Nancy Ellen Atkins
Wake County Public Schools /Technology601 Devereux StreetRaleigh, NC 27611 USAEllen Storey Vasu
Box 7801Department of Curriculum and InstructionNorth Carolina State UniversityRaleigh, NC 27695-7801 USAesvasu@unity.ncsu.edu
This study examined middle school teachers’ concerns,knowledge, and use of technology in teaching, and how these relatedto their school’s level of technology integration. The ComputingConcerns Questionnaire (SoCC) (Martin, 1989) and the Teaching withTechnology Instrument (TTI) (Atkins, Frink, & Viersen, 1995) wereadministered to teachers at three schools (N = 155). Resultsrevealed significant (a = .05) relationships between SoCC and:TTI, computer confidence, and hours of technology training. TTI wassignificantly (a = .05) related to: computer confidence, homeand school access to computers, hours of technology training, andage. Schools with higher levels of technology integration hadsignificantly higher mean TTI scores. By better assessing the typesof technology training that teachers need, instruments like the TTIare useful to schools in planning more effective technology staffdevelopment.
Constance P. Hargrave AND Ying-Shao Hsu
Iowa State UniversityAmes, IA USAcph@cph.mailiastate.edu
Most teacher preparation programs offer one course in whichpreservice teachers are to develop their basic technology skills. Ifinnovative pedagogy is the goal (of technology use in the classroom),the single instructional technology course may not effectivelyprepare preservice teachers to meet this goal. Knowledge of theformat, content, and emphasis of the formal technology instructionthat preservice teachers receive is imperative for establishingtechnology expectations for future teachers. Furthermore, suchknowledge will provide insight into the status of instructionaltechnology within schools of education. The preparation of preserviceteachers to effectively use instructional technology is contingent,in part, on the basic attitudes and skills that preservice teachersdevelop with regards to instructional technology. In this article,the results of a survey of instructional technology courses at 88teacher preparation institutions are presented. Descriptivestatistics of the course format, content, and instructional emphasisare reported. Data analysis indicated that, in the introductoryinstructional technology courses, significantly more emphasis wasplaced on integrating instructional technologies into the curriculumthan on using technologies for teacher productivity or personaluse.
Peter R. Albion
University of Southern QueenslandToowoomba, Q 4350, Australiaalbion@usq.edu.au
Ian W. Gibson
Wichita State UniversityWichita, KS, 67260-0142, USAigibson@twsu.edu
Interactive multimedia (IMM) and problem-based learning (PBL) areboth significant trends in contemporary educational practice but theyhave not been widely applied together in teacher education. An IMMpackage based on PBL principles is being developed to assist teachersin learning to integrate technology into their teaching. Itincorporates examples of the work and reflections of experiencedteachers in a framework designed to engage users with authenticproblems of professional practice. Preliminary evaluation of aprototype suggests that the strengths of IMM and PBL can be combinedto produce a good effect.
Rhonda Christensen and Gerald Knezek
Texas Center for Educational Technology, University of NorthTexasPO Box 311337, Denton, TX 76203 USArhondac@tenet.edu
gknezek@tenet.edu
A compendium of 14 previously-published instruments for assessingteachers’ attitudes toward computers was administered to 621educators in Texas, Florida, New York, and California during 1995-96.A total of 284 items extracted from 14 previously publishedinstruments, and falling on 32 subscales, were included on theinstrument titled the Teachers’ Attitude Toward ComputersQuestionnaire (TAC). Since many of the subscales were a decade old,an initial question to be resolved was whether the scales, asoriginally, published were still reliable. This article focuses onthat question.
Avril M. Loveless
School of EducationUniversity of Brighton, Falmer, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 9PH, UK.A.M.Loveless@brighton.ac.uk oraml@pavilion.co.uk
This article gives an account of the development of a researchperspective in pedagogy and information and communicationtechnologies (ICT) in the context of visual education and the digitalarts. The process shows the movement from realism to relativism; froma seemingly clear cut approach of observation and categorisation;through a critique of models of information literacy; to therestructuring of a project to investigate the interaction betweenteachers’ knowledge of their pedagogical practices and theirknowledge of ICT. It raises questions about the role that researchcan play in providing a view of pedagogy, both current andpotential.
Laura E. Sujo de Montes
Northern Arizona University–Center for Excellence inEducation AZ USALaura.Sujodemontes@nau.edu
Carmen L. Gonzales
New Mexico State University–College of Education NM USAcarmen@nmsu.edu
Technology has become ubiquitous everywhere, except in schools.Although many schools are now acquiring the technology, not enoughmoney is being set aside for professional development of teachers inthe use of technology. Consequently, teachers do not feel adequatelyprepared to integrate technology into their daily practice. Thepurpose of this study was to examine the use of the World Wide Web(Web) and e-mail as a viable option for the professional developmentof K-12 educators. Two classes were investigated: one delivered usingthe Web and another one in a face-to-face environment. Quantitativeand qualitative methods were used in this investigation. Theresearchers concluded that distance learning is not an education ofinferior quality to those university courses taught on campus, andthat classes delivered on the Web provide a viable option forprofessional development of K-12 teachers.
Ying-Chen L. Milbrath
CPO Library, Berea CollegeBerea, KY 47404 USAying-chen_milbrath@smtpgtwy.berea.edu
Mable B. Kinzie
Curry School of EducationUniversity of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22903 USAkinzie@virginia.edu
To be effective users of computer technologies and be models forstudents’ computer use, teachers must have positive computerattitudes and feel self-efficacious in using them. The computertraining that teachers receive through their teacher educationprogram is likely to foster positive computer affect, yet the changemay require time and development. This longitudinal study examinedprospective teachers’ changes in perceived anxiety/discomfortwith and usefulness of computer technology, frequency of using wordprocessing, e-mail, spreadsheets, database management, statisticalpackages, and CD-ROM databases, and perceived self-efficacy with thesix selected computer technologies over three years of study.Statistical analyses of data involved three time periods and twostudent-teacher cohorts. Significant time effect, cohort effect, andtime by cohort interaction effect are discussed.