Dr. Rita Oates's Groups
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4teachers
30 members
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The Road to Becoming a...
8 members
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Kevin's Plurk Friends
100 members
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BrainPOP
53 members
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Plan '09 Birds of a Fe...
49 members
Dr. Rita Oates: attended first NECC!
Profile Information
- Home Town:
- Lawrence, KS
- School or Organization:
- ePals Inc.
- Website or Blog:
- http://www.epals.com
- About Me:
- I lived in Costa Rica as a child and attended public school (in Spanish), so living now in Miami, the "capital of Latin America," is fun. Hablo un poquito de español.
My dad set up the English as a Second Language teacher training program at the University of Costa Rica in the 1960s.
In the early 1990s, the state of Florida gave me $5 million to help a company develop a technology-infused product for English language learners, and Jostens created the award-winning Steps to English Language Development under our direction from Miami-Dade County Public Schools with help from other Florida districts.
I'm the ISTE rep from the Florida affiliate, FACE. I encourage all Floridians to join!
I've been a computer user since high school...I was one of a dozen students allowed to use the one computer in the high school in Lawrence, KS! I confess that I attended the first NECC in 1979 in Iowa City, and the third in 1981 in Kansas City...and many since then. Along the way I earned two degrees at the University of Kansas, and two graduate degrees from Indiana University. My PhD majors were educational applications of print, video and computer-based communication and media and public policy.
Technology has been part of my life as an educator, from leading the Miami-Dade County Public Schools ed tech office, to consulting in many districts and companies, to writing 10 books and more than 100 articles, and leading a university department of Educational Technology and Computing.
For the past 2 years, I've been VP of Education Markets at ePals Inc. This job is a fabulous blend of my experiences in developing online curriculum (for the first online service in the US with color and graphics, VIEWTRON, in the mid-1980s), working with teachers in many districts, PhD studies at Indiana U, and consulting with great organizations such as BBN, Microsoft, Heller Reports, the US Postal Service, Scholastic, CELT Corp., and many others.
I love to hear about what teachers and districts are doing at the cutting edge these days, or the visions they would like to make real.
ePals is a great company that provides a powerful, safe and protected social learning network for K12 students and teachers. SchoolMail, SchoolBlog, and the superlative In2Books (for grade 3-5 students) are wonderful things to share with schools, especially because they are free! The ePal global community has 600,000 classrooms in 200 countries and territories.
Read my blog posted June 16, 2009, on the Dell education website, about virtual PD:
http://en.community.dell.com/groups/edu4u/blog/archive/2009/06/16/authored-by-rita-oates-virtual-worlds-open-new-possibilities-for-professional-development.aspx
Read my article, "How to Learn in the 21st Century," from Educational Leadership, Sept. 2009: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/How_to_Learn_in_the_21st_Century.aspx
I've been a computer user since high school...I was one of a dozen students allowed to use the one computer in the high school in Lawrence, KS! I confess that I attended the first NECC in 1979 in Iowa City, and the third in 1981 in Kansas City...and many since then. Along the way I earned two degrees at the University of Kansas, and two graduate degrees from Indiana University. My PhD majors were educational applications of print, video and computer-based communication and media and public policy.
Technology has been part of my life as an educator, from leading the Miami-Dade County Public Schools ed tech office, to consulting in many districts and companies, to writing 10 books and more than 100 articles, and leading a university department of Educational Technology and Computing.
For the past 2 years, I've been VP of Education Markets at ePals Inc. This job is a fabulous blend of my experiences in developing online curriculum (for the first online service in the US with color and graphics, VIEWTRON, in the mid-1980s), working with teachers in many districts, PhD studies at Indiana U, and consulting with great organizations such as BBN, Microsoft, Heller Reports, the US Postal Service, Scholastic, CELT Corp., and many others.
I love to hear about what teachers and districts are doing at the cutting edge these days, or the visions they would like to make real.
ePals is a great company that provides a powerful, safe and protected social learning network for K12 students and teachers. SchoolMail, SchoolBlog, and the superlative In2Books (for grade 3-5 students) are wonderful things to share with schools, especially because they are free! The ePal global community has 600,000 classrooms in 200 countries and territories.
Read my blog posted June 16, 2009, on the Dell education website, about virtual PD:
http://en.community.dell.com/groups/edu4u/blog/archive/2009/06/16/authored-by-rita-oates-virtual-worlds-open-new-possibilities-for-professional-development.aspx
Read my article, "How to Learn in the 21st Century," from Educational Leadership, Sept. 2009: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/How_to_Learn_in_the_21st_Century.aspx
Dr. Rita Oates's Blog
International Baccalaureate Chooses ePals to Create Innovative Online Learning Community
Hosted community to foster safe, authentic learning and interactions while strengthening worldwide learning community
HERNDON, VA. (June. 25, 2009) – The International Baccalaureate (IB) has selected ePals, Inc., to implement and manage a customized hosted learning community for IB students, educators, alumni, and other stakeholders. The innovati… Continue
HERNDON, VA. (June. 25, 2009) – The International Baccalaureate (IB) has selected ePals, Inc., to implement and manage a customized hosted learning community for IB students, educators, alumni, and other stakeholders. The innovati… Continue
Posted on June 26, 2009 at 6:30am —
Students Without Borders: Online Communication Facilitates Global Collaboration
The Washington Post has a terrific article today about students and global collaboration.
Students Without Borders
Online Communication Facilitates Global Collaboration at Area Schools
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/23/AR2009062303440.html
A team of very smart teenagers has set out to discover ways that maggots might make the world a better place. Two ar… Continue
Students Without Borders
Online Communication Facilitates Global Collaboration at Area Schools
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/23/AR2009062303440.html
A team of very smart teenagers has set out to discover ways that maggots might make the world a better place. Two ar… Continue
Posted on June 24, 2009 at 2:58pm —
© 2009 Created by Jennifer Ragan-Fore
Comment Wall (89 comments)
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Is it ok If I send the information about your webinar on School Mail out to the WEMTA Listserv? Friday is a convention day for Wisconsin, so there may be a lot of people interested in your session.
Kathy
Thank you for your friend request. Nice to meet you. Unfortunately, I have not met Carol Marinas from Barry University. I have been very busy with my course loads at St. Thomas University. However, I hope one day to meet her. Where are you teaching now?
Thanks for the info on FACE. I will foward to my graduate students!
Marti
Thanks, Fran
Fran
Marti
Thank you for the info on epals. Unfortunately I will be at edubloggercon that day (associated with BLC). I work with a teacher who used epals this past year so will let him know of this workshop. Thanks, Beth
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