ATLANTA — The Southern Regional Education Board will unveil tomorrow a first-of-its-kind Web site for teachers of middle grades and high school online courses.
The Web site, www.srebonlineteachers.org, is a new destination that will help online teachers connect with each other, find best practices, learn about research in the field, draw on classroom resources, and more.
"Online teachers are on the leading edge of education, and this new Web site will help them do a better job for the students they serve," said Bill Thomas, the director of SREB’s Education Technology Cooperative and a nationally known advocate for high-quality online learning.
SREB created the first national standards for K-12 online teaching and online courses. SREB has held workshops for hundreds of state leaders on the benefits of online education and on developing high-quality state virtual schools to help meet students’ needs.
More than 200,000 students now have taken K-12 online courses through state virtual schools. All 16 SREB states, from Texas to Delaware, already have or are creating state virtual schools.
Features of the site include a Web-based community that online teachers can join, and resources related to online classroom instruction, digital learning content (which allows teachers to gather catalogued, high-quality materials that can be used to help with instruction), information about professional development and more.
The site is funded by a $250,000 grant from the AT&T Foundation, which also is helping SREB provide a variety of services to K-12 online teachers, including first-ever regional meetings for those educators.
SREB will host a Web event on online learning in the coming weeks and for the site’s grand opening.
For more information about www.srebonlineteachers.org or online learning in your state, contact SREB Communications. SREB’s many online learning resources can be found by clicking on www.sreb.org and clicking on the button on the left for the SREB Educational Technology Cooperative.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.
