Virtual Collaborative Network

In 2015, the iSTEP Institute, in collaboration with the Stanford University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s PBL Lab, piloted the Virtual Collaborative Environment for Teacher Education: A Global Learning Network (ViCoTEd). ViCoTEd is an innovative environment and interactive learning experience through which teacher educators, teachers, and students from around the world engage with one another, Stanford faculty and staff. Within this environment, iSTEP stakeholders continue to explore and establish powerful and effective practices in teacher education programs. Through this state-of-the-art platform, globally dispersed participants are able to collaborate; to host virtual, asynchronous, and synchronous discussions; and to share, comment, and reflect on didactic videos, case studies, and presentations, best practices, curricular materials, and annotated artifacts. Participants leverage the knowledge they co-create in this virtual environment to strengthen their individual programs. They also advance a shared understanding of coherent and equitable teacher education.