TMI's @School Anytime delivers both high-touch and high tech.

Teaching Matters Inc. (TMI, New York, NY) is well known in the New York area for its highly customized delivery of technology-related professional development. Each day TMI sends 28 to 30 people out into the schools to provide onsite support to teachers working in small groups or to work with

Though TMI is a non-profit organization, it faces the same challenges of attracting customers, controlling its own costs and delivering successful programs as its for-profit peers face. Sue Bastian, TMI's president, told ETM that as much as three years ago the organization realized they couldn't have the effect they desired if they continued to rely solely on the labor intensive, onsite model for professional development. They realized that technology would provide a new delivery system but didn't know the form it would take. They were also concerned about follow-up and sustainability. And finally they wanted to do all this with a view to the reality of teachers' lives-both recognizing and accommodating that reality.

So they began to explore-asynchronous courseware, videoconferencing, teleconferencing. In the end they chose to use Centra's Virtual Classroom technology. Centra provides full duplex IP audio conferencing and real-time, multi-point video conferencing that enables users to see the session leader from within the interface. The solution can be delivered effectively over connections as low as 28.8 kbps. Participants can raise their hand, indicate yes/no responses, and provide anonymous feedback to the leader and presenters. A recording feature allows the interactive web sessions to be recorded and archived for review.

High-Touch, High-Tech

Lynette Guastaferro, director of planning and distance learning, says that @School Anytime combines the best features of the company's real-time, instructor-led training with asynchronous follow-up, reinforcement and review. This allows Teaching Matters to offer its familiar high-touch training in a high-tech format. This is still a human intensive mechanism, using technology to provide the piece that is needed -- live synchronous follow-up and discussion.

Guastaferro believes that any distance learning system will need to use a mix of methodologies to meet different learning styles. Teachers like very interactive learning systems, she says, and this will need to be a piece of the mix. But you can build accompanying materials that can be self-paced.

The @School Anytime web site (www.atschool.org) gives teachers access to resource materials that support the training sessions. These include an archive of support documents. Teachers can also opt to watch a recording of a class they missed or review a recording of a class they attended previously.

Part of TMI's goal is to reach teachers at home. Technology requirements are pretty basic. Teachers receive a CD with the necessary software and a set of headphones. They need a PC with a sound card and speakers, 64K RAM, running Windows 95 or better, with a Java enabled browser.

An @School Anytime program designed to train teachers new to the classroom to use the web in instruction launched in February. Participants must sign up for four face-to-face sessions and eight online sessions, which are designed to support the face-to-face training. For example, the face-to-face session "Publishing on the Web" is supported by online follow up sessions devoted to "Advanced Microsoft Word I," "How to Make a Newsletter," and "Introduction to Managing a Classroom Publishing Center." One face-to-face session is offered each month, delivered multiple times over a two-week period; the online follow-up sessions are scheduled at multiple times over the next six weeks.

The goal is to eventually use the system to deliver new topics in their entirety. For example, TMI could offer a live online session on the use of primary sources in the social studies classroom and the individual follow-up sessions could be targeted to specific subject areas - such as geography or history.

As TMI gets more familiar with the system, ideas for using it are multiplying. They might teach actual classes from their offices. For example they could teach an online phonics lesson, modeling all the things they are concerned about and the teacher could take over from there.

Bastian says that classroom management is the number one issue teachers face. The next series of training under development will match veteran teachers with new teachers to discuss classroom management. She believes there is a huge potential for peer-to-peer training and online support groups.

Bastian says that of the company's $3 million in revenues, 70% comes from their contract with the New York City Board of Education, which enables them to market their training programs to the schools. They get a lot of return business from the schools and have developed a good reputation in the city. Schools pay $580 a day for their services. The money comes from a combination of Title III, Title I and local school funding. Schools buy days from Teaching Matters and get a curriculum consultant dedicated to their purposes. These people help plan with the teachers and the principal and provide strong customization for the school.

Bastian says that the distance learning system allows them to begin to think about expanding their services without the added complications of extended travel. They are open to partnerships with organizations who might be interested in integrating TMI's training services into a larger offering or who need customized yet affordable training programs.