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Through Reinventing Education, IBM and the West Virginia Department of Education implemented Riverdeep Learning Village to raise the quality of teacher instruction. Using the technology, educators capitalized on resources from the Internet to design standards-based, online instructional activities for middle and high school students. The activities focused on four core subjects, beginning with mathematics and expanding to science, language arts and social studies, with concentrated attention given to the academic areas in which students had shown they need the most help. To ensure high quality, each lesson plan was subjected to a rigorous, online jurying process before being posted on the Web for use by teachers throughout the state.
Through a Reinventing Education grant awarded in 2002, IBM and the West Virginia Collaboration, made up of the West Virginia Department of Education, Marshall University, and Marshall University Graduate School, are working together to improve the quality of teacher preparation programs throughout the state. Innovative applications of Riverdeep Learning Village are serving as the primary vehicle for the development of new teaching and learning methodologies. The project is now working to create professional development teams and schools; develop professional growth portfolios aligned with state and national standards; and develop best-practice instructional plans, teacher home pages, threaded discussions and forums, assessment tools, and online mentoring for new and practicing teachers to enhance their classroom effectiveness and aid in teacher retention.
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