ARTICLE 4 Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology: Perspectives of the Leaders of Twelve National Education Associations

ARTICLE 4

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology: Perspectives of the Leaders of Twelve National Education Associations

Edited by LYNN BELL
University of Virginia

The U.S. Department of Education has concluded that preparing technology-proficient educators to meet the needs of 21st-century learning is a critical educational challenge facing the nation. More than two thirds of the nation's teachers will be replaced by new teachers over the next decade. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that the next generation of future teachers emerging from the nation's teacher education programs is prepared to meet this challenge.

Teacher educator associations representing the core content areas, as well as educational technology, have established an alliance to explore the most effective means of accomplishing this goal. Members of this alliance include the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science (AETS), the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), the College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) of the National Council for the Social Studies, the Conference on English Education (CEE) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE).

These associations represent the teacher education faculty who prepare future teachers to teach science, mathematics, English, and social studies. They have jointly undertaken a National Technology Leadership Initiative (NTLI) in concert with the U.S. Department of Education, with support from the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) grant program. Among other activities, members of the NTLI alliance and the U.S. Department of Education sponsored two National Technology Leadership Retreats (NTLR) that brought together the leaders of a dozen national education associations.

These deliberations produced conclusions and recommendations about approaches to effectively preparing teachers to use technology, as well as continuing discussion and collaboration designed to extend best practices. This article describes ongoing conversations about information technology and teacher preparation taking place among leaders of social studies, mathematics, science, and English educator organizations and their respective teacher organizations. Their conclusions should be of interest to anyone who works with teacher educators, preservice teachers, and in-service teachers from multiple content areas.

Cross-Disciplinary Dialog

To encourage discussion between and among content area associations, an initial National Technology Leadership Retreat (NTLR 2000) was held in September 2000. A total of 17 national education associations sent leaders to the retreat ' four content-specific teacher educator associations, five content-specific teacher associations, two educational technology associations, and six general (non-subject-specific) teacher and teacher education associations.

The objectives of the leadership retreat were (a) to review and discuss draft content area guidelines for the preparation of social studies, mathematics, science, and English teachers to use information technology (which were developed by representatives from CUFA, AMTE, AETS, and CEE); and (b) to plan formal mechanisms for feedback to extend and continue the dialog initiated at the retreat.

A second retreat, NTLR 2001, was convened in March 2001 to continue the dialog between teacher educator associations and their related teacher associations. Thirteen organizations were represented at this retreat (a list of participating organizations is included in the appendix ). In addition to various presidents, board members, and executive directors of teacher educator and teacher associations, participants included members of some associations' technology committees, content area editors of the online journal Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education , and teacher educators on the NTLI Task Force.

This article summarizes discussions held by each of the four content area groups, who met separately and then reported the results of their discussions to the entire group of retreat participants. The notes from their discussions were transcribed and compiled. Then participants from CUFA, AMTE, AETS, and CEE collaborated in clarifying and expanding on points recorded in this article. The article describes perspectives of each content area group about goals for integrating appropriate information technology use in teacher preparation, definitions of technology by content area, issues surrounding technology in teacher preparation, and questions that still need to be answered. Draft recommendations for appropriate uses of information technology for each content area are described further in the online journal Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education , Volume 1, Issue 1 ( www.citejournal.org/ ).

Goals for Integrating Technology in Teacher Preparation

Participants met in groups by content area and developed a list of broad goals for promoting appropriate technology use in teacher education. The content area teacher educator associations would play the primary role in developing action plans for and implementing these goals.

Mathematics Education

• Prepare preservice teachers to appropriately incorporate technology into their teaching, in regular classrooms equipped with graphing calculators and a computer and in computer labs, to enhance students' conceptual understanding of mathematics and its applications.
• Prepare preservice teachers to become savvy using, evaluating, and choosing technologies.
• Prepare preservice teachers to modify their curricula and develop materials to capitalize on available technologies.
• Prepare preservice teachers to learn how to be resourceful and learn how to lobby to get what they need.
• Prepare preservice teachers for a changing educational world; emerging technologies will have curricular and instructional implications.
• Develop professional development models for both teachers and teacher educators (e.g., workshops and panel discussions at AMTE and the National Council of Mathematics Teachers, on-line courses for mathematics teacher educators, virtual subgroup meetings).
• Develop mechanisms for teachers and teacher educators to share materials and successful efforts.
• Develop a research agenda to investigate the effects of effective technology use on students' learning of mathematics.

Science Education

• Convince teachers/educators that appropriate technology can make their jobs easier.
• Encourage teachers to teach in ways they have not taught before.
• Develop technology innovations that appeal to a large variety of learning styles.
• Because research will follow practice, science education needs to find advocates who are committed to developing appropriate uses ' compelling cases. Researchable situations are necessary, and agreement on important research questions would be helpful. There is currently no shared vision for education research, in general.
• Technology must be an enabler. Right now it is often an end in itself. It is still not recognized for the useful means that it can be.
• Help teachers/educators develop a vision for ways technology can help accomplish what we think is important to accomplish.
• Determine what technology is needed to help science educators teach what they think is important to teach. If they ask for it, maybe they will get it.
• Train science teachers to be discriminating about using technology appropriately. Science educators must help preservice teachers navigate the market environment we all live in whether we agree with it or not.
• Take advantage of opportunities to learn how to learn with technology.
• Set up foundational knowledge in technology, because if new teachers get past the first couple of years, they may be able to incorporate it later in their career.

Social Studies Education

• Develop case studies of "best practices" in the integration of technology in the social studies classroom. Develop teachers who are "change agents" in K-12 schools. Work with NCSS members on presentations and publications focusing on teacher partnerships and classroom projects, especially in schools with inadequate resources, that teach, for example, online deliberation skills or critical evaluation of websites.
• Encourage more research in context: How technology integration happens, influences on preservice teachers and students, and so forth.
• Social justice and technology issues should come together within CUFA. Look for ways to broaden the audience of this discussion, especially at future CUFA conferences. More focused discussion topics would include:
• Access and equity concerns.
• The notion that environmental differences will change as a result of technology (physical infrastructure, classroom interactions, learning strategies).
• Student learning outcomes (incremental assessment).
• Helping other faculty integrate technology into their research (mentoring).
• "Visions of the Possible", what is needed to make technology integration a reality?
• Interdiscipinary collaboration opportunities.
• Continue data collection and analysis on the CUFA study, 'Survey of Social Studies Faculty: Technology Beliefs and Practices.'

English Education

In order to successfully integrate technology into English methods courses, the use of technology needs to become part of our 'professional conversations,' part of the culture of English educators who belong to the National Council of Teachers of English and the Conference on English Education. Toward those ends, the Conference on English Education has developed these goals:

• Support the re-development of NCTE's technology infrastructure, notably the move of all teacher journals online.
• Increase the number of technology-mediated conference presentations and to study further methods of mediating the higher cost of increased numbers of technology-focused conference presentations.
• Develop a task force charged with developing guidelines for 'best practice' in teaching English online.
• Build on the work of the task force mentioned above by using the guidelines to develop additional online professional development opportunities for English teachers and teacher educators.
• Reach consensus on an initial document that represents the fields understanding of best practice in the integration of technology into English education methods courses.
• Form a CEE Commission to support ongoing research, application, and assessment of the integration of technology into English courses charged with the following objectives:
• Define and undertake praxis-oriented research related to the integration of technology into English courses.
• Develop technology-focused articles to submit to CEE's analog and online journals.
• Compose, draft, and publish for peer review a list of hardware and software deemed necessary for the effective preparation of English language arts teachers.
• Draft recommendations for technology-related revisions to the Guidelines for the Preparation of English Language Arts Teachers.
• Develop and maintain a portion of the CEE website (or an alternative website) devoted to issues related to technology including, for instance, an annotated bibliography of relevant articles, software and hardware reviews, grant opportunities, conference and workshop announcements, and refereed lists of online resources.

Appropriate Uses of Technology

Some uses of technology are employed in much the same way in every discipline. These generic tools include use of videoconferencing to link students at different locations, use of communication tools such as electronic mail and Internet discussion groups, and productivity tools. In every case the degree of access to technology, available bandwidth, and convenience of use affects the extent to which it will be used.

As a result of these discussions, it became clear that, although some uses of technology transcend academic disciplines, other uses are more applicable in specific content areas. The widespread use of graphing calculators has transformed secondary mathematics education. Increasing access to primary on-line sources has similar potential to transform social studies and history. The use of simulation software enhances the learning of complex concepts in science education. Access to audiences for written works could potentially change aspects of English education. These uses are particularly suited for specific disciplines ' graphing calculators were designed to support mathematics education, not English education.

As a corollary, it is often the case that teacher education faculty are most familiar with uses specific to their academic discipline. This section describes how the retreat participants in each content area defined technology.

Mathematics Education

Technology should be used to support exploration, conceptual learning, and applications of mathematics. Some specific tools would include the following:

• Graphing calculators, fraction calculators, and other handheld technologies.
• Spreadsheets.
• Probeware (e.g., CBL).
• Dynamic geometry programs (e.g., Geometer's Sketchpad ).
• Probability and statistics software (e.g., Fathom ).
• Topic specific software (e.g., Green Globs ).
• Computer algebra systems.
• Mathematics related websites.

As well as

• Communication tools (e.g., e-mail, video-conferencing).
• Presentation tools.
• Digital video.

Science Education

Science educators participating in the retreat look for technology that promotes inquiry learning and makes scientific views more accessible to students. Tools science educators are currently using include

• Digital microscopes.
• Simulation software (e.g., Starry Night Pro ).
• Weather stations.
• Web sites with simulators and data collections.
• Spreadsheets.
• Graphing calculators.
• Presentation software.

Social Studies

Social studies educators who participated in the retreat promote the use of technology tools that extend learning opportunities in a context specific to the social studies, provide opportunities for students to study relationships among science, technology, and society, and foster the development of the skills, knowledge, and participation as good citizens in a democratic society. Some of these tools include the critical use and application of the following:

• Electronic discussion groups in methods classes.
• Digital resource centers with primary resources.
• Digital video cameras.
• Handheld computing devices.
• Videoconferencing/electronic whiteboards.
• Spreadsheets.
• Quantitative and qualitative statistical software packages.
• Internet2.
• Presentation software.

English Education

English educators see technology as a tool both for communication and creation'a place where literacy is used, developed, and even redefined. They often cite the shift in literacy that has come through reading and writing'i.e., that people read and write/decode and create not just from left to right but also in and out, up and down. This literacy shift is major for considering the impact of technology on meaning-making and creation.

English educators generally define technology as a tool'a tool for learning, creating, communicating, thinking, representing, and researching. Like mathematics and the other content areas, English educators use technology to 'do' English'i.e., writing, reading (decoding and encoding), attending (listening and speaking), and viewing (evaluating). While English often focuses on process, it also focuses on product'quality products grow from quality processes. In the English community 'technology' refers not only to computer technology but also video, musical, and tactile'all of which, of course, can be combined in computer technology with multimedia functions.

Technologies used to accommodate this definition include the following:

• Internet publishing
• Electronic journaling and discussion groups
• E-mail
• Web sites
• Electronic portfolios
• Internet research
• Applications for communication to self and others
• Videoconferencing for cultural communication exchanges
• Text creation through word processing, graphics, and numerous other applications
• Word processing

Volume 1, Issue 4     ISSN 1528-5804    

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Bell, L. (Ed.) (2001). Preparing tomorrow's teachers to use technology: Perspectives of the leaders of twelve national education associations.Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education [Online Serial] , 1(4) . Available:http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss4/currentissues/general/article1.htm