Goshen, IN (PRWEB) June 04, 2015
Haiku Learning, a K-12 learning platform, is proud to announce its sponsorship of a new award for students in the Educational Technology Graduate Program at California State University, Fullerton. The Haiku Learning: Innovation in Educational Technology Award recognizes a graduating student who creates an online professional development (PD) module that reflects innovative uses of technology in meaningful and effective ways. This capstone project is built in Haiku Learning’s platform, which is used in all of the program’s courses.
“The PD project helps these teachers become leaders and change agents,” said Dr. Tim Green, a professor of Educational Technology and Teacher Education in the program. “They have a better understanding of the effort it takes to design, develop, and implement effective and efficient professional development that meets the needs of their colleagues.”
Effective professional development has been one of the biggest challenges facing educators over the last few years between the race to implement Common Core and the proliferation of educational technology software into the market. A recent Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation study, Teachers Know Best: Teacher Views on Professional Development, found that “large majorities” of teachers feel that PD falls short in preparing them for all of these changes, and only 29% of teachers are highly satisfied with current PD offerings.
"We work closely with educators, so we’re very aware of the need for effective PD,” said Bryan Falcón, CEO of Haiku Learning. “So when we learned about all the great work being done by teachers using our platform in CSUF's program, we knew we had to find a way to reward it and shine a spotlight on it.”
All of the courses in CSUF’s Educational Technology graduate program revolve around modeling best practices of educational technology software, including pedagogy, assessment, and the use of effective tools.
“We want to use tools that are really intended for K-12. Haiku Learning is one of those tools,” said Green. “We feel it’s important that teachers see a learning platform used effectively--and experience it as a student, not just an instructor. Plus, the design of the product makes it one of the easiest LMSs to use, and use quickly."
The design of Haiku Learning’s platform is distinguished by its unique system of pages and content blocks, which teachers can move around and create contextualized learning paths. “We designed Haiku Learning to give educators the utmost flexibility in shaping learning experiences,” said Falcón. “This award recognizes the potential when you give an educator flexible tools and get out of their way.”
This inaugural winner of this award is Monica Davis who created a professional development on the effective use of Haiku Learning for teachers at her school. In addition to this professional development, Ms. Davis has created other professional development using Haiku Learning that focuses on the effective integration of technology in the curriculum.
“The award gives them something to strive for as they go through their program,” said Green about the award. “It lets them know that not only do we care about what they are learning and the leaders they are becoming, but so does a company who is in the business of providing technology tools for K-12 teachers and students."
Haiku Learning, http://www.haikulearning.com/
Founded in 2006, Haiku Learning is a cloud-based learning platform designed for K-12 schools. Powering digital learning for more than 2 million students across the globe, Haiku Learning’s platform is known for its simple interface, flexible tools, and powerful integrations with other leading cloud services, such as Google Apps for Education. In 2014, Haiku won the Stevie Award for Customer Service and was named as one of the 2014 Indiana Companies to Watch by the Indiana Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (OSBE), its Indiana Small Business Development Center, and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC).
CSU-Fullerton http://bit.ly/csufedt
The Educational Technology Master’s Program at CSUF is an online program offered through the College of Education at California State University, Fullerton. The program has been recognized by the US News & World Report as one of the top online graduate programs in educational/instructional technology. The program is in the top 20 of the learning, design, and technology master’s programs for number of annual graduates. The program is aligned to the ISTE Coach Standards, and prepares educators to be educational technology advocates and leaders. In addition to becoming effective technology integrators in the classroom, graduates of the program have gone on to be school technology leads, district technology coaches, a director of online distance education programs at a national not-for-profit, and a county department of education assistant superintendent.