Centers and Charters
Nortel LearniT Centers Is your school or educational organization looking for a new way to begin, expand and share in the excitement of 21st century learning? We are always on the look-out for energized groups to join our community and become a Nortel LearniT Center. Nortel LearniT Centers help brand your school, institution or organization as leaders in the successful migration to 21st century learning and teaching.
What is a Nortel LearniT Center? Many schools and community groups are building their commitment to the successful integration of technology into their learning environment. This can take many shapes and forms depending on the institution, resources and goals, but almost all involve a dedicated resource and a goal to drive 21st century learning and resources into their school or organization.
The focus of Nortel LearniT Centers is to facilitate, support and fuel this change into targeted schools, facilities and institutions. Nortel LearniT Centers are truly an approach to learning as well as a physical presence.Examples of what a Nortel LearniT Center can produce include: teacher/trainer professional development; student/learner ICT training; equal access to equal content for disadvantaged or under-served schools/learning centers; SOL based lesson plans that integrate technology into core academic subjects; re-tooling existing academic lesson plans to include technology elements and related rubrics; after-school projects that take digital learning to the next level; science centers and museum K-12 technology based programs; customized content development and delivery; access to Nortel LearniT Community to share best practices and collaboration platforms; and much more.
See our outreach efforts come to life in:
What is the commitment required to become a Nortel LearniT Center?An important component of a Nortel LearniT Center is the ability and commitment of an educational center to move beyond simply providing or using technology tools, and to actually apply the skills gained through technology literacy instruction to achieve specific goals. Centers represent organizations that make an investment (not always financial) in building and offering applications that require and make a model use of technology in the teaching and learning process. While a digital production facility is not an absolute necessity to become a Nortel LearniT Center, access to such resources is usually an important component. Read more about the digital studio inventory at the Nortel LearniT Moodle.
How does Nortel LearniT train and support a Center?
- Nortel LearniT Centers operate primarily on a "train-the-trainer" model to ensure that their service population are both competent and confident in their ability to make the approach work. Nortel LearniT Centers enjoy a combination of face-to-face and distance delivery and collaboration support via Nortel's Unified Communication services and other online collaboration tools to both train and mentor trainers in Center locations. Nortel LearniT provides this technical assistance and coaching based on the accessibility of broadband connections and other digital media tools such as digital cameras, video cameras, and software packages. As the digital literacy skills of the user base increase, customized content for that user base/community will begin to increase as well.
- To support Centers in their training, use and creation of new media content, Nortel provides users with accounts and orientation to its Multimedia Communications System (MCS). Nortel LearniTalso has partners who provide additional tools (e.g. digital cameras) and content to Centers that require additional resources. A Nortel LearniT Trainer serves as the point of contact for support and assistance in coordinating training and orientation services for Centers.