NEW ORLEANS – Torsh, an educational technology company, announced new features today that will enhance Torsh TALENT, the company’s proprietary platform for teacher professional development.
Torsh has added chat and video conferencing capabilities to Torsh TALENT, making it one of the first platforms of its kind to offer these options. Torsh TALENT is an online professional development platform that enables organizations to support educator growth through the entire development cycle of observation, assessment, goal-setting, feedback and coaching. The new chat and video conferencing feature allows a teacher to interact with up to six people simultaneously, from within the Torsh TALENT platform. Educators can now share their screen and receive feedback in real time, while also recording the conversation for future use. This is especially useful for educators who are not co-located with their mentors, coaches or professors.
“Previously, teachers and their professors needed to access TALENT plus a webinar service to facilitate their online professional development work,” said Torsh CEO, Courtney Williams. “TALENT’s new live video conferencing and chat gives teachers and their coaches a more robust tool with which to accomplish their professional development and training goals.”
In another update, Torsh also rolled out a one-of-a-kind portfolio building tool on Torsh TALENT that makes it easier for teachers to receive certification through edTPA (™), the subject-specific assessment required by more than 600 teacher preparation programs in 40 states.
To receive certification, teachers assemble a portfolio of materials such as lesson plans, student work, other artifacts, and videos of their classroom instruction. Teachers can create and store their portfolios right on Torsh TALENT, share their work with professors, colleagues, and mentors to receive feedback, then submit the final version directly to Pearson, the organization that scores their work.
Torsh was required to go through an application process with Pearson and prove that Torsh TALENT could deliver a seamless uploading experience that streamlined the process for edTPA applicants. With this roll out, Torsh TALENT is now considered an official integrated edTPA platform provider system.
For more information on Torsh and Torsh TALENT, visit www.torsh.co.