OCoP

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As part of a larger Department of Education (USED) grant, the Friday Institute will develop and host a national online community of practice (OCoP) for K-12 educators, including teachers, administrators, instructional technology facilitators, and technology directors involved in the initial and ongoing planning and implementation of technology enhanced environments where every student and teacher has a portable, web-enabled device. The purpose of this OCoP is to provide a dynamic environment in which educators have multiple opportunities and avenues for collaboration, sharing of their expertise and experiences, and access to resources that will strengthen their ability to plan, implement, and sustain technology enabled learning initiatives. The FI team will collaborate closely with the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) as a major partner in developing this OCoP to strategically focus on the needs of administrators and technology directors audiences.

Building upon our initial needs assessment, we intend to provide potential value for the targeted audiences participating in this national OCoP in the following ways:


 * Support from peers for making pedagogical shifts
 * Opportunities for collaboration (e.g., on lesson planning) leading to reduced feelings of isolation
 * Access to content specific expertise
 * Classroom management strategies for technology rich environments
 * Help using technology for ongoing assessment to inform instructional decisions




 * Guidance for vision, planning, and implementation from those who have launched successful initiatives
 * Reliable information and strategies used in other districts about key topics such as bring your own technology (BYOT), funding, Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), and cloud computing, etc.
 * Help connecting technology with other initiatives and requirements (e.g., Common Core Standards, Assessment 2014, turn-around of low performing schools, achievement gap, programs for ELL and SPED students, etc.)
 * Opportunities to connect and network with colleagues about lessons learned in implementing technology enabled programs




 * Strategies for supporting teachers/staff transition to technology-rich environments
 * Professional development models for content-specific resources, tools, and ideas
 * Access to effective policies, procedures, and problem-solving approaches for infrastructure, filtering, responsible use, and other issues
 * General collegial support




 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Support for BYOT environments
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Content filtering—how to filter, how to monitor
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">E-rate—how to optimize funding
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Integrating instructional management, student information, instructional improvement, and other systems
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Which devices for which purposes?—tablets, chromebooks, ereaders, netwbooks, laptops, etc.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Learn more about...
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Potential Research Opportunities in the National OCoP