East Carolina University’s College of Education will receive $400,000 to continue an innovative technology initiative designed to address the issues of retention and renewal of teachers in rural communities.
The REVITALISE program (Rural Educators using Visualization to Inspire Teacher Advancement and Learning to Improve Science and Mathematics Education) is a joint effort between ECU and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois to help teachers integrate cutting-edge technologies into the curriculum and expand the scope of science and mathematics education in small-town middle and high schools.
Launched in 2002, the initial four-year, $1.4 million program was funded partly by the National Science Foundation, Microsoft Corporation and Advanced Visual Systems.
The program leverages advanced videoconferencing and communications capabilities so that educators in the two states are able to communicate with each other to form virtual learning communities and establish support systems to enhance teacher and student learning. The technology features enable group-to-group interactions with multimedia capabilities within an interactive environment over a high-speed network.
To date, 50 educators have participated in the program for the professional development and support. Many of these former participants, like Angela Becton of Kinston, will return as mentors for the next group.
“As an adult learner, REVITALISE has helped me create relationships with professionals and colleagues that I would not have otherwise, which helps reduce the isolation that can sometimes drive teachers from education,” said Becton, a teacher instructional support specialist with Johnston County Schools.
According to Robin Rider, ECU science and mathematics education professor and project director, REVITALISE is a win-win situation for the students, teachers and their communities. “Communities with teachers involved in this project benefit from expanded knowledge of visualization techniques which the teachers take back to classrooms to enable them to educate students for careers in the 21st century,” Rider said.
There is no cost to teachers, schools or school districts for participating. At completion, teachers receive software to take back to their classroom and a stipend.
“This second cohort of participants represents an even larger contingent of technologically competent teachers in math and science who will make a difference in the learning of their students in the eastern part of the State,” said Marilyn Sheerer, Dean of ECU’s college of education and principal investigator.
This year’s program will kick off with a four-day workshop beginning February 24 involving 54 educators from Camden, Onslow, Chowan, Wayne, Nash-Rocky Mount, Bertie, Pitt and Wilson counties in North Carolina and the following Illinois school districts: Dakota, Dwight, Rankin, Gillespie, Roxana, Somonauk, Unity Point, Lake City, Wayne City, and Pikeland.