University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: September 11, 2003

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Contributing Editor

However grave the budget crisis that afflicts the Buffalo Public Schools this year, its teachers will get a technological leg up on their computer-savvy students.

The Center for Applied Technologies in Education (CATE) will provide on-site, in-service training in a variety of educational technologies to more than 3,500 Buffalo school teachers during the 2003-04 school year through its "Push-In Technology Training Program."

Teachers in the Buffalo Public School will receive hands-on instruction in the use of Web-based, educational computer applications as part of the "Push-In Technology Training Program" offered by CATE.

The program was piloted during the past school year among another 695 Buffalo teachers in 13 schools. Many of them hailed it as some of the most interesting and useful training they ever had received.

CATE instructional technology trainer Michael L. Horning, Jr., explains that the teachers will participate in one on-site session per day during school hours for 75 minutes. Follow-up sessions will provide more in-depth and enhanced study.

"They will receive hands-on instruction in the use of four Web-based, educational computer applications that will vary according to the grade they teach," Horning says. "The training will help them gain experience in the use of tools, strategies and models that will allow them to integrate technology into both classroom instruction and everyday work experiences."

An integral part of the training involves "NYLearns" http://www.nylearns.org, a standards-based educational Web site developed and maintained by CATE.

The teachers also will receive instruction in the use of three other Web sites designated as district priorities: "Lotus Notes," "Harcourt" and "KnowZone." Related parent training/information sessions will permit parents to follow and be active in their child's technology education.

The Push-In Technology Training Program, which complies with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, is successful, say CATE administrators, in part because of the intimate learning environment provoked by having one CATE trainer per five teachers in each session.

By the end of the 2003-04 school year, more than 3,500 Buffalo Public School teachers each will have received 2.5 hours of training through the program.

"Class by class, teacher by teacher, CATE is having a great impact on teaching and learning in our urban community," says Donald Jacobs, CATE director and associate dean in the Graduate School of Education. "As CATE works with other districts locally and across New York State, this type of professional-development program has the potential for becoming a new model for improving teaching and learning in the 21st century."

For additional information, visit http://cate.buffalo.edu or contact Louise Lalli at 882-6378 or lmlalli@buffalo.edu.