SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island’s School of Education has won a $5.6 million state grant to develop a new model of technology training for new and prospective teachers.

The grant will support URI’s New Order, Multi-Modal Advanced Design (NOMAD) Learning Spaces.

Goals include giving teachers and students better access to the latest news and professional-development information in math, science, engineering and technology; boosting the number of teachers in those fields; and engaging students whose nomadic learning style is a product of an era of laptop computers, cell phones, PDAs and podcasts.

URI’s grant will support installations in 30 classrooms and four auditoriums, spread across 10 buildings and three campuses; plus purchases of software, Web services, scientific probes and laboratory instruments; and experiments in online and remote learning. •