Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Does the Teacher Resource Center membership have a cost?

No, membership to the Teacher Resource Center, like all ITEN activities, is free.

2. What benefits do I obtain by registering as a member of the Teacher Resource Center?

By creating an account as a Teacher Resource Center member, you can share with the community of teachers your lesson plans and examples of teaching practices using mobile devices. In addition, you can download, save and print resources shared by other teachers, which is not possible if you only visit the Center, but do not create an account.

3. How do I register for the Teacher Resource Center?

To register as a member of the Teacher Resource Center visit the home page at: http://bit.ly/iten_center

In the upper right corner, you will see the Registration button. Click on the Registration button and fill in the required fields on the form. Once you have registered and submitted your information, you will receive an email with a link to verify and activate your account. Make sure to check your email and follow the instructions to be able to share and download resources from the Center. If you do not see the verification mail in a few minutes, please check your spam folder.

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4. How do I retrieve my password from the Teacher Resource Center?

If you forget your password, you can request a link to create a new password through the system. When entering, click on "Reset Password here". The system will prompt you for your user name and will ask to type a security code. Once you fill in these fields, you can request a code to generate a new password. Follow the instructions in the email you'll receive, to create a new password.

5. How do I change my password in the Teacher Resource Center?

When entering The Center with your current credentials, click on your username on the blue rectangle at the top right corner of the screen. You will see a lock icon with the words "Manage Account" at the center of the screen. Click on Manage Account and follow the instructions on the screen.

6. How can I cancel my membership to the Teacher Resource Center?

Click the blue box with the username in the upper right corner of the screen.
Click on Manage Account, at the center of the screen. At the bottom of the screen, you will see the text regarding canceling your membership, followed by "click here to manage your membership", click on that text and confirm the cancelation in the following window. Please note that if you cancel your membership, you won´t be able to upload resources and will have limited access to content shared by other users.

7. What is a Lesson Plan?

A Lesson Plan is a detailed description of a teaching-learning practice that a teacher carries out with their students in order to achieve a learning objective.
There are as many formats of lesson plans as educational centers or in-service teachers.
At the Teacher Resource Center we try to capture the most relevant information from a Lesson Plan so that teachers from other schools, or even from other countries, can identify the information they require for their own plan and make the appropriate adaptations to replicate a teaching practice.
We trust that each teacher will be aware of the characteristics of their students and their context and will make the necessary adjustments to shared plans to serve their students with quality.

8. What is a Teaching Practice?

Teaching Practice is the short name of Teaching Practices with Mobile Devices. With the increasing integration of information and communication technologies in classrooms in the Americas, teachers have expressed interest in finding examples of successful practices with the use of e-book readers, tablets or even smart phones.
The description of Teaching Practices in ITEN Teacher Resource Center is very similar to that of a Lesson Plan, but includes a section in which the teacher who shares the resource can provide more information about the technological requirements to carry the teaching-learning practice. As with lesson plans, we expect teachers to make the teaching practices their own, always keeping in mind the characteristics of their students and their particular context.

9. How do I share a lesson plan or a teaching practice?

1. You must create an account as a member of the Teacher Resource Center to share a lesson plan or a teaching practice using mobile devices.
2. If you have already created your account, please login to the platform with your username and password.
3. Once inside the Center, click on the tab that reads "Lesson Plans". The system will open the Lesson Plans window and you will see the text "Add and manage your resources here "
4. Click on the blue text that reads: "here".
5. Click "+ Add: English" or + "Add: Spanish" depending on the language in which you will publish your lesson plan or teaching practice.
6. Complete the form. Please note that you can save a draft of your publication if you are not ready to submit it. If you have all the information and are ready to submit it, click Send for Approval. The system will send you an email indicating that your resource has been sent successfully. Once ITEN approves your resource, you can visit it by clicking on your username and then on "My Resources".

10. Who has access to the lesson plans or teaching practices that I share?

All visitors to the Teacher Resource Center have access to view a summary of each other's publications, but only registered members can download or print publications. Registered members of the Teacher Resource Center are generally in-service teachers like you, from around the world, but primarily from the 34 Member States of the Organization of American States.

11. How do I find lesson plans or teaching practices inside the Teacher Resource Center?

There are several ways to search for lesson plans or teaching practices within the Teacher Resource Center:
1. When accessing with your username and password and once you click on one of the two sections (lesson plans or teaching practices) you will be able to see the Advanced Search box, where you can search resources by Main Subject, Age of Students or Country of the publication. If you want to be more specific in your search, you can do a content search by entering the text you are looking for, in the Content Search box.
2. Another way to find a resource is by clicking on one of the "tags" you will see on the home page. A list will be shown with all the resources that have been assigned the tag you clicked.
3. In addition, you can do a resources by country search using the Resource Map located on the right side of the Lesson Plans or Teaching Practices screens.

12. How do I print a lesson plan or teaching practice from the Teacher Resource Center?

Once you have located a Lesson Plan or a Teaching Practice of your interest, click on the "read more" button, next to the introductory text of the resource. The system will display all information related to this resource and will give you the option to download the document, share it on social networks or print it. Click "Print" and follow the instructions of your operating system and printer to print the document.

13. How can I see the resources I have shared?

By accessing with your username and password to the Teacher Resource Center, you can go directly to your account information by clicking on your username in the upper right corner of the screen.
The next window will show, on the left side, a button called "My Resources" where you can access the resources you have shared. From that same screen, you can share a lesson plan or a new teaching practice with mobile devices.

14. What is the Creative Commons license?

Creative Commons licenses are licenses attributable to original creation materials whose authors wish to assign property rights but at the same time allow for sharing and reuse of materials in flexible and legal terms. By sharing an original creative material, members of the Teacher Resource Center agree that:
1. The material is of their authorship and therefore they can share it freely.
2. The user agrees that the shared material may be used by other users.
3. The user agrees that the shared material can be modified and re-shared, both in the Teacher Resource Center and through other media.
ITEN invites users who download resources from the Center to respect the spirit of collaboration of this initiative by acknowledging the original author of each resource when using it, modifying it and sharing it.

15. What are tags and what are they for?

When you share a resource, you will see that the form will prompt you to assign "tags". Tags are words that are associated with the shared resource and they are used to facilitate the search for content within the Teacher Resource Center. Given the vast amount of information on the Internet, it is the responsibility, and a good practice, of users of different services, to assign tags whenever they can, in order to contribute to a more effective organization of information in cyberspace.

16. What are social medals?

Social medals - or badges - are an element of gamification of the Teacher Resource Center that allows to recognize the outstanding members of this nascent community. The Center awards three medals:
1. Contributor: To members who have shared more resources than the average member.
2. Collaborator: To members whose resources have received more comments than the average number of comments on resources shared by the rest of the members.
3. Quality Partner: To members whose shared resources receive more than three stars.
If you are awarded one or all of the social badges, they will show in your profile.

17. Who approves or rejects resources?

The Inter-American Teacher Education Network team includes education specialists and in particular in teacher education, who will be responsible for the curation process of shared resources. These specialists could provide feedback on shared resources so that they meet the Center's quality standards. Users will receive an email once their resources have been reviewed, whether they have been approved and available at the Center, or if the specialist has offered feedback that the user should integrate into their resource before publication.

18. What are the quality criteria of the lesson plans or teaching practices with mobile devices?

The resources shared in the Teacher Resource Center will be evaluated based on a rubric that takes into account, among other aspects, relevance and accuracy of learning objectives, the use of student-centered teaching techniques as well as the use of strategies that promote the development of critical thinking, and an effective assessment integrated into the lesson plan.
Regarding teaching practices, it will be taken into account, in addition to the points mentioned above, if the technology is an aid to the learning process and not the center of the learning-teaching practice.

19. Where do I send other questions about the Teacher Resource Center?

This Frequently Asked Questions section will be updated as we receive more questions from users, so we ask you to check this section frequently. If you have a question that has not been answered in this section, please contact us at [email protected]