Author: Karen Lepore Role: State admin/coordinator Location: Providence, RI Date: 10-16-02 The most effective professional development I have engaged, in, both as a particiant and then as a presenter, was through the Rhode Island Teachers in Technology Initiative (RITTI). The philospophy of this program is "teachers helping teachers". Teachers engage in two weeks of training conducted by other teachers for 6 hours per day on using the computer as a tool in their work with students. Time is spent on the basic computer programs (word processing, Power Point, Excel, web page design, Internet searching, etc.); however, the focus is on creating products to use in their work with students. This hands-on training gives teachers the knowledge and practice to create products that they can use with their students immediately. They can then continue with this work after the training is over to embed computers as classroom tools.

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