Impact

RETA was started in 1995 by Drs. Carmen Gonzales and Priscilla Norton with a small grant from Los Alamos National Laboratories. The program provided a series of one-day Fiesta Saturday workshops for technology integration to NM K-12 teachers.

For 1996-1997-1998 RETA was funded by two Technology Literacy Grants administered by the New Mexico State Department of Education. The program expanded into a series of four Saturday workshops held throughout the school year.

From 1998-2002 RETA received an $8.7M US Department of Education Technology Innovation Grant. The program expanded to include five Regional Resource Centers at NM Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) (NMSU, ENMU, WNMU, NNMC, & NMHU). The series of Saturday workshops increased from four to six and online professional development sessions were offered.

Since 2003 RETA has received funding from the NM Legislature and worked in partnership with the NM Public Education Department to support a variety of programs such as the Laptop Learning Initiative, Reading First, the NM Learning Network and NM Cyber Academy. RETA has also been successful in developing partnerships with the districts and implementing professional development programs for technology integration, Professional Development Dossier (PDD), and online teaching and learning.

In 2004, RETA started providing a series of workshops for Professional Development Dossier (PDD). This series of six workshops that takes teachers through a process of developing a PDD have become a popular and valued professional development experience.

Since RETA ventured into the world of online teaching and learning in 2002, the RETA staff has steadily grown their expertise in developing online courses and workshops, preparing educators to teach online and develop online curriculum, and using a variety of web technologies that support the creation of engaging online learning environments. In 2006, RETA expanded its professional development in the areas of online teaching and online course development to K-12 educators. And in the long-standing RETA tradition of being on the leading edge of emerging technologies, RETA started offering webinars in 30 and 60-minute formats via the convenience of online.

Over the years RETA has provided professional development to thousands of educators from all 89 public school districts, Bureau of Indian Affairs' schools, charter and private schools, in addition to the faculty from IHEs. On average RETA serves 63 districts and 2,000 educators per year.

RETA Impact Chart