Verizon Foundation Unveils Enhancements and Additions to Innovative Thinkfinity.org Web Site

Verizon Foundation Unveils Enhancements and Additions to Innovative Thinkfinity.org Web Site, Providing Free Educational Resources and Training to Teachers

Innovative changes, enhancements and additions to the popular Thinkfinity.org Web site were unveiled Friday (March 7) at WNET's Teaching & Learning Celebration here.

Thinkfinity.org is the Verizon Foundation's free, comprehensive program and online portal to 55,000 educational and literacy resources for teachers, parents and students. Resources include standards-based, grade-specific, K-12 lesson plans and engaging interactive activities provided in partnership with many of the nation's leading education and literacy organizations.

Improvements to Thinkfinity.org announced by the Verizon Foundation and its partners include:

-- The addition of 500 new resources. -- Individual portals to allow users to search for resources targeted to educators, students, parents or after-school programs. -- A dynamic new look. -- A simple, more comprehensive search engine. -- Ability to search for resources tailored to individual state standards.

Also on Friday, the Verizon Foundation presented a $160,000 grant to the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) to train teachers throughout the state to make the most of the free resources on Thinkfinity.org. The institute will conduct the training through its partnership with New York State Teacher Centers.

"This generous grant will facilitate NYIT's efforts through our Center for Technology Based Learning Systems to bring Thinkfinity's terrific resources to teachers in every school district throughout the state," said Edward Guiliano, Ph.D., president of NYIT. "We are proud of our ongoing partnership with the Verizon Foundation and the New York State Teacher Centers on this innovative and unquestionably valuable project."

Since the launch of Thinkfinity.org in March 2007, the Verizon Foundation has committed more than $32 million nationally to update and expand Thinkfinity.org and provide training to teachers.

"Thinkfinity.org has been a tremendous resource for me, providing easy access to a wide range of lesson plans and activities to spark the imagination," said Ira Faber, a teacher at Middle School 226, District 27, in New York City. "The new enhancements, particularly the decision to align to individual state standards, will make Thinkfinity.org even more valuable to teachers."