Archives: Events

LEARN NC is making some major changes to its website this month! We’ve been working on the new layout and design for several months, and the new site will go live Friday, June 20.

Why are we making the changes?

We’ve been developing a great deal of content lately that simply didn’t fit well into the current site. It’s hard to find, and as a result, teachers aren’t easily able to use it.

How did we decide what changes to make?

A combination of usability tests, website usage data, user feedback, and informal conversations with teachers told us what teachers use and don’t use and what they like and don’t like.

What new features will be added?

The search tool will be streamlined and easier to use, and the navigation has been simplified. We’ve also tried to make our original published content for teachers and students — lesson plans, student activities, best practices, multimedia, even help — more easily accessible and usable. We’re also providing a full catalog of our online courses. Finally, the new site will be easier for us to maintain — which means we can spend more time developing and publishing new resources for North Carolina’s classrooms.

Are any features going away?

“LEARN NC for Students” will no longer exist in its present form. We found that this part of the site didn’t get nearly as much use as other parts, and we want to focus our energies on serving our core audience — teachers. The “Hot Topics” pages for each grade level will still be available, though, and a single section of the new website will house “Learning Materials,” resources you can use with students or that students can use on their own.

Bobby Hobgood, LEARN NC’s Director of Research and Development in Online Curriculum and Instruction, and Regina Higgins, Assistant Director for Curriculum at World View, will lead a workshop series called “Technology Tools for Global Education.”

Recognizing the need to support teachers as they prepare students with 21st Century Learning Skills, these two day-long workshops focus on the integration of global education into any classroom. The workshops are designed in a linear fashion to take the participant from the “tourist classroom” to creating a global classroom using technology. Participants who already possess rudimentary knowledge of global education may elect to attend only the second day.

The workshops will take place Saturday, April 5 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and Saturday, May 3 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Carolina Center for Educational Excellence. For more information or to register, go to the Carolina Center for Educational Excellence website.

The twelfth Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Conference takes place in Greensboro, March 31–April 1. LEARN NC staff will give several presentations that promise to be both enjoyable and relevant. We hope you’ll join us!

• “Prepare the Citizens of Tomorrow with Relevant, Real-World Instruction: Free Lessons and Tools from LEARN NC” with Melissa Thibault
• “Globalizing the Classroom: Simple Strategies for Making Real-World/My-World Connections” with Bobby Hobgood
• “How to Boost Students’ Information Literacy” with Bill Ferris
• “Virtual Mentoring” with Ross White and Bill Ferris
• “A Many-Storied Past: LEARN NC’s Digital Textbook for North Carolina History” with David Walbert
• “Data Use in the Classroom: High-Tech to Low-Tech Tools for Assessing Student Learning” with Keri Church

It’s nearly spring, and that means a number of conferences are just around the corner! We have several exciting presentations planned, and we’d love to see you at the NCaect 2008 conference in Concord or the North Carolina Middle School Association conference in Greensboro.

We’ll be giving the following presentations at the NCaect Conference in Concord (March 13-14):

• “Connecting Curriculum, Culture, and Technology through Culturally Responsive Teaching” with Bobby Hobgood and Lesley Richardson
• “The North Carolina History Digital Textbook Project” with David Walbert and Emily Jack
• “Using Digital Libraries to Support Curricula: A case study of the collaboration between DigtialForsyth and LEARN NC” with Melissa Thibault and Erik Mitchell
• “How to Boost Students’ Information Literacy” with Bill Ferris

Join us for these presentations at the North Carolina Middle School Association conference in Greensboro, March 17-18:

• “Turbocharge Your Teaching with Free Technology” with Bill Ferris
• “Top Ten Sites for Your Classroom: Tips and tricks for finding the Internet content you need with LEARN NC” with Dan Kelo and Melissa Thibault
• “The North Carolina History Digital Textbook Project” with David Walbert and Emily Jack

We hope to see you there! (And stay tuned for other upcoming conference presentations.)

How does technology enhance the teaching and learning of a foreign language? For the past 10 years, LEARN NC has offered pre-conference workshops and packed sessions at the annual FLANC conference. This year, the following sessions will be offered:

Read-Write Web: creating online content with LEARN NC (Pre-conference workshop)
Thursday, October 4, 2007: 1:00 - 4:30
Melissa Thibault and Bobby Hobgood, Ed.D.

You use the internet to find information, but the growing Read-Write Web allows much more. Learn about free web-based tools to create, interact and reorganize content to improve your teaching and engage your students! Participants will have hands-on opportunities to use these tools and leave with creative lessons they can begin tomorrow.

Globalizing the Foreign Language Classroom: A SEARCH strategy for harnessing the power of the Web
Friday, October 5th, 2007: 9:00 - 10:00
Bobby Hobgood, Ed.D.

How can we best leverage Internet connectivity to the outside world? What does it mean to prepare students for success in a global society? Not just an awareness session of available Internet resources, this session demonstrates how teachers can develop a global vision for preparing their students for their future.

Top Ten Online Activities for Your Classroom: Tips and Tricks for Finding Student Activities from LEARN NC
Friday, October 5, 2007: 10:15-11:15
Melissa Thibault
Kids love online activities! Multimedia content is interactive and engaging, but you need specific skills to find just the right activity – one that accomplishes your learning objective and is appropriate for your students. Learn to individualize and reach every student with great free activities that provide enrichment opportunities, help with remediation, and make your student’s time online worthwhile!

If you’ll be at the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference next week, don’t miss our session called “Making Math Connections with LEARN NC.” For those of you looking for lesson plans, best practices, and innovative materials to boost your math curriculum, this is the session for you. We’ll be featuring some of our latest math resources and demonstrating how to make the best use of our rich website to find even more materials that will meet your individual needs.

Also, check out our other session at 10:30 on Thursday, “Improving Comprehension in the Math Classroom: Simple Strategies from No-tech to High-tech.” This session offers no-tech to high-tech strategies that will not only increase student understanding but also teacher awareness of student comprehension at the conception level.