Information Technology Underused in Teacher Education

Information Technology Underused in Teacher Education

"In the past few years the preservice teacher education programs have made substantial progress in preparing future teachers in information technology," says Dr. David Moursund, Executive Officer of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), "but they still have a long way to go."
It was with the goal of evaluating teacher education programs that the Milken Exchange on Education Technology commissioned ISTE to survey teacher-preparation institutions across the country. Survey results -- gathered from 416 institutions representing approximately 90,000 graduates per year -- suggest that these programs should increase teachers’ exposure to appropriate education technology if they are to aptly prepare them for today’s classrooms.
Recent federal government estimates suggest that as the number of American students and demand for smaller student-teacher ratios increase, the education system will be forced to hire approximately 2.2 million new teachers over the next decade. A large proportion of those new teachers will be recent graduates of colleges of education.
"What better time to investigate the possibility of improving teacher preservice training in information technology," suggests Cheryl Lemke, Executive Director of the Milken Exchange on Education Technology.
The survey, titled "Information Technology in Teacher Education" asked faculty members about the extent to which future teachers were being exposed to technology in their classes, field experience and curriculum materials. The majority of faculty-members revealed that they do not, in fact, practice or model effective technology use in their classrooms.
"There is inconsistency between what teacher-training faculty know about technology and what they are training teachers to do in their courses," says Lemke. "We can be confident that there is more technology awareness and experience out there, but it is not being used in teacher training to the extent nor in the manner we think necessary."
Over 70 percent of teacher training programs surveyed require students to take three or more credit hours of instruction with information technology (IT). And on average, preservice teachers get an equivalent amount of IT built into their non-IT courses. But despite the course requirements, most faculty did not feel that IT training was adequate or effectively modeled for the future-teachers they serve.
"It takes a great deal of education and experience to achieve a comfortable level of expertise in this field," says Dr. Lynne Schrum, president of ISTE. "We want preservice teachers to learn how to use information technology as a tool for helping their students learn."
Survey researchers also asked about the field experiences of teachers — whether or not information technology was available in the K-12 classrooms where preservice teachers get their field training. They found that most of those classrooms have information technology available, but student-teachers do not routinely use that technology during their field experience.
"The use of technology in everyday classroom and practicum experiences — seems to be more important than specific computer classes," says Talbot Bielefeldt, a researcher for the survey. "Specific technology training has a role, but only up to a point. The institutions that reported the highest levels of student technology skills and experience were not those with heavy computer course requirements, but those that made use of technology on a routine basis throughout the teacher training program." observes Bielefeldt.
Says Lemke, "The findings in this report should be a wake-up call for higher education institutions and policymakers across the country — today’s students live in a global, knowledge-based age, and they deserve teachers whose practice embraces the best that technology can bring to learning."

Good Teachers = High Academic Achievement

Good Teachers = High Academic Achievement

by Karena O'Riordan
Recognizing that a school technology program is only as successful as the teachers who use it, the Milken Exchange on Education Technology has introduced the Professional Competency Continuum (PCC), a road map for educators to use to assess their skills in integrating technology in the classroom..
In order to answer a question many states, districts and schools are struggling to answer -- What are the skills for the digital age classroom? -- the Milken Exchange gathered a panel of experts to identify areas where teachers' professional skills should be developed in order to become effective users of technology. The experts' recommendations grew into the key elements of the PCC.
The goal of the Milken Exchange has always been to promote higher academic achievement in schools. "Using technology for technology's sake has little academic value," says Edward Coughlin, author of the PCC. "We think that education systems should first set high academic standards that are appropriate for their students, and then work towards those goals using technology as one tool in the process. There is no question that technology helps move students forward academically, but it must be used wisely."
The PCC is part of the Milken Exchange's series, Seven Dimensions for Gauging Progress with Technology in Schools and represents the third of the seven dimensions: professional competency.
"Our seven dimensions are being used all over the country in training programs, school districts and staff development initiatives," says Cheryl Lemke, executive director of the Milken Exchange. "The PCC helps those efforts by prescribing the specific steps educators can take to effectively integrate technology in their classrooms."
The PCC includes a set of introductory scenarios describing "how it could be" in technology-rich classrooms. While some of the scenarios depict situations that seem futuristic or expensive, all the technologies described -- as well as the contexts in which they are used and the research supporting their credibility -- are available. Yet few of them are encountered in our nation's school districts. "The goal of creating the PCC is to encourage teachers to think beyond the traditional classroom with its antiquated structure and learning style," says Coughlin. "But many cannot begin to do so without knowing what the possibilities are. We hope this document and its accompanying activities can help to expand their thinking."
The PCC also describes various "stages" of progress for educators. For example, in acquiring "core technology skills," an educator might be at stage one: Entry -- educators, students and the community are aware of the possibilities technology brings, yet learning, teaching and the system remain relatively unchanged by technology. Hopefully, the skills described by the PCC will lead that educator to Stage Two: Adaptation; and ultimately, Stage Three: Transformation, in which technology becomes a catalyst for significant changes in teaching learning practices.
The PCC is available in several formats. The first is the print publication described here. The second is the Web site, which will be dedicated to updating and evaluating progress with the PCC. And the third is an assessment tool, available both in print and online. The assessment tool is a matrix on which educators can plot their progress in various levels of technology integration and a tool to support the professional development planning process. The assessment tool consists of five parts:
20-question survey assessing educators' individual levels of comfort with technology.
A more in depth survey with at least 15 items per area which provides a more specific picture of areas of need.
Database of "advice essays" linked to the survey. Each advice essay corresponds to the levels of comfort described in the survey and recommends ways for educators to improve.
Database of resources -- Web sites, articles, books and training -- deemed valuable to the levels of comfort described in the survey.
Comprehensive reports. Reports are available both for individual teachers and for groups of teachers. Individual teachers can access comprehensive reports in each of 26 areas of competency. Professional developers working with groups of teachers can create "project groups" for whom they can develop summary reports for the group or for any subgroup within the project. The assessments can be taken multiple times and progress can be charted over time for individuals and groups.

New Roles for Educators

New Roles for Educators
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Electronic School
by Margaret Johnson
February 4, 2000
Amid the flurry of end-of-decade/end-of-century reflections, those of us who are passionate about the promise of technology tools for communication and information access in schools are also taking our collective pulse to assess where we are and where we need to go. All of us have juggled issues of pedagogy, deployment and distribution of resources, professional development, student safety, ethics and a wide variety of local community concerns as we plugged our schools into the information age. Some of us have by necessity been largely consumed by the hunt for resources, devoting considerable time and creativity to funding these tools we envision transforming our classrooms. A few of us have been drawn out of the classroom to help schools and school districts cope with these concerns and tasks, while others "walk the talk" creating models of student use in our classrooms and providing practical evidence that digital tools can make a difference.
What is most striking in all of this activity is the variety of new or evolving roles that have emerged in the process. We strive to acquire digital tools in order to empower students to accept new roles in their own learning and to expand their possibilities for collaboration and construction of knowledge. Isn’t it logical that the same holds true for the teachers of these students? Though teachers have always been learners, instructional designers and entrepreneurs, technology tools have added new twists to these traditional roles, providing many new opportunities for leadership and for teachers to also become "producers of knowledge."
Teachers as Learners
John Cotton Dana, an important figure in the public library movement at the end of the nineteenth century, proclaimed, "Who dares to teach, must never cease to learn." An ongoing procession of new software and hardware tools as well as a flood of web-based resources presents a considerable challenge for educators to catch up and keep up simultaneously. When new learning on brain functioning, multiple intelligences, language processing, assessment, and other relevant topics are added to the mix, getting up-to-speed seems a daunting task. The good news is that much of the new learning for educators can be highly synergistic; to practice using digital tools for information access, organization and processing, teachers can focus on epistemology, pedagogy or subject area content with equal ease. The wide proliferation of online tutorials as well as both free and for fee web-based professional development courses, including on-line degree programs, has allowed teachers to take charge of their own learning. As "netizens" of the Information Age, our biggest challenge is learning to manage "TMI," Bernie Dodge’s shorthand term for too much information, or Jamie McKenzie’s "Information Overload." Customized "portal" websites, on-line and print summarized literature reviews, professional organizations (state level and local CUE groups — Computer Using Educators), and both formal and informal peer mentoring are helping many educators meet their own learning needs. Another obvious benefit; teachers who model effective learning behaviors send a powerful message to their students about the value of learning and gain credibility as co-learners.
A number of recent grant programs (including Goals 2000 and Technology Literacy Challenge Fund grants) have been heavily skewed to fund robust professional development projects. New NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) standards for prospective teachers and changes in recertification for veteran teachers are other important indicators that life-long learning is an absolute requirement for all educators. Some are tempted to bemoan the "burden" that ever growing ongoing learning requirements place on already overloaded teachers, but the real challenge is for our school systems to shift to practices that value and support ongoing teacher learning. Technology may help to some extent. In the January 2000 issue of Electronic School, Don Tapscott notes that, "Off-loading of repetitive or mundane tasks to computers helps get maximum value from increasingly scarce teaching dollars." No amount of automation, however, can offset the need for additional planning time for educators. In 1995 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development published a comparison of teaching time in the U.S. and fifteen other Western countries. The OECD report concluded that U.S. teachers spend more time teaching and have less preparation time for classes than teachers in other countries who are allotted more time for lesson preparation, in-service training and staff meetings during their school days.
Teachers as Producers of Knowledge
Technology is also empowering teachers as instructional designers, authors, and presenters. The ease of publishing on the web has provided a new outlet for those teachers who have always enjoyed creating original instructional materials and for those dissatisfied with predigested pre-synthesized textbooks. That these materials are now accessible to a vast audience beyond the classroom and that they can provide one-click links to relevant supporting research and documentation has proven to be a powerful lure for the authors among us. Dale Mann, from the Department of Organization and Leadership at Columbia Teachers College claims that "curiosity, a need for productivity, and professional pride" provide greater impetus for teachers to embrace technology than formal professional development programs. Indeed, the proliferation of teacher created "WebQuests," problem-based lessons (PBL) and thematic units on the web is an indication of the accessibility of web publishing for ever-growing numbers of educators; that many of these web-based activities are something more than just teacher-provided content, but rather are designed to be springboards for student inquiry, posing questions or scenarios for students to solve is an encouraging sign. As the body of web-based curriculum materials grows, hyperlinked "collections" are being assembled and indexed by grade level, discipline/topic, national and state standards, and other identifiers. Benchmarks of quality are emerging; guidelines such as NCREL’s Indicators of Engaged Learning and Bernie Dodge’s "Taskonomy" are providing scaffolds to help teacher/authors improve the designs of their web-based lessons.
Without much digging, it is easy to find teacher-designed materials on the web. From Kathy Schrock’s high-profile (and now commercially supported) site to collected lessons created through University course-work and school district curriculum development projects to independent materials posted on free web-hosting services such as Yahoo-Geocities or xoom.com, educators are actively embracing the web venue and modeling constructivism.
Teachers as Entrepreneurs
Pick up almost any issue of the many K-12 technology publications or even K-12 publications that are not focused strictly on technology, and you will very likely read about teachers who have not only designed and facilitated a compelling technology-based classroom project, but who also located the funds to acquire the tools their students needed. Those of us who have gone "digging for dollars" to fund digital tools can’t begin to estimate the number of digital cameras or scanners that have been acquired through "mini-grants" from local businesses or Parent-Teacher Organizations. When funds are limited, many school districts turn to targeted internal "Requests for Proposals" to place equipment/provide professional development opportunities to those who demonstrate the greatest motivation and readiness to put scarce resources to the best use. States have also turned to competitive grants to roll out some funding. Though it is clear that such competitive practices, if employed as the main strategy for technology implementation in a system, can be divisive and counter-productive in providing equitable access to technology for all students, the availability of seed money to fund innovation and promising projects has provided unprecedented opportunities for entrepreneurial educators. Many of the teacher/grant awardees have become mentors and leaders within their schools and districts.
The entrepreneurial spirit has extended beyond grant seeking. Technology-based student businesses have sprouted as authentic responses to problem-based learning scenarios. At Palos East Elementary School in Palos Heights, Illinois, for example, fifth graders were inspired by a real school problem, a lack of printers to accompany classroom computers. Mrs. Deb Balayti’s students decided to form a classroom business to earn money to acquire the needed equipment. The project was a huge success and the student business an instant "local legend." Each year since 1996-97, Mrs. Balayti’s students have formed a technology-based school business, producing and selling products to the many visitors to Palos East during American Education Week. Thanks to scheduled "Mom’s Day," "Dad’s Day," and "Grandparent’s Day" each year, hundreds of adults become customers and clients for the fifth grade entrepreneurs. Products have varied; students have taken digital pictures of grandparents and their grandchildren (set in front of a colorful student-designed backdrop) and designed and filled orders for customized gift labels and stationery. This business is significant in the technology life of the school; in three years, students have raised a grand total of nearly $9,000. Although the financial gain is impressive, Mrs. Balayti reports that the student learning that occurs as students brainstorm, strategize, plan, organize and implement their business is even more exciting. Math skills, writing skills and interpersonal skills are all strengthened. Multiple intelligences are needed and showcased. Students analyze building needs and wants, research products, interview vendors, and conduct rigorous "cost-benefit" analyses in making their purchasing decisions. The criteria they establish to guide their purchasing decisions and the exhaustive questions they pose to vendors provide clear evidence of strategic higher order thinking.
As school leaders recognize the potential of the intellectual capital represented by talented and creative educators, school districts are becoming entrepreneurial, generating significant revenue by marketing original curriculum materials produced by their staff members. The great demand for professional development facilitators/presenters has also spurred creative arrangements resulting in full-time educators becoming part-time consultants, often with encouragement and support from their administrators who welcome any shared revenue or expertise exchanges that may result from these consulting activities. Teacher-created web-based materials may also be ripe for marketing. Carol Simpson, from the School of Library and Information Sciences at the University of North Texas and an author and speaker on copyright and ethics issues for schools and libraries, states, "New technologies of instructional delivery, such as web-based and video instruction, will bring ownership of intellectual property to light in schools. Schools that once only consumed intellectual property will now discover that they own it and will want to convert it into a revenue stream." Ms. Simpson continues, "Teachers who once would have created and freely shared instructional materials in print format will recognize that they have contributed to a valuable commodity (electronic course materials) and may resist ‘work for hire’ rules or at least bargain for some compensation."
In Summary
While recent K-12 publications have devoted many column inches to describing the "best" uses for technology in our classrooms or to exposing ill-advised practices, many creative teachers, students and school systems are busy determining for themselves the usefulness of digital tools. When access and opportunity converge, the users themselves (whether adults or children) will determine the ultimate utility of any resource. In the book, The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet, Freeman Dyson discusses how scientists in various disciplines display different attitudes toward their tools, affecting dynamics of professional collaboration and innovation in their fields. Although Dyson was reflecting on the field of gravitational tomography, his observations aptly describe the manner in which some educators are proactively finding new instructional uses for technology, "The style of the work…is opportunistic, unorganized, spontaneous. Nobody planned it and nobody administered it from the top. A new tool became available…and a number of bright people grabbed hold of it for a variety of purposes…The style of the work is dominated by two factors, local enthusiasm and the internet." Many of the same technology tools that are revolutionizing science and research are now available to and facilitating new roles for both adult and young learners as well as providing new opportunities for all learners to reap intellectual, creative and financial rewards.

Life in the fast lane: Technology in the middle school

Life in the fast lane: Technology in the middle school

A learning technology teacher talks about the realm of middle school and the need for a focus and dedication to integrating technology into instruction.

By Dianna L. Italia
am proud to state that I teach in a middle school. In fact I am the learning technology teacher at New Brighton Middle School located in New Brighton, Pennsylvania. We are a grade six, seven, eight middle school with approximately 500 students. I am responsible for the computer lab and all instructional technology in our middle school. In addition to the lab, there is a minimum of two networked computers in each instructional area and 18 networked computers in the library. If it's an exceptionally good day, all computers might be working properly with no user errors! I am labeled the "learning technology teacher" and not the "computer teacher" because I instruct and work with students; I don't "teach computers." Personally I picture myself as a long, lean, rather British-sounding female version of C3PO, but in reality for those of you old enough to remember, I'm more like the rotund Robbie the Robot. In addition to being a member of the district technology team, I am a department head in my building. In fact I am the only member of my department! But then I am also a member of every instructional team and department in our middle school.
Dianna Italia's students.
've learned that it takes real guts and stamina to be a learning technology teacher in a middle school. Everyone assumes that I know in great detail the specifics of every piece of hardware and software known to man. Open house night is like the tech support line at computer central. Parents, who thought all you had to do to get a computer to work was to provide it with electricity, send me detailed notes. And middle school students, who thought no one could ever teach them anything, now find that on their home computer things that go haywire aren't always fixed by someone else and up and running by morning! Speaking of running, I do a lot of that too. Only the middle school mentality could evade classroom teachers long enough to rearrange keys on the keyboard, try to remove mouse balls, and insert foreign matter into disk drives. Tweezers are not only for getting out splinters! Imagine the teacher who one morning came to me saying her password to the teacher menu just wouldn't work. Since she was a "chicken plucker" at the keyboard instead of a touch typist, she didn't really know where the keys were supposed to be. So, when she saw only asterisks on the screen for her password, she didn't realize a student had removed and rearranged the keys to configure a new keyboard setup! Oh, the inventiveness of middle schoolers.
What we have to do
ow what does all this background of my daily trials and tribulations have to do with teaching with technology? In the realm of middle school, we, as teachers, have to harness and direct that middle school energy - and there's plenty of it! - and commit a focus and dedication to integrating technology into instruction. The teacher is, and will remain, the focus of the classroom, but today's teachers must be able to integrate creative uses of new technologies to enhance and complement the instructional process. We can energize our delivery of instruction and motivate students like we never could before by looking at technology not as an entity unto itself but as an overlay that adds dimension and enhancement to instruction and learning. To adequately prepare students for the 21st century and the world of work that awaits them, we must infuse the use of technology into the delivery of instruction and provide all students with the access and the opportunity to have multiple hands-on experiences with technology.
"Set parameters for students and let students know what you expect in the way of acceptable Internet use and behavior while they are online."
Cautions for educators
e are purveyors of education not "edutainment." What students choose to do at home on their personal computers while under the supervision of their parents is one thing, but what they do at school, in an educational setting, is, and should be, under your control at all times. Be in control of the educational setting, whether it be in your regular classroom using a single computer or in a computer lab setting. Set parameters for students and let students know what you expect in the way of acceptable Internet use and behavior while they are online. Software filtering programs are not of and by themselves able to "police" all traffic on the Internet. Teaching students to be responsible is the best way to avoid an intentional "visit" to an educationally unacceptable site on the Web.
Give technology integration a chance
s a learning technology teacher, I am an advocate of employing technology as an integral part of the school curriculum. Its use can instill a motivation to learn in the most unmotivated student. Integrating technology successfully into the existing curriculum is well within the capability of any teacher. Use the resources of the Internet and all aspects of educational technology to strengthen the curriculum and the instructional program. Expand the learning environment for your students. Trust me, your first success will breed the desire for more involvement with technology integration. What we as educators ask of our students - to be engaged and focused while learning - to keep at a task until they are successful - to experience the elation when the so-called light bulb finally "clicks on" - are all the characteristics that educators should exhibit as they "get a grip" on technology. Expand your own personal learning environment. The educational possibilities are limitless! Get excited. Go for it. That educational brass ring - the "hook" to a renewed enthusiasm for learning is well within the reach of every educator. As was said to Mikey in the classic Life Cereal commercial, "Try it! You'll like it!"