Alabama State Initiatives and Programs

This week our assignment is to do research on some of my state's initiatives and programs. I will review the Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX) and Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide (ACCESS).

According to the website, "ALEX, a project of the Alabama Department of Education, is designed to index and share many types of educational materials and information through a time-saving, one-stop resource for educators, parents, and students. The majority of these rich resources (lesson plans, Web links, and interactive activities) are located and connected to the Alabama Courses of Study by National Board Certified Teachers. By sharing the wealth of expertise and knowledge now available through ALEX, Alabama‘s best educators, and the youth of Alabama are poised to benefit from the best of the Web!ALEX is a work in progress. It will continually improve and expand based upon your input. Communicate with other professionals through Listservs, find lesson plans and interactive resources connected to Course of Study standards, benefit from best practices in Professional Learning, and follow links to bring quality learning to your students - Alabama‘s finest!" You can view the homepage Here.

This program will help me out a lot as a teacher because I will always have a constant supply of material. I will also be able to compare and contrast lesson plans and other material with the other teachers in Alabama.This also a good site for students to find information. It sort of reminds me of a Wikipedia for teachers in a sense.

According to the web page,"The ACCESS Distance Learning plan provides Alabama students with access to quality instruction and coursework by blending:

• Rigorous Web-based and Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) courses taught by Alabama certified and highly qualified teachers

• A technical infrastructure to deliver approved Web-based courses and connect IVC labs via a statewide network

• Three regional support centers to hire, train, evaluate, and support e-teachers

• Statewide coordination, scheduling, and support for distance learning."

ACCESS is available to all Alabama public high school students. It is a great way for students to become tech literate. This is exactly what we need here in Alabama. This program has all the ingredients for success.Check it out Here for yourself.