Changes Mark Beginning of School Year by Jeff Good, Director of Education ()

It was Alvin Toffler who said, “Change is not merely necessary to life — it is life,” and this new school year promises to be a lively one here at Western Reserve Public Media. Following are highlights of what is in store for the upcoming school year.

Western Reserve Public Media: If you haven’t heard the news yet, Western Reserve Public Media will change
its name to Western Reserve Public Media on Oct. 1. The new identity, which includes the logo you see here, better reflects our regional coverage and expanded broadcast services.

TechKnowledgy Newsletter and TechKnowledgy Online: You will notice that this edition of Western Reserve Public Media’s TechKnowledgy Newsletter has been expanded to six pages. The additional fold-out page includes a handy four-month calendar of professional development opportunities on one side and session descriptions on the other.

To minimize costs and maximize “green” measures, the printed version of the TechKnowledgy Newsletter will come out bimonthly but will be supplemented during the off months with an e-mail version. If you are currently receiving the e-mail newsletter, you will automatically receive TechKnowledgy Online. If you would like to be added to the e-mail list, send an e-mail with “subscribe” as the subject to .

Multimedia content packages: For information on two new educational multimedia packages, see page 6. Change My Mind helps students in grades 8-10 understand persuasive writing. Quiz Bus: Dealing With Data is geared to grades 5-8 and offers instructional materials about mathematics, data analysis and probability.

Professional development and our collaborative communities: For the first time, all of our professional development sessions will feature collaborative communities through wiki spaces. These online communities enable those who attend our sessions to compare notes and ask questions of the session facilitator. In addition, the wiki sites offer an opportunity for attendees to post best-practice materials and other materials related to educational technology integration.

This year also marks the second year for our online registration service. You can see all of our professional development offerings and register to attend them at www.WesternReservePublicMedia.myworkshops.com.

With all these changes, I welcome you back for another exciting school year! We look forward to being of service to you.