ALEX also known as the Alabama Learning Exchange is an extremely informative website for teachers, administrators, students and parents. Until this assignment, I was unaware that there was an initiative to incorporate technology into the classroom in Alabama. This website, allows for educators around the state to collaborate and share lesson plans, thoughts and initiatives within their classroom that are successful. I found numerous lesson plans, a tremendous number of links and the blog page to be very useful. There is even a personal work page in which you can customize and share your thoughts and ideas. It is a very well-organized website that will introduce you to advancements being made within the state to enhance the education process through the use of technology.
Within the website, it includes information for teaching ages k-12. It includes specific subjects and within those subjects, you can find related lesson plans and links to useful web sites. It will also give you information in regard to the standards that are required on each subject and each level. It appears to be a well developed website that would be useful to all teachers. It does appear also that it needs more contributors in each subject. Maybe it hasn't been promoted within the schools but i am sure as time goes on, it will continue to develop and progress to be an even better tool for teachers within the state of Alabama.
In addition to the course help, it has many links for professional development through Alexville. Although I could not access these sites, since they require registration and passwords, I think that these would be useful in our professional development as a teacher. The field of education is developing and changing at record pace and any information that would be available to help with your personal development and advancement is always a plus.
I found the Access Distance Learning Website to be equally impressive if not more so. In fact, even though this has been in existence since 2004, I had not heard of it before. Again, this could be because I am not yet an educator, and have just now returned to school to study this field but I would think that more promotion of these programs is in order. This is a tremendous program that has been recognized nationally for the strides it is making in the areas of improvements in test scores and graduation rates. I had no idea these initiatives had been established and think they are most definitely a move in the right direction for Alabama. The variety of classes is all inclusive on the high school level and according to their goals for the next 5 years, they hope to expand to the middle school level as well.
I think this is a great resource for students that are independent learners and are self motivated. It allows for a personalized plan in which they advance at their own pace and chose the enhanced courses that interest them. In today's technological world, I think this is a great option for our high school students. It allows them to have access to many subjects that they may not otherwise be exposed to within the walls of their school. It can only help to prepare the students for the ever changing world in which they are a part of!
I think that both sites should be a part of any teacher's PLN. Both allow access to knowledge that can be used within the classroom. Both are a great resource for subject specific data and professional development. I know I will refer to both as I further my education in hopes of becoming an educator in Mobile's school system.
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