Providing sustained professional learning opportunities to teachers can be difficult. Fortunately, Read/Write Web technologies make it a lot easier. PBS TeacherLine appears to be moving in this direction. I wrote about my PBS TeacherLine facilitator experience some time back and some of my criticisms, but...for folks new to eLearning, it's great to have the structured environment supported by a large organization. It's not the ONLY way to get the job done, but it sure makes it easier to say, "Our district is partnered with PBS Teacherline of Texas," rather than with a loose confederation of global educators.

This past month, Bruce Ellis (Dallas ISD) and I were interviewed by Chris Lucas (PBS TeacherLine of Texas). It was a lot of fun being interviewed and then having them do all the editing. Last year when my team and I were looking for solutions for sustained professional learning for our teachers, one of my team suggested PBS TeacherLine as one of the possible options. Other options included Walden University Master's Program and Intel Teach to the Future.

After some reflection, we decided to go with the PBS TeacherLine - Capstone courses. So, we incorporated the PBS TeacherLine Capstone courses into our Technology Integration Lead Teacher (TILT) initiative. Here's a little from the memo that went out:

The initiative builds on the concept of establishing technology integration lead teachers at every campus over the next few years. Since technology integration is the expectation for all K-12 teachers, the TILT initiative is initially restricting its scope to classroom, core-content teachers in fourth through tenth grades. Teachers selected to participate—and who enjoy campus administrator support—will provide ongoing professional learning opportunities at the campus level. They will also be expected to model technology use aligned to the State Technology Applications:TEKS curriculum, and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Technology Standards (NETS).

Teachers interested in participating will need to carefully review the expectations for the project, sign a letter of commitment, successfully complete online courses, as well as other specific objectives. The program will be rigorous and involve after-hours training commitments. In return, participants will receive a laptop computer, a wireless digital projector, paid professional development at a summer academy, and workshop project stipends for campus level training. Also, participating teachers will receive ISTE NETS Certification.

The budget is posted online for the first 3 cohorts, in case you're curious as to what this is costing. You can also watch a video featuring Adah Stock regarding her participation in the TILT Cohort 1.

A second initiative that we're collaborating with PBS on is taking one of their existing online courses and converting it to SCORM-compliant format for delivering via our learning management system, and embedding it in

In the meantime, may I encourage you to check out the video and leave a comment (please be nice)?

 View Video

Relevant Links:

• PBS TeacherLine
• PBS TeacherLine of Texas
• San Antonio ISD's Instructional Technology Services' Technology Integration Lead Teacher (TILT) Program
• Dallas ISD's Instructional Technology Department