Professional Development sessions bring 26% increase in K-12 Connections
During the 2007-2008 school year, over 9,200 hours of video sessions were delivered through the K-12 Connections program, for a 26% increase over the previous year. K-12 Connections, a collaborative effort by ICN and Iowa Public Television (IPTV), provides live, interactive, distance learning opportunities at no cost to students, teachers, or school districts, unless continuing education or certification credit is involved.
About 25% of the 43,000 participants during the last year were adults taking part in professional development opportunities, such as bullying prevention, school nurse certification, and food safety. One session brought together over 2,000 food nutrition workers at 236 ICN video classrooms in the largest session to be held in the Network’s 15-year history!
More training and professional development opportunities are currently being created for the 2008-2009 school year. These sessions allow school staff and districts to increase their expertise in vital educational topics with little to no fuel costs or travel time. With fuel costs rising, these sessions are a great way to cut expenses for professional development opportunities without cutting quality. Check the K-12 Calendar at http://www.iptv.org/iowa_database/cal-default.cfm and choose Professional Development Events for listings of current professional development opportunities. If you know of a hot topic that would interest people working in your area of education, please contact Trista Peitzman, trista@iptv.org or Abby Brown, abby@iptv.org at Iowa Public Television (800) 532-1290.
