The Teachcape XL delivers content to professional-learning communities—
from video-based case studies, to instruction by experts, to learning resources, to discussion boards, to interactive learning exercises. Teachers log on individually or in small groups to work on these exercises. After that, they receive a visit from an administrator or team supervisor, who collects data on their instruction and with whom
they can discuss their progress. Users can select content from more than 10,000 resources.
PROS: The training part of the product shows real teachers using the product in their own classrooms, so the instruction that teachers get is peer instruction. This has proven to be one of the best ways to learn. The instruction decisions are data-driven and collected on small handheld devices, so interruption of the learning process is kept to a minimum. Teachers can access the instruction when they have time, since it is online.
CONS: None.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: This program solves one of the major problems of professional development:
getting experts in front of the classroom teachers. By using the technology in Teachscape XL, classroom
teachers can view successful examples of what is being discussed. Using message boards and other
technology, they can discuss in real time the problems they may run into with peers and experts.
-- Joe Huber
Last review: DreamBox Learning K-2 Math
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