The Office of Instructional Technology offers several cohort programs in instructional and/or educational technology for Baltimore County Public School teachers and administrators. These programs have been created to provide teachers and administrators with the skills that are needed to effectively combine 21st Century learning and the use of technology in both teaching and learning. The cohort programs are designed to use the Maryland Technology Literacy Standards for Students, Teachers, and Administrators and the BCPS curriculum as the basis coursework and there is an emphasis on pedagogy as it relates to the use of technology in classroom instruction. It is the goal of these cohort programs to provide high quality professional development to BCPS staff who would like to become school, district, and statewide leaders in the use of instructional technology in education.

Cohort programs for the 2010 – 2011 school year will be forming in the late spring of 2010. Information meetings for these programs will be announced in the Superintendent’s Bulletin and through distribution of information to technology liaisons and technology integration teachers.

In past years, cohort programs have been offered as follows:

A Master of Science in Education Technology for Educators program which was designed for individual teachers who have an interest in educational technology and would like to participate in a cohort program over a three-year period to complete their degree. Teachers must have two years of teaching experience to apply for this cohort program.

A Graduate Certificate Program in School Leadership in Technology Integration which is a five course program to build capacity at the school level for technology leadership. School teams of three to four teachers and the school’s principal were eligible to apply for this program.

These programs are only examples of cohort programs previously provided to teachers and administrators and all cohort programs must first be approved by the BCPS Board of Education before they can be offered to teachers and administrators.

Cohort programs offer flexible class schedules arranged to meet in the evenings and/or on Saturday. Most face-to-face courses are held in BCPS schools and most have both online and face-to-face components and all only accept BCPS teachers and/or administrators into the cohort. Meeting dates, time, and place are decided by cohort members.

Questions should be directed to Thea Jones: tjones@bcps.org or Nadine Noon: nnoon@bcps.org or at 410.887.8918.