Journal of Technology and Teacher Education

Volume 7, Number 4 1999

Using Portfolios inEducational Technology Courses

Producing Video-CasesThat Enhance Instruction

Technology in TeacherPreparation: Preparing Teachers for the Future

Technology forPreservice Teachers: “Driver Education” for the

InformationSuperhighway

Preparing TechnicallyCompetent Student Teachers: A Three Year Study of Interventions andExperiences

The TechnologyCompetencies Database: Computer Support for Assessment, Teaching, andPortfolio Management

Preparing PreserviceTeachers for the Technological Classroom:

A School—CollegePartnership

Joni Falk, Jack Lochhead, Gloria Jacobs, Bridget Mooney, and BrianDrayton

joni_falk@terc.edu

Teacher Enhancement Electronic Communications Hall (TEECH) isfunded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), to promotecollaboration, and communication among Principal Investigators (PIs)of math and science teacher enhancement grants. The paper describes astudy of the communication needs of the project’s constituency,and describes some of the challenges, roadblocks, and successes thatTEECH has encountered in attempting to forge a virtual community ofleaders in teacher enhancement. The paper will address lessonslearned along the way in developing virtual communities of practicewith a special emphasis on examining the impact of varying thestructure and characteristics of listserv dialogues. Lessons sharedby TEECH on strategies for encouraging communication will be of valueto many who are interested in building electronic communities ofpractice.

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Using Portfolios inEducational Technology Courses

James D. Russell and Cheryl Butcher

jrussell@purdue.edu

This article describes the evolution of student evaluations.Traditionally a major, if not the sole, method of student evaluationwas a paper-and-pencil test. In the past some instructors assigned anumber of small-scale, disconnected practice exercises. Later theyoffered a menu of projects of a larger scale. Today the trend is toencourage students to compile portfolios of professional qualitywork, organized around major themes. The nature of portfolios andtheir advantages and limitations will be explored. The use ofportfolios in two different educational technology courses will bedescribed.“ In many schools, students are being evaluated on thebasis of portfolios that document what they can do in language arts,science, social studies, and other skill areas. Portfolios ofteninclude such items as student-produced books, videos, andaudio-visual presentations,” (Heinich, Molenda, Russell, &Smaldino, 1999, p. 20)

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ProducingVideo-Cases That Enhance Instruction

Liz Stephens and Judy Leavell

LCS@tenet.edu

Marta Fabris

Rhonda Buford and Margaret Hill

Research on video-case methodology in teacher education indicatesthat preservice teachers benefit from the opportunity to collectivelyview and critique methods of teaching. This collaborative analysis isgreatly enhanced when video cases are delivered in a manner thatmakes purposefully selected segments of video, or minicases, easilyaccessible. CD-ROM, laserdisk, and the newest information storageformat, DVD, can do that; however, creating video case basedinstructional programs requires careful planning throughout theprocess of design, development, and evaluation. Four such video-caseinstructional programs are outlined, and authors of the programsdefine and describe important considerations in the making of theprograms. Considerations range from philosophical issues such as theidentification of a learning theory model to pragmatic ones such asthe cost of duplicating a CD-ROM or laserdisk.

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Technology inTeacher Preparation: Preparing Teachers for the Future

Mark G. Gillingham

markgill@uic.edu

Andrew Topper

topperan@pilot.msu.edu

Faculty and administrators in teacher preparation programs facethe dilemma of preparing teachers for an unknown, but increasinglytechnological classroom. We present four possible solutions to theproblem of preparing teachers for the future and using technology inclassrooms: single course, technology infusion, student performance,and case based. Each of these approaches has both positive andnegative aspects. As an example of one college’s solution, wepresent a case of the preparation and implementation of technology inteacher preparation at Michigan State University. We conclude that itis imperative that faculty and administrators of teacher preparationprograms learn about modern information and communication technologyand incorporate them into their programs in meaningful ways.

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Technology forPreservice Teachers: “Driver Education” for the InformationSuperhighway

Jean Anne Hattler

hattler@chatham.edu

The rapid advances in technology present challenges to collegiatedepartments of education in their preservice-teacher coursework.Specifically, in this paper, the use of the Internet’s WorldWide Web (WWW), the information superhighway, is presented as oneimportant way to integrate technology and the vast amount ofinformation it makes available.

The discussion includes a look at the current and futureimplementations of technology in American education. If preserviceteachers are to become technologically literate and bring technologyinto their classrooms effectively, it is imperative that preserviceteachers experience online learning. Thus, websites offer“driver education” for traveling the informationsuperhighway to preservice teachers. A myriad of websites which covertopics from children’s literature to favorite adolescent authorsto specific content areas as math, science, art, music, socialstudies, health, multicultural, and physical education are included.Websites offer online learners a variety of lesson plans, teachingstyles, and strategies for learning situations. Additionally,websites and Internet chat rooms address issues specific todevelopmental or academic needs of students, professional growth, andstate and national reform efforts in education.

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PreparingTechnically Competent Student Teachers: A Three Year Study ofInterventions and Experiences

Janice M. Stuhlmann

janice@asterix.ednet.lsu.edu

Harriet G. Taylor

Although most universities are training preservice teachers to usetechnology, information on how student teachers incorporatetechnology into their teaching practices is sparse. This articledescribes the types of training and support preservice teachersreceived as part of a technology infusion initiative and thendescribes the experiences of four technically competent studentteachers during their field placements to determine barriers, thekinds of support they gave and received, and their impact onstudents, cooperating teachers, and school sites in general. Severalfactors affected the quality of the student teachers’experiences. Most notable were: the availability of computers andInternet access in schools; the attitude and computer competencylevels of cooperating teachers; and the attitude of school principalstoward the use of technology in schools. This study provides insightinto the circumstances and experiences necessary to producetechnically competent teachers, the importance of meaningful fieldplacements, and the conditions under which interns practice and honetheir teaching skills.

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The TechnologyCompetencies Database: Computer Support for Assessment, Teaching, andPortfolio Management

Michael Waugh

mwaugh@westga.edu

James Levin and James Buell

j-levin@uiuc.edu

jbuell@uiuc.edu

The teacher education programs at the University of Illinois inUrbana-Champaign have no single, foundational course in instructionaltechnologies. Rather, we work with our instructors to infuse relevantand appropriate instructional technologies into each course in ourteacher education programs.

Recently, National Council on Accreditation of Teacher Education(NCATE) adopted the International Society fro Technology in Education(ISTE) developed standards that identify the critical instructionaltechnology concepts/topics that should be included in all teachereducation programs. Given the distributed structure of our approachto incorporating technology into our programs, we felt the need todevelop a software tool that would assist instructors in situatingspecific technology experiences within a series of courses. Inaddition, we needed a system that would enable instructors tocollaborate effectively in assessing students’ competenceregarding each standard. Further, we wanted a system that wouldprovide student access to their records and an easy means ofsubmitting evidence in support of their attainment of the requiredskills and experiences.

To meet this need, we developed the Technology CompetenciesDatabase (TCD), a World-Wide Web (WWW)-based software tool that willenable a group of faculty to collaborate more effectively inproviding technology experiences to their students. The TCD is aFileMaker Pro database running on a Macintosh computer that is also aWWW server. Students and instructors interact with the system at anytime of day and from any location using any web browser software.

The TCD contains individual records for each student and enablesthem to submit statements and materials in support of theirattainment of the ISTE/NCATE standards (which we refer to as theTechnology Competency statements). These submissions are accessibleby the students’ instructors; and the students and instructorsmay exchange messages regarding the competency statements, thestudents’ submissions and any additional work that will berequired by the instructor.

The students’ submissions and the faculty responses are allpreserved in the database and can be sorted in various ways toprovide the faculty with reports regarding where each competency isaddressed in each program and, most importantly, what kinds ofactivities each faculty member is accepting as evidence that eachcompetency has been met. The TCD system may be very valuable inhelping to ensure that each student is being held to the samestandards of performance. In addition, it will help us to demonstratewhere and how each technology competency is acquired by students.Further, it will allow the students to create an electronic portfolioof their technology expertise.

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PreparingPreservice Teachers for the Technological Classroom: ASchool—College Partnership

Kay Johnson-Gentile and Rosemary Lonberger

Johnsok@buffalostate.edu

Lonberrp@buffalostate.edu

Joseph Parana and Annette West

JPARANA@mailgate.Drew.Buffalo.k12.NY.US

This paper describes the first year of an ongoing professionaldevelopment school (PDS) project designed to integrate computertechnology into elementary school lessons, while simultaneouslyproviding educational technology experiences for preservice teachers(third-year elementary education majors) and student teachers, aswell as their cooperating teachers and college supervisors. Collegestudents report remarkable gains in instructionally-relevanttechnology skills and their lessons reflected these skills.

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