partners in each community built a technology-based network to support students seeking early childhood courses through a community college. This was done by creating teams of key community members to develop a distance learning plan based on assessments of the larger community needs. Each team received assistance assessing its community's existing resources and needs related to distance learning and technology. Information gathered during the assessments was used to develop a community-based Technology Access Plan. Throughout this project, FPG staff provided the vision, expertise, training, and funds to local teams to ensure their success. We assisted each team in its work with key state and local partners to collect information needed to develop its Technology Access Plan. A third component of this project was to provide training to community college instructors on how to develop and teach an Internet-based course.
Participants were expected to use their new skills by developing a distance learning course within two semesters of participating in the training.
FPG coordinated the project and worked in close collaboration with each local team, as well as other state and community partners. Partners were selected because of their expertise in either distance learning or early childhood professional development, and agreed to assist the local teams in plan development and facilitating access to courses as well as needed equipment and training. Key partners included the NC Partnership for Children, the NC Community College System, the NC Division of Child Development, local Smart Start partnerships, local child care resource & referral agencies, local community colleges and universities, and various professional early childhood organizations.
