Now, with help from the University of Oregon, three hundred elementary and secondary schoolteachers from across Oregon are receiving training that will help them understand the Internet and apply its voluminous resources in the classroom. And this program helps open the door to that technology. These sessions will be followed-up by additional course work to be conducted via the Internet. Another 150 teachers will undergo this training next summer. Rita Dougherty, who teaches at Renne Middle School in Newberg, participated in the OTN training.
Students become excited and motivated when they interact with computers.
English teacher Dustin Arzino, from ninety-student Dufur High School in Wasco County, believes Internet resources are particularly valuable to rural teachers because of the limited resources available in those districts. A ring-shaped wave quickly forms and moves outward, growing larger and larger, eventually reaching the pond's furthest shore. This is the kind of ripple the OTN program will send through schools across Oregon. First, the teachers gather at the university to receive their training. Then, like the expanding rings in the pond, they disperse to their districts across the state.