eMINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) program

In this article it is described how this program is changing the face of education across the state. The goal of eMINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) is to support Missouri educators as they integrate multimedia technology into inquiry-based, student-centered, interdisciplinary, collaborative teaching practices that result in improved student performance, increased parent involvement and enriched instructional effectiveness.

Helping teachers learn new teaching strategies using multimedia technologies requires a significant professional development support program. Each teacher in the program receives over 250 hours of professional development over a two-year period. These hours occur mainly after school; districts compensate teachers for their out-of-contract time.

Currently there are 585 eMINTS classrooms in grades 3-12 in rural, suburban and urban settings throughout Missouri. Over 15,000 children and teachers report to eMINTS classrooms every morning. When they reach those classrooms they find a rich array of multimedia learning technologies, including:

Teacher laptop
Interactive whiteboard and projector
Teacher workstation computer
Digital camera and scanner
Printers
One Internet-connected computer for every two students
Software limited to Microsoft Office and Inspiration

This seems like a step in the right direction for the integration of technology in the classroom. The main thing it helps is turning classrooms from teacher-centered to student-centered and where students can help facilitate the lessons. This program has been the center of bringing predominately low-income schools into the technology age, preparing them for the use of such technology. With the support of the state, school district and dedicated professionals, this program has really shown it's strength as beneficial to not only the students, but the classroom environment as well.