University of Wisconsin - Extension

Two programs from the Division of Continuing Education Extension¿ the Diversity Program Development Initiative and the IDEAS Portal Web Site¿ have received Certificates of Excellence from the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) Region IV¿s Celebration of Excellence awards program. The awards will be presented at the UCEA Region IV annual conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 20.

Diversity Program Development Initiative

The Diversity Program Development Initiative (DPDI) was created by the Dean¿s Office to facilitate partnerships or to support existing collaborative relationships by providing start-up funds for new continuing education ventures that achieve the goals and initiatives of the University of Wisconsin System¿s Plan 2008 ¿ a strategic plan for diversity. Now in its third year, the program has funded 14 programs on 9 campuses and the School for Workers, with 19 community partners and each of Plan 2008¿s target audiences¿ African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Southeast Asians.

¿A strong partnership between the UW institutions and community agencies is an important criterion in selecting grant recipients,¿ said Mary Crave, Evaluation and Diversity Specialist and administrator of the grants. ¿Our evaluations tell us that partnerships like the ones developed through the DPDI are a key to successfully engaging traditionally underserved students in continuing education programs.¿

According to a recent evaluation:

• 100 percent of the programmers who have participated in the DPDI have met their proposed objectives.

• Programmers said the funding encouraged them to try new programming without risking loss of revenue and to reach out to underserved audiences. One DPDI grant recipient used the funding to pilot a program that was later awarded a $1 million federal grant.

• All learned a lot about working with persons from the targeted ethnic background, including some of the barriers to participation.

• In every program, participation by persons of color increased substantially.

• The partnerships were very positive, and all said they would work with their partner again.

• Most said they became more familiar with diversity resources on their own UW campuses.

As one DPDI grant recipient commented, ¿Diversity is an issue that needs to be addressed on a continual basis, and the DPDI program allows this to occur in meaningful and constructive ways. As a recipient of a DPDI grant, I was able to promote my program throughout the target area. The success of the program was verified by survey results and by the continued growth and expansion of the program. The funding from DPDI made this important work possible.¿

IDEAS Portal Web Site

Launched on August 1, 2002, the IDEAS Portal Web Site provides Wisconsin educators access to high-quality, searchable, teacher-reviewed curricula, content, lesson plans, professional development and other selected resources¿ all designed to help teachers use technology to meet the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards.

IDEAS is a collaborative project sponsored by UW-Extension Continuing Education Extension, TEACH Wisconsin and UW-System. In addition to these sponsors, professional educators from more than 50 kindergarten-12th grade school districts and University of Wisconsin institutions have partnered to create, maintain and continue building the site.

According to Project Director John Fischer, IDEAS is expanding to include many more partners and agencies interested in sharing their online resources with Wisconsin educators. ¿This is an exciting time for the IDEAS project,¿ said Fischer. ¿This summer we saw IDEAS launch an online discussion forum that allows teachers from across the state to discuss issues, ask questions, and stay in touch with colleagues and peers. We also will be working closely with Wisconsin Public Television to bring indexed streaming video to the site, and the Wisconsin Arts Board is providing funding to begin cataloging online resources in art and music.¿

The IDEAS Portal will also allow agencies and organizations throughout the state to catalog their materials for educators. IDEAS educators will evaluate those cataloged items and align them with the state education standards.

To date, IDEAS has served more than 10,000 educators and attracted and maintained a repeat user base of more than 5,500 educators. The response by Wisconsin teachers and educators to the web site has been overwhelmingly positive. ¿This is a great site that I found very useful as I was rewriting my ethnic groups unit,¿ commented Kathleen Nicholson, a fourth grade teacher from Amherst Elementary School. ¿I wanted to incorporate technology into the unit, and this site did just that.¿

For more information on IDEAS, visit http://www.IDEAS.Wisconsin.edu