Bruce -- At CAS Library we have been teaching a variety of Internet
classes for several years.  These courses have been formal (for a fee) --
through our Adult Education & Junior Academy programs -- and informal
offered by appointment or on-the-fly for teachers groups, s888tudents and
other groups. (You might specifically be interested in looking at a
description of a Train The [Internet] Trainers program that I have been
involved with for a couple of years -- the goal of which is to
train librarians and others to teach Internet literacy URL -->
http://www.calacademy.org/~library   then select TTT under GBALC...
The goal of TTT is to certify Internet trainers -- when thet complete the
six course series -- and then to organize them into teaching teams to work
in various settings training public users...


> - What type of courses have you offered?

"Beginning" and "Intermediate" Internet
"Internet for Teachers"
"Environmental Resources on the Internet"
& an Internet section of a general course on scientific information
methods and resources

> - What did you find successful?  If you could, what would you do
>         differently?
One problem I am conscious of is the tendency to simply show-off the
Internet as opposed to teaching the fundamentals of using it.  (The cliche
about giving a person a fish vs. teaching a person HOW to fish...)

> - What would you like to see in your future classes?
Our classes have not been hands on -- for lack of an adequate on-site training
lab -- we are now constructing one...

> - During what time of year did you offer these sessions?  Were they
>         one-day, two-day, or week-long seminars?
 All seasons, typically half-day sessions -- sometimes on two succeeding
weekends or week nights.  Junior classes were often during holidays.  Our
current series of teachers courses is being offered on Saturday mornings...

> - How many teachers/educators attended them?

Mixed attendance depending on thematic focus, timing of course and who we
pitch it to we often are now offering it to primary, middle school
and high school/community college teachers [WE TEND TO FOCUS ON K-14
as OPPOSED TO K-12 -- I feel strongly that Community College teachers
should be reached out to as well...]

> - How was your museum's mission incorporated into the course?
Always by the subject matter we work with and the examples we demonstrate
or point to...

> - Were the teachers required to meet any prerequisites to take the
>         course (e.g., computer skills)?

For TTT we required on-line registration as a means of insuring minimal
Internet literacy -- in our course announcements we often describe
the class level but have allowed students to self-select -- this has
produced mismatches occasionally...  We generally do on-the-fly
self-intros to start the class and strongly encourage questions/informality.
This allows us to "correct course" as we go...  [As an anecdote, I've
heard of a local Internet trainer who gives out whistles to the class and
tells them to blow their whistle any time something is said they
don't understand...)

> - Were the courses targeting teachers from a specific grade level?
>         (elementary, middle, or high school)
See above...

> - What type of follow-up did you do to see if the course was >
successful? We do give out evaluation forms (but I doubt how useful they
are in determining "success" personally I believe they often reflect more
about the charisma of the teachers -- but then again perhaps that's one of
the key aspects of successful education?) -- we also make a standing offer
to do ongoing work with students and in some cases they actually do --
i.e. we conceive of class enrollment as the initiation of an ongoing
relationship...


> - How much did you charge the teachers to attend?
our current series of courses is being offered for free but only to
"Educator Members" of the Academy  Our Adult Ed. & Junior Ed. classes have
a standard fee schedule -- I think it's about $40/class and when we first
offered a single class we ended up having to offer several courses and
still had a waiting list -- usually max of 12 per course...

Hope this helps -- give me a call if you'd like to discuss...

Tom
                Tom Moritz  Academy Librarian
                California Academy of Sciences
                Golden Gate Park
                San Francisco, California  94118
                415-750-7101 -- VOICE
                415-750-7106 -- FAX
                Internet: [log in to unmask]