Educational IT Certification

[Noor]

I posted this over in the Job Forums a few days ago before I knew about the CALL Forum. I hope you'll pardon the double posting, but perhaps I'll get a better response here.

I'm going to be starting a job soon that supplies teachers and students with more technology tools than I'm used to using in the classroom. I find the challenge exciting and look forward to figuratively dirtying my hands and making lots of mistakes.

I was thinking of pursuing some sort of certification for educational IT. This might help me get a better handle on potential and practical applications, and might as well give me a leg up in the future for a salary increase or favorable placement in a future job search.

I've googled a bit on the subject and found a fair number of schemes from universities as part of their K-12 teacher certification programs, none designed for specific subject matter.

The only TEFL specific course I've come up with is The Consultants-E/London Trinity Certificate in Teaching Languages with Technology. This 120-hour course is reasonably priced (compared with some of the university programs that run several thousand dollars, even ten thousand dollars) and is conducted entirely online.

You can read more about it here:
http://www.theconsultants-e.com/courses/trinityict/

Has anyone here taken this program? Know of anyone who has?

Do you know of any other programs, TEFL specific or otherwise? Any you might recommend?

Any and all feedback or suggestions are most welcome.

[matbury]

With any kind of certification programme, look into the nitty-gritty details as part of a cost-benefit analysis:

How well recognised is the certificate?
Will future employers be more inclined to hire you and/or pay you more as a direct result of having this qualification?
How long will it take you to recoup the total cost of taking the course?
How will this course directly contribute to your own professional development?
And any other questions you can think of to ask yourself?