Bossier Press-Tribune Online

The Cyber Innovation Center (CIC) is proud to announce that the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has established a Network of Course Providers as part of the Louisiana Course Choice program for the 2013-2014 school year.  

Working with Course Choice will allow the CIC to provide more opportunities to both teachers and students across the state.  The CIC’s agreement with the LDOE enables high schools to become a CIC Course Choice Network Partner.  The CIC Network will allow high school teachers an opportunity to implement curricula offered through the Cyber Innovation Center’s recently established National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center (NICERC).

“Our unique partnership with the LDOE and the Course Choice program was created to empower schools and help keep them in the driver’s seat,” explained CIC Vice President GB Cazes.
Course Choice was created by the LDOE to provide a means by which students across Louisiana could take courses that were otherwise unavailable to them.  Encouraged by this opportunity, the CIC set out to expand its model of professional development for teachers.  This model is designed to impact more students through hands-on, project-driven learning.  Through this model, the CIC does not compete with schools but enables teachers to engage students in new interdisciplinary curricular methods.

“Our curricular design initiatives undergo a rigorous, iterative process including phases of research, development, evaluation, improvement, and implementation led by national content experts.  At every level, we design courses to have a lasting impact on students. . . . It is exciting to see how high school courses recently put through this process will now be offered to additional schools across Louisiana,” said Galen Turner, CIC Chief Academic Officer.

The Cyber Innovation Center will begin accepting and reviewing applications from high schools to become part of the CIC Network.  Once a school’s application is accepted, its teachers will participate in the Education Discovery Forum hosted by the CIC this summer at the Shreveport Convention Center on July 15-19, 2013.