INTIME Project Goals and Indicators  

The goals of this project provide direct solutions to each of the five barriers identified by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (1997) that prevent teacher education faculty from modeling appropriate integration of technology in their courses and requiring students to apply technology in their lessons and units.

Goals and Indicators

1. Each Renaissance university participating in the grant will ensure that methods faculty have access to adequate resources to support course revision to integrate technology.
   

   1. Methods classes will have access to classrooms with appropriate student: computer ratios.
      
   2. Increasing numbers of recent software titles will be available to faculty and students.
      
   3. Students will have increased access to computers for projects and assignments.

2. Each participating university will provide one-on-one technical support to those faculty members who are revising their courses to integrate technology.

1. Graduate assistants at each university will be available to teach faculty members one-on-one how to use a variety of new technology applications, as the faculty member desires.
   
2. Graduate assistants at each university will have regularly scheduled one-on-one time each week with each faculty member involved in the grant.

3. Methods faculty members will participate in faculty development programs to revise their methods course to incorporate new learning resources and new standards.

1. Methods faculty will participate in a three-day training conference about issues of technology integration.
   
2. Methods faculty will be satisfied with the training.
   
3. Methods faculty will access supporting training materials at the project website.
   
4. Methods faculty will learn strategies for integrating technology in their classes.

4. New learning resources will be developed and implemented, along with new standards, into methods courses.

1. Methods faculty will revise their courses to model implementation of best teaching practice with technology by incorporating online video best practice scenarios showing PreK-12 teachers integrating technology, along with other components of quality education, in a variety of grade levels and content areas.
   
2. Using the online discussion forum, methods faculty will model technology integration to engage preservice teachers in reflection and discussion about the video scenarios with the PreK-12 teachers in the videos, other preservice teachers and methods faculty, and their partner PreK-12 teachers.
   
3. Methods faculty will utilize the Technology As Facilitator of Quality Education Model with preservice teachers to analyze the video scenarios.
   
4. Methods students will utilize the Technology As Facilitator of Quality Education Model as a guide to incorporate technology appropriately into lessons and units.
   
5. Methods students will think critically about the integration of technology and components of quality education.
   
6. Methods faculty will implement the Preservice Teacher Technology Competencies as exit criteria for performance-based competencies in their courses.

5. Methods faculty will participate in networked learning communities at the project website.

1. Methods faculty will communicate with faculty from other universities in similar or cross-curricular areas to share methods and experiences with the integration of the new learning resources and new standards.

6. The professional evaluation team will assess (a) preservice teachers’ technology competency levels, (b) the instructional design and functionality of the new learning resources created for the project, (c) the effectiveness of the program to facilitate reflective thinking about the integration of technology and components of quality education, and (d) the degree to which the above five goals are accomplished.

Elaboration of Goals

1. Access to adequate resources. All of the universities involved have strong prior commitments to provide technological resources to support the teacher education program
   

2. Technical support. The grant will pay for a full-time master’s level graduate assistant (GA) at each university, who is enrolled full-time in education studies and possesses a strong background in instructional technology. The GAs will ensure that faculty members are able to access the project website and utilize all of its components successfully from their location. The GAs will troubleshoot and contact the project director at the University of Northern Iowa to solve any problems related to the website. In addition, the GAs will provide one-on-one support to faculty members who may wish to engage in learning new software programs or equipment operation.

 
3. Faculty development. Teacher education faculty will attend a three-day training conference at the University of Northern Iowa in the fall of 2000. The training conference will be supported by the project website, where faculty may go for additional training and online discussion forums after the conference. Following the training, they will receive a stipend to revise course curricula to model appropriate integration of technology and require students to apply technology, along with the components of quality education, in their lessons and units. The professional development conference will be sponsored in conjunction with the North Central Regional Education Laboratory (NCREL). NCREL has committed to provide support in conference planning and access to their database of professional development speakers.

   Faculty will receive training about ways to integrate technology into a course without giving up other content in an already packed curriculum. Methods faculty will revise courses to model new teaching practices that depend on access to information technology, in which learners actively construct their own learning from a base of prior knowledge, attitudes, and values. Faculty will receive training about how to incorporate the new learning resources and implement the new standards as exit criteria for their methods courses. Since many teacher education faculty are opposed to "one-shot" training sessions that focus on hardware or software, this training conference will focus on issues of technology integration. It will not attempt to cover specific hardware or software applications, and it will be supported by a project website for continued learning, including a networked learning community for participants to discuss issues related to technology integration in their methods courses.

4. New learning resources and standards. The new learning resources will include videos of best practices showing scenarios from PreK-12 classrooms where teachers are integrating technology and as many components of quality education as possible. The video scenarios will help methods faculty and preservice teachers stay in touch with PreK-12 classrooms, thus breaking down time-worn distinctions between preservice and inservice teaching. Video scenarios from PreK-12 classrooms across the nation will be stored on a video server at the University of Northern Iowa and made accessible to anyone at the project website. In addition, the methods faculty and students and PreK-12 teachers will utilize Web-based instructional materials and an online discussion forum to foster reflective discussions about the methods of technology integration combined with best learning practices. Methods faculty will also revise their courses to include firsthand observations of technology integration in their partner PreK-12 classrooms.
   
   Preservice Teacher Technology Competencies developed at the University of Northern Iowa will be implemented as exit criteria for the methods courses revised for this grant. Students will complete a pre-assessment and post-assessment self-reporting survey based on the technology competencies, which will assess improvement in technology competencies as a result of the integration of technology into methods courses.

 

5. Networked learning communities. This  goal addresses the university academic culture, which rewards and recognizes individuality among faculty. Through participation in the online discussion forum, methods faculty will engage in networked learning communities, in which they may communicate with methods faculty from other universities in similar or cross-curricular areas. This collaborative environment helps to decrease feelings of isolation and individuality as faculty share methods and experiences related to the integration of new learning resources and new standards.

 

6. Project Evaluation. There will be two parallel efforts of project evaluation. Methods faculty who integrate technology into courses will evaluate effectiveness of the resources and strategies for technology integration. In addition, a professional evaluation team will evaluate the overall effectiveness of the project.

References

           National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. (1997). Technology and the new professional teacher: Preparing for the 21st century classroom. Washington, DC: Author.