AACTE and University of Central Florida Illustrate Classroom Simulation to Education Grantmakers
AACTE President and CEO Lynn Gangone and I had the privilege of demonstrating the Association’s commitment to Inquiry and Innovation during a recent visit to New Orleans.
AACTE collaborated with member institution, the University of Central Florida, to present the TeachLivE™ Lab (TLE Lab) to members of Grantmakers for Education during their recent conference in Louisiana. Grantmakers for Education is the nation’s largest and most diverse network of education grantmakers dedicated to improving educational outcomes and increasing opportunities for all learners.
Together, we encouraged conference participants to engage in the TeachLivE™ Lab and discuss the robust features of the simulation and its application to educator preparation. Developed at UCF, the TLE Lab is an innovative approach to preparing educators for a changing world. The TLE Lab is a mixed-reality environment with simulated students and adults whose mission is to provide opportunities to approximate practice. The TLE Lab supports both preservice and in-service educators to develop their skills (i.e., classroom management, discipline-specific pedagogy, collaboration, and communication) through virtual rehearsals in an authentic, safe environment.
Participants of the GFE conference met Stacy Adkins, a parent avatar, during parent-teacher conferences. They also taught lessons to the middle school simulated classroom and read books in a literacy circle to the kindergarten-simulated classroom. Attendees enjoyed working with the two avatar students with disabilities in the inclusive high school classroom, highlighting the next generation in mixed-reality simulations.
Many of AACTE’s member institutions currently incorporate the TeachLivE™ Lab in their educator preparation program. AACTE uses the TLE Lab during its annual Leadership Academy, thanks to support from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. AACTE also thanks Towson University for providing robust scenarios used in the Lab during the conference.
If you would like to learn more about TeachLivE™ Lab, please contact me at jrodriguez@aacte.org or Lisa Dieker of UCF at ldieker@ucf.edu.
Tags: program improvement, teacher quality, technology
