[sent to State Education Editors]
NEA has partnered with the GEM Exchange, Gateway to Educational Materials, and JES & Co to support Gateway to 21st Century Skills, a website that combines state-of the art search technologies and a complete database of state academic standards for core subjects. The Gateway is your link to the resources you need to make learning meaningful and fun for your students.
New tools for cataloging learning resources and correlating them to your state core academic standards are now available through the Gateway. State affiliates can make appointments to view a web based demonstration and training of using the tools to create your own searchable records on the Gateway. To arrange your demonstration, contact brucew@jesandco.org and get your members started down the path to the 21st Century vision of learning resource cataloging and searching. Massachusetts and Kentucky have already requested and received their trainings. Schedule yours today!
NEA and your state affiliate recognize that great public schools are the result of motivated students, involved parents, and well-prepared, innovative educators. The Gateway is a great opportunity for educators to expand their professional repertoire, exchange ideas, and individualize instruction.
Did You Know?
The Gateway to 21st Century Skills provides access to the Achievement Standards Network (ASN). The ASN is a digital representation of each states core academic standards. The ASN was developed by JES & Co., a non profit organization, utilizing funding from the National Science Foundation and other sources. Metadata describing learning resources on the Gateway can use the ASN data to provide alignment information that will allow teachers and others to search for items by standards.
Are Your Members Using the Gateway?
Colorado and Kentucky has joined Pennsylvania, Washington and North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Vermont and Tennessee in creating versions of the Gateway that display the state affiliate logos for their members. Whenever members from those organizations join the Gateway and declare their affiliation and jurisdiction, they will be greeted with a view of the Home page carrying their state affiliate’s branding.
An informal survey of member registration on the Gateway showed that 29% of domestic new registrations for membership were attributable to students preparing for a career in teaching. Since the Gateway’s introduction in July of 2006 over 79,352 future teachers have visited, looking for 21st century learning resources. The survey also showed that local branding by NEA affiliates is directly related to increased registrations for those jurisdictions. It is a simple process to upload your state logos. For more information on how to provide your members with a customized view of the Gateway, log in and go to NEA resources on the Help menu.
Gateway to 21st Century Skills Statistics for September and October 2006
In January 2007, teachers everywhere were utilizing the Gateway to 21st Century Skills at a rapidly increasing rate. Tracking figures showed a significant number of dedicated teachers using the Gateway to find quality learning resources for their students. In the month of January, measures of traffic showed that 29,390 unique visitors created 1,731,226 hits on the site and visited 148,569 pages.