Abstract

Many educators interested in the role of technology and education argue that faculty in teacher education institutions need to model appropriate use of technology consistent with educational theory to achieve powerful teaching and learning if preservice teachers are to become skillful and proficient at integrating technology into their teaching. Currently, teacher education institutions are inconsistent in modeling how to integrate technology into teaching on a regular basis. For effective use of technology during instruction to become a regular feature of preservice education, faculty need to become skillful at using technology guided by educational theory for effective implementation during instruction. Strong efforts need to be made to provide systematic professional development in technology and ongoing support while faculty are learning to use technology in their instruction. Effective professional development should reduce faculty anxiety, demystify technology, show faculty the instructional potential for infusing technology into their teaching, and provide opportunities for faculty to reflect on their teaching. A faculty team from the College of Education and Human Services at the University of Wisconsin Oskkosh used grant funding to design and implement an ongoing, three-year program. The program is based on professional literature about professional development in technology and faculty observations of existing uses of technology. This program aims to help faculty, preservice teachers, and their cooperating teachers come together to participate in a variety of projects designed to help them integrate technology into their teaching within a model of authentic instruction and assessment in order to promote powerful teaching and learning. A key to this process is meeting the needs of post-secondary faculty to become proficient with the integration of technology into instruction in the teacher education curriculum. The four-part program addresses faculty and academic staff skill levels with technology, faculty-developed technology rich instructional projects, technology rich field experience placements, and information about faculty perceptions of instructional technology uses. Technology integration workshops for faculty and academic staff assist faculty to become skillful with, and model, a variety of electronic tools that can be added to their instructional repertoire to (a) help students prepare for class, (b) support student's understanding of concepts through collaborative meaning making, (c) promote resource-based problem solving, and (d) model how theory translates into practice. Workshops also serve as a forum for faculty to reflect on shared concerns and collaborate in modeling the development of technologically rich instructional practices. Faculty instructional projects that model technology integration are the outcomes of the workshops. Instructional innovations have employed a variety of technologies to promote greater student understanding of course material and faculty modeling of technology integration. Projects are developed by individual faculty and by teams of faculty associated with secondary learning communities that provided experiences for clinicians and student teachers. A range of technology is used, from presentation software to web-based learning via WebQuests. One project used online discussion groups to design an environmental clean-up investigation in a science methods course. Student teachers are placed with coopering teachers who facilitate the integration of technology into instruction at the PK-12 grade levels. Student teachers develop and deliver technology rich instruction collaboratively with their mentor teachers. Selected examples of technological instruction are collected and disseminated via compact disc to all cooperating teachers and presevice student teachers. A symposium, "Collegiate Classrooms in the New Millennium", served as a collaborative vehicle where related but diverse groups of faculty, invited student teachers, and cooperating teachers could meet so these groups could share and reflect on their technology rich instructional projects. Faculty and student teacher/cooperating teacher teams came together in table sessions to engage in substantive conversations about the instructional effects of their projects and changes they would make in the future. Electronic teaching portfolios are beginning to be developed to (a) model authentic assessment strategies, (b) create linkages between the College of Education and NCATE standards, (c) contribute to preservice teachers' professional development and lifelong learning, and (d) develop faculty and student technological skills. Evaluation of the project involves collecting data and information about faculty who are in the process of changing their teaching to incorporate technology. Quantitative and qualitative methods have been employed to gather data and information. Faculty interviews yielded information about participating faculty members thoughts and perceptions regarding the following. * How are faculty are using technology and how is it impacting their teaching? * How has the integration of technology in teaching resulted in students demonstrating an improved understanding of course subject matter, deliberation skills, and/or pedagogy? * How has the integration of technology facilitated preservice teacher's deeper understanding of pedagogical knowledge? * How have faculty's increased skill and use of technology impacted their personal view as self as teacher? * What are faculty perceptions of the climate in the college of education toward the use of technology in instruction? Quantitative data collection concerning faculty change over time in attitudes toward teaching methodology and acceptance of technology involved pre- and post-assessments that utilized the following instruments: Stages of Concern Questionnaire, Gene Hall, University of Nevada; Measuring Technophobia: Computer Anxiety Scale; Computer Thoughts Survey; General Attitudes Toward Computers Scale, Rosen &Weil 1992; and Teaching Styles Survey, Norton. Data retrieved from these instruments along with interview results will help understand faculty pedagogical thinking about the integration of technology into their teaching.

Citation

Fischer, T., Garcia, P., Wineberg, L. & Rose, S. (2002). Facilitating Technology Integration In Teacher Education. In D. Willis, J. Price & N. Davis (Eds.), Proceedings of SITE 2002--Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 710-711). Nashville, Tennessee, USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved March 22, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/10604/.

Keywords

• Attitudes
• Computers
• Evaluation
• field experience
• pre-service teacher
• Preservice Teacher Education
• Professional Development
• student teaching
• technology infusion