MPT and CTE Use Technology to Make Connections

It's happened to everyone. You attend a meeting or conference, a terrific group forms and everyone feels great about working together. Then the meeting ends, folks go their separate ways and that enthusiasm gradually wanes. That certainly could have happened after August's LG2G Advance Team Institute, but thanks to some great technology, this group is staying connected.

The tool that’s helping to make this happen is the Electronic Learning Community (ELC), part of the Center for Technology's Digital Tool Suite. The ELC is an online space where members of the Advance Team get together to talk, work and play . . . from wherever they'd like, whenever they'd like. (For any new readers, the Advance Team is a group of middle-school math teachers who are helping to develop the LG2G game and curriculum.) Some highlights of the ELC include a number of content resources, such as articles and links to sites about learning games; a calendar of upcoming project-related events; announcements about the project; and perhaps most importantly, discussion forums and chat rooms. Some of the discussion topics so far have included follow-ups to August's institute meeting, as well as all manner of talk about math, games and learning.

"We really felt like a strong team had formed at the Advance Team Institute," says MPT's Jennifer Pleszkoch. "And the ELC is helping this group to stay intact. I think the great part about the technology is that it allows teachers to develop professionally at times that suit them best. Thanks to the ELC, teachers can learn, experience and discuss gaming when it's convenient for them. Best of all they can communicate with other teachers about what they're learning about gaming on an ongoing basis." CTE's Sam Abramovich adds that the "collaborative work environment" of the ELC is not just a function of technology, but that its design is "based on effective pedagogy," making it an extremely efficient and easy-to-use communication tool.

The next Advance Team Institute is scheduled for January 2007, but the ELC is open 24-7. And that’s good news for the Advance Team, which because of the ELC is very happily . . . still a team.

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