CSBA’s online resource center covers preschool issues
Published: October 9, 2008
Launched earlier this year with financial support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, CSBA’s Preschool Web Resource Center is now hitting full stride, providing a useful, online tool for exploring preschool issues through discussion forums, podcasts, Webinars and other features.
“Technically, it’s an online course, but it’s really more of a resource center,” said CSBA Research Consultant Marguerite Noteware, the center’s moderator. “There’s nothing scary about it, and you can do it at your own pace. All you need is a computer with speakers and a connection to the Internet.”
The discussion forums are a key feature of the resource center, offering the benefit of others’ insights and experience in starting or maintaining preschool programs and giving registrants the opportunity to type in their own thoughts to share. The interactive aspect makes the forums especially practical.
“I pose a question, and hopefully users will reply and start talking about it,” Noteware explained. “If any user ever wanted to pose a question, they could just e-mail me about it, and I would post it on their behalf.” A click on the Web page’s “Add a new discussion topic” is all it takes to contact Noteware with ideas.
Other features include:
Podcasts: These are audio files that can either be listened to on the site or downloaded to computers or portable listening devices such as iPods. Two podcasts are available now, featuring typical local board members talking about how they use CSBA’s preschool resources and how a local board might balance the governance of a preschool with existing responsibilities. Ten more are already planned. “I’m going to release them every two weeks,” Noteware said, starting with an interview of Lynn Karoly, leader of the RAND Corp.’s ongoing California Preschool Study that was requested by leading state officials.
Webinars: One “online seminar” is available now, combining an audio presentation with two printable PDF file “handouts.” It gives a narrated guide through CSBA’s “Expanding Access to High-Quality Preschool Programs: A Resource and Policy Guide for School Leaders.”
Resources—and more: The 92-page guide that’s covered in the Webinar is itself an indispensible tool for anyone running a preschool or considering starting one, and it can also be downloaded from the preschool Web site’s Resource section. Additional features include links to other useful research and reports, Web sites and more.
“If you’re registered, you receive an automated e-mail every time there’s a significant update,” Noteware said. “It’s very easy to add or take away features, so it’s always current.”
Related link:
Register for CSBA’s Preschool Web Resource Center @ http://connect.csba.org/isgweb/Events/CalendarEventsListView.aspx.