NNDS Announces Opening of Education Innovation Center in Baden

Site of former Mount Gallitzin Academy to feature model learning environments, supplemental educational support programs, and research and development component

BADEN, Pa., July 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Network of Digital Schools (NNDS) today announced the launch of its first education innovation center to be opened here this fall at the former Mount Gallitzin Academy.

The center, the first in a network of innovation centers planned by NNDS, will be a multi-use educational facility offering a variety of learning programs. The first of these will be the Building Blocks Learning Center program for students enrolled in 4- and 5-year-old kindergarten at The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.

Beginning in mid-September, this program will offer enrichment activities and supplemental services designed to lay the foundation for elementary education. The program, which is sponsored in part by computer manufacturer NCS Technologies, Inc., will be provided at no cost to students enrolled in PA Cyber. Families participating in the Building Blocks program may choose from a comprehensive menu that will provide flexibility and individualized service.

The Baden center also will serve as the research and development headquarters for NNDS' Pennsylvania Digital Learning Network, which is launching its pilot program with 12 Pennsylvania school districts during the 2010-11 school year.

Dr. James Barker, executive director the Pennsylvania Digital Learning Network project said that, like the model planned for Baden, all of NNDS' innovation centers will offer active, multifaceted learning environments that will provide a concrete approach to dispelling the common misperception that digital education is a dry approach to teaching and learning.

"Our long-range goal is to create a system of education in which students and teachers alike actively participate in creating rigorous, meaningful, and effective educational applications and experiences," Barker said. "The education system we envision will be highly collaborative, reciprocal, and constantly evolving."

Each NNDS innovation center will offer lively and intimate online/digital learning applications and experiences in brick-and-mortar settings in which students can go far beyond traditional learning methods by exploring a virtually-unlimited and e-powered range of subjects under the guidance of master teachers from around the world.

The Sisters of St. Joseph will lease the former academy building to NNDS. Barker said the decision to locate the innovation center within the walls of the former Catholic school is purposeful.

"By placing this education innovation center at a beautiful, century-old building that was once used for a very traditional style of education, we are going to demonstrate that such facilities can be easily and cost-effectively re-purposed to capitalize upon the opportunities being created in a digital world," Barker said.

SOURCE National Network of Digital Schools

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