December 16, 2008
TeachersFirst Announces Interactive OK2Ask Seminars

TeachersFirst is pleased to announce its newest free offering for teachers, OK2Ask, a series of live, online “snack sessions”  for self-directed teacher professional development and exploration. Beginning in January, 2009, teachers will be able to “attend” live OK2Ask professional development sessions online from their computers anywhere. The only requirement is a high speed Internet connection that can handle the live streamed video from TeachersFirst’s teacher-friendly staff. Participants will be able to see and hear the offerings, and will be able to participate by submitting response and questions via live text chat. Archived sessions will be available for review indefinitely.

The free, one-hour OK2Ask sessions will discuss and share practical ideas and tools for infusing technology into teaching and learning. The session topics and objectives, suggested by TeachersFirst’s international educator advisory board, are aligned to ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards for teachers. Teachers will be encouraged to implement session concepts as self-directed follow-up. Teachers who actively participate in the sessions can request Professional Development Participation certificates to submit to their local accreditation authorities.

TeachersFirst staff, all experienced classroom teachers, will model use of free, web-based tools to conduct the sessions, including the wiki “home base” where teachers will access session information and preregister. Teachers will use online tools for their own learning as they explore additional web resources during the sessions. They will discover new ideas in a supportive, “OK2Ask” environment,  while collaborating with their peers worldwide. Sessions will be offered in two time blocks to accommodate busy teacher after-school hours across the U.S. (and less conventional hours for participants elsewhere).

The first two OK2Ask sessions:

Learn more about OK2ask, including session descriptions and simple preregistration, by visiting our wiki home base at http://teachersfirst.wikispaces.com/ok2ask

It’s free, and it’s OK2Ask.