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IRVINE , Calif. - May 2,
2005 Digital Video Enterprises, Inc. (DVE) “Our partnership with thereNow ® is a very important event in the evolution of distance learning and represents an entire new way to offer Real Telepresence for a specific vertical market segment,” according to Jeff Machtig, co-founder of DVE. Shawn Edmondson of thereNow ® further explains, “This specific application of DVE’s technologies are vital to meet the local, state, and federal mandates to improve teacher training and our partnership will offer a service to meet those mandates like no other system can provide.” The Federal Government spends more than $1.5 billion annually on teacher professional development. However, many educators and academics agree that the training paid for with these funds, which comes largely in the form of “drive-by” workshops, makes an inadequate impact in the classroom. Too often, what teachers learn in these offsite workshops stays offsite, failing to make the leap from lecture hall to classroom. Research shows that many teachers find this type of training too brief, too concentrated, and too abstract to make a practical difference in the way that they teach. Tom Shuster, Ph.D., CEO of Spectrum Education Group and thereNow ®, sums up the need for thereNow ® technology, “Education research literature describes a far more effective model of professional development called Cognitive Apprenticeship. Ironically, it closely resembles historical apprenticeship -- the way that candlemakers, silversmiths, and other artisans learned their craft in centuries past. A master models and explains effective practice for an apprentice, who then tries to emulate the master. As the apprentice works and learns, the master observes, providing corrective and directive feedback.” The Cognitive Apprenticeship model is like all effective training and mentoring in that it is a gradual, intensely personal process. It demands frequent short, rich, and individual interactions between master and apprentice. The physical and financial demands of travel have made this model impractical at best—impossible in reality. Shawn Edmondson, M.S., Senior Research Associate with Spectrum Education Group, who is conducting his doctoral research on Cognitive Apprenticeship , believes that thereNow ® is the solution, “Using thistechnology, an expert who lives in Colorado could serve as a master for apprentice teachers in an elementary school in Utah in the morning, then follow up with teachers in Virginia, Maine, and Alabama in the afternoon—without leaving her desk. thereNow ® makes Cognitive Apprenticeship practical in education.” Before thereNow ®, the benefits of apprenticeship were beyond educator’s reach for financial and practical reasons. Master teachers—the “experts” who deliver today’s drive-by workshops—are few in number and scattered across the United States. The demands and expenses of travel between their homes and schools across the country make it necessary for them to visit individual schools infrequently, briskly, and impersonally. thereNow ® ’s unique ability to provide rich interpersonal communication over a distance is the solution to a nationwide problem in education: providing teachers with cost-effective professional development experiences that actually help them improve the way they teach. Currently, thereNow ® technology is embodied in three pieces of equipment designed and built by Digital Video Enterprises, Inc.: the Telepresence Center, the Virtual Teacher, and the Virtual Observer. This equipment allows experts to engage in Cognitive Apprenticeship by enabling communication and observation, and modeling teaching for teachers around the world – without ever having to leave the office. About thereNow About DVE
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