A unit of study where teachers will help learners complete a tutorial, brainstorm a list of possible project ideas for a PBL project that includes gathering, processing and presenting information.
The purpose of this practical is to provide participants with clear directions so that they can design such a project.

This report provides state leaders and test developers with initial considerations for improving the accessibility of state-mandated assessments for students with disabilities, specifically those who use assistive technology and accessible educational materials in daily instruction. These findings can be used by states to inform the development of policies and guidelines, and by test developers to inform the design of assessment systems and platforms. Most desirable is that the findings will help initiate improved collaboration between and among states, districts, and test developers.

A unit of study whose competency is understanding two methodologies of teaching, Constructivism and Didacticism. Investigate how ICT supports these methodologies. The objectives are for learners to use multiple methods in their teaching and understand how ICT can be employed to support each methodology.

First unit from the ICT in Education Teacher's Course on Internet Search: Teachers should be able to describe the Internet and the World Wide Web, elaborate on their uses, describe how a browser works and use a URL to access a website. (TL.4.e)

This is a unit of study whose competency is developing an understanding of Boolean logic and the way in which it can be used to refine searching skills and techniques. The objective is to build on the basic knowledge about the Internet and searching.

In this lesson students will explore some of the doubts and misgivings that arose as the Continental Congress debated whether or not to add a bill of rights to the Constitution. They will investigate a letter James Madison wrote to Thomas Jefferson on October 17, 1788, in which Madison discusses the pros and cons of a bill of rights. It is part of a series of letters these men exchanged on the topic. Jefferson, who was in Paris at the time, strongly supported inserting a list of fundamental liberties into the Constitution, and he asked Madison to keep him abreast of the debate. In this letter Madison not only updates Jefferson on the bill’s progress but also explains his thoughts about a bill of rights and its role in the American Constitution.

We have excerpted three passages from Madison’s letter, each accompanied by a series of close reading analytical questions for students to answer. The first excerpt explains the context of the debate, including reasons why a bill of rights might not be necessary. The second explores Madison’s reasons for supporting a bill of rights, and the third discusses how he believed such a list of rights, if written, should be structured. We have provided a short summary at the beginning of each excerpt. Spellings are retained from the original document.

You will find two interactive exercises in this lesson. The first allows students to review vocabulary found throughout the text. The second, recommended for use after you have conducted the close reading, reviews the central points of the textual analysis. You may want to use its first slide to direct whole class discussion in which you ask students to support their answers with evidence from the text. The second slide provides the correct responses with textual support.

It is important to remember that here the term “majority” refers to large groups of powerful politicians and legislators, not to a mass of voters. Moreover, Madison did not conceive of “minorities” as we do today — groups like women, African-Americans, Latinos, or other social or ethnic groups. Rather, when he uses the word, and when we use it in this lesson, it simply refers to a political group whose numbers are less than the majority.

This lesson consists of two parts, both accessible below. The teacher’s guide includes a background note, the text analysis with responses to the close reading questions, access to the interactive exercises, and an optional follow-up assignment. The student’s version, an interactive worksheet that can be e-mailed, contains all of the above except the responses to the close reading questions and the follow-up assignment.

In this lesson students will analyze a private letter that President Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) sent to Robert Livingston (1746–1813), his minister plenipotentiary (ambassador) to France, regarding the negotiations for what would become the Louisiana Purchase. Livingston and James Monroe (1758–1831, 6th president of the US) negotiated the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. It is important to note that at the time this letter was written — April 18, 1802 — the area had not yet been offered for sale.

In this letter Jefferson, unaware of the possibility of outright purchase, focuses upon retaining commercial access to the Mississippi River and rights of deposit (economic access) in New Orleans. He also comments upon the danger of an aggressive France locating outposts just across the Mississippi River from the United States. While some historians characterize Jefferson as a Francophile, in this letter Jefferson sees France as a potential enemy to the United States.

This lesson allows students to contextualize what will become the Louisiana Purchase prior to its acquisition by viewing the Purchase through a lens of national economic and military defense rather than an act of territorial expansion. As Jefferson considers the possibility of an aggressive France led by Napoleon Bonaparte on America’s doorstep, he states, “…perhaps nothing since the revolutionary war has produced more uneasy sensations through the body of the nation.” Original spellings and punctuation are retained.

This lesson is divided into two parts, both accessible below. The text is accompanied by close reading questions, student interactives, and an optional follow-up assignment. The teacher’s guide includes a background note, the text analysis with responses to the close reading questions, access to the interactive exercises, and the follow-up assignment. The student’s version, an interactive PDF, contains all of the above except the responses to the close reading questions and the follow-up assignment.

This page from the National Hurricane Center hosts a variety of still graphics that can be looped into animations of the storm's progress. Images include 3- and 5-day Watches and Warnings, Wind Swaths and Strike Probabilities.

A unit of study that builds upon the work covered in the Technology Literacy Course participants. Participants will access and share learning opportunities that support their own personal learning goals.

A unit of study for teachers to understand the concept of Personal Learning Network (PLN) and the various sources and experts that are available to them online to help them further their professional learning.

A unit of study to introduce participants to the concept of using search engines, online databases and email to find people and resources for collaborative projects

This module provides an overview of disaster epidemiology including the potential public health impacts of disasters, difference between direct and indirect effects of a disaster, and the role of a disaster epidemiologist

Self-paced module on the selection, use and creation of videos with high-quality captions that support access and learning for everyone.

The Middle Ages are in the news a lot these days—from the invocation of the “Crusades” after 9/11 to the “medieval” plight of women in some areas of the modern Middle East to alt-right protestors dressing as chivalric knights and Vikings and using medieval symbols during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. How do we teach students to understand and navigate a historical period that justifies ideas as varied as the Disney princess and terroristic violence? In this webinar, medieval studies and history of race expert Cord J. Whitaker leads participants through an exploration of far- and alt-right understandings of feudalism, caste systems, and racial homogeny in medieval Europe. We will also consider the Middle Ages’—and especially the Crusades’—roles in constructing the racial concepts of blackness and whiteness in the modern world. The webinar will include strategies for using students’ everyday experiences to teach these concepts inductively and intellectual strategies for resisting the further cooptation of the Middle Ages for racist objectives.

Legalized slavery has been abolished around the world, yet human trafficking remains a significant problem. Though slavery may not take the exact forms it did in the nineteenth century, approximately 45.8 million persons in 167 countries endure modern forms of slavery. Fellow Laura Murphy, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Modern Slavery Research Project at Loyola University New Orleans, is currently at work on a book about the way survivors of forced labor have mobilized the discourse of slavery in the twenty-first century to reinvigorate their struggles for freedom.

In this podcast, Murphy discusses the generic conventions of the slave narrative and how they complicate our notions of what it means to be free. For instance, in what she terms the “not-yet-freedom narrative,” survivors of slavery find their lives still circumscribed by systemic injustices, even after emancipation. By approaching the topic of slavery through the lens provided by literary analysis, Murphy argues it is possible to discover new insights into the conventions surrounding modern enslavement and more fully understand the experiences of those caught up in them.

My Next Move is an interactive tool for job seekers and students to learn more about their career options. My Next Move has tasks, skills, salary information, and more for over 900 different careers. Users can find careers through keyword search; by browsing industries that employ different types of workers; or through the O*NET Interest Profiler, a tool that offers personalized career suggestions based on a person's interests and level of work experience.

The results of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), with highlights from reading and mathematics scores, as well as links to other subjects and data bases of educational progress.

or some students with disabilities, the text in instructional materials is a barrier to their participation in the general education curriculum. Some students may have visual disabilities that make it difficult for them to see the text. Other students may be unable to hold materials because of a physical disability. Still others may be unable to read or derive meaning from the text because of their disability-related needs. For these reasons, some students with disabilities need instructional materials that are converted into accessible formats in order to learn the same curriculum that is being taught to other students in the class.

In 2004, provisions were added to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to help improve the quality and delivery of accessible formats to students with disabilities who need such materials. Among these provisions, States were required to adopt NIMAS, which stands for the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard. NIMAS is a technical standard used by publishers to prepare “electronic files” that are used to convert instructional materials into accessible formats. The “electronic files” are known as NIMAS source files. The purpose of NIMAS is to help increase the availability and timely delivery of instructional materials in accessible formats for qualifying students in elementary and secondary schools.

NIMAS Q&A
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This Q&A provides states, state educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), and other interested parties with information to facilitate implementation of the NIMAS and coordination with the NIMAC.

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) in the U.S. Department of Education issued a Q&A document in August 2010 to provide states, state educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), and other interested parties with information to facilitate implementation of the NIMAS and coordination with the NIMAC. OSERS has updated this document to reflect changes in the NIMAS resulting from the 2020 Notice of Interpretation (NOI) [3] and the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act (MTIA). [4] This Q&A document supersedes the previous document and will be updated with new questions and answers as important issues arise or to amend existing questions and answers, as needed.

The Marrakesh Treaty has resulted in changes to the disability categories used to determine eligibility for NIMAS-derived materials. Additionally, the term “accessible formats” replaces “specialized formats.”

The terms “eligible person” and “accessible formats” are now used in relation to the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) provisions of IDEA.