THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234

 

TO:

Cultural Education Committee

FROM:

Carole Huxley

SUBJECT:

OCE Resources & the NYSED Virtual Learning System

DATE:

February 21, 2006

 

STRATEGIC GOAL:

Goal 4

AUTHORIZATION(S):

 

 

SUMMARY

 

Issue for Discussion

 

What plans exist for incorporating OCE resources in the NYSED Virtual Learning System?

 

Reason(s) for Consideration - For Discussion

 

The NYSED Virtual Learning System (VLS) is designed to encourage use of the Internet as a tool for teaching and learning and to assist classroom teachers in locating Internet resources for instruction.  VLS offers the full text of New York State's learning standards with their key ideas and performance indicators, as well as alternate performance indicators for students with severe disabilities.  It provides resources that classroom teachers can use to support pre-K to12 standards-based instruction, such as sample tasks, learning experiences and lesson plans.

 

As was demonstrated at the Committee’s Trusteeship meeting in February, the State Archives, Library and Museum have invested in Internet-based strategies for increasing access to our collections, including resources specifically designed for classroom use.  Public Broadcasting’s web resources for teachers are varied, extensive and widely used.

 

VLS represents an opportunity to bring OCE’s resources into the pre-K to 12 curricular mainstream.

 

Proposed Handling

 

The Committee will discuss the status of OCE’s involvement with VLS (summarized below) as well as plans for the future.  The Committee will then determine what more information they may need, what additional questions should be posed regarding the issue and whether they support OCE’s efforts with regard to VLS.

 

Summary of OCE Involvement with VLS:  OCE representatives have served on the VLS Steering Committee since its inception.  Currently, the VLS home page[1] contains links to educational resources from OCE via a document entitled “Cultural Resources”.[2] This document is an all inclusive portal to the resources of OCE.  VLS is designed to lead a teacher through the Learning Standards and to link resources to the specific Performance Indicator.  Therefore, it will be most beneficial to all concerned if OCE’s resources can also be fully integrated with VLS at every appropriate level of the Standards.

 

A draft plan for providing OCE resources to the NYSED Virtual Learning System is attached.

 

Procedural History

 

This is the Committee’s first opportunity to discuss the issue.

 

Recommendation

 

Recommended that the Committee support the effort to link OCE resources to VLS and review progress on an annual basis.

 

Timetable for Implementation

 

Ongoing

 

 

Attachment


DRAFT Plan for Providing OCE Resources to the NYSED Virtual Learning System

 

 

 

Activity

Human Resources

Details

Determine curriculum areas where OCE content would be most needed and useful

OCE staff

EMSC Curriculum & Instruction associates

·       Review what’s in VLS and what’s needed

·       Review OCE assets

·       Determine, based on curriculum and standards as well as relative difficulty, where to begin

Identify high-impact content for classroom use

OCE staff

NYS teachers

·       Review the materials already created for the classroom

·       Identify new content themes suggested by collections

Align identified content to Learning Standards at the appropriate level

NYS teachers

·       Identify activities and lesson plans

·       Determine standards alignment

Align items in the OCE Digital Collection to core curriculum and learning standards

NYS teachers

OCE IT staff

·       Align each item to the appropriate standard(s)

·       Add functionality to OCE Digital Collection website to incorporate standards alignment and teacher tools (similar to Archives’ Throughout the Ages site)

Align NYS PTV and PBS TeacherSource resources to NYS standards

Station Education Directors

NYS teachers

 

·       Choose the most promising materials

·       Negotiate rights (if necessary) with PBS or producers

·       Determine standards alignment

Teacher Professional Development

Station staff

OCE staff

BOCES

Higher Ed (if TeacherLine course is created)

·       Develop workshop curriculum to train teachers on using OCE resources

·       Post workshop materials on websites

·       Post resource integration “tips and tricks” on OCE websites and VLS

·       Consider creating a PBS TeacherLine NY course on use of cultural materials in the classroom (similar to the Archives’ “Consider the Source”)

 



[1]http://eservices.nysed.gov/vls/welcome.do

[2]ahttp://eservices.nysed.gov/vls/uploads/culturalResources.htm