| |
> Dick
Parsons
Advisory Board |
 |
|
|
|
Dick Parsons is
a Professional Development Manager and Social Studies Curriculum
specialist at the Institute
for Learning Technologies, Columbia University.
Prior to coming to ILT he was a teacher, Instructional Leader and consultant
in the Public School system in upstate New York where he taught various social
studies courses for more than thirty years.
In addition to his career as a teacher,
Dick Parsons is a member of the National Faculty of the Coalition of Essential
Schools and served as Director of the Westchester
Regional Center for Collaborative Education. In this capacity he was able to
sharpen his skills as a facilitator in professional development while extending
his understanding of the complex nature of institutional change.
As a teacher he was awarded several grants intended
to provide for investigations into sensible ways to integrate the
latest technologies in the support of teaching and learning. With
his students he conducted on-line electronic seminars and recounted
those experiences in "Students in Cyberspace" (1997),
published by the New York State Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development. Perhaps his most satisfying experience
in public school teaching occurred as a result of funding from
the Westchester Educational Coalition which provided a grant intended
to initiate an alternative environmental educational experience
for high school seniors. Students in that course spent the year
investigating, documenting and photographing the natural and human
history of Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in upper Westchester County,
New York, and completed their year by publishing their work. Their
efforts appeared both as a book and on a student-created Website:
The Senior Research Seminar in Environmental Studies. Sales from
their book continue to subsidize the course.
Dick Parsons is currently working with teachers
in the Eiffel Project to develop technology-supported activities
thoughtfully integrated into the public school curriculum. He is
also the curriculum specialist with the New Deal Network where
his attention is focused on the development of student-centered
activities using the archive of primary materials available on
the site.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
