World Conference on Education and Multimedia and Hypermedia
&
World Conference on Educational Telecommunications
Calgary, Canada
June 14-19, 1997
Cover Page
Type: Short Paper (15 min.) or Panel (1.5 hrs) or Roundtable (30 min)
Title: Educational Technology and Preservice Teachers
Topic: Ed-Media: Media in Education -- Educational Technology and Pre-Service Teachers
* Dr. Colleen Finegan-Stoll Dr. Ronald Helms
Ass’t Professor, Teacher Education Ass’t Professor,
Teacher Ed.
Wright State University Wright State University
376 Millett Hall 374 Millett Hall
Dayton, OH 45435 Dayton, OH 45435
cfinegan@desire.wright.edu rhelms@discgate.wright.edu
937-873-4582 937-873-4472
http://www.ed.wright.edu.cehs/stoll/stoll.htm ed.wright.edu.helms/rhelms.htm
* Designated contact presenter
Dr. Bonnie Mathies
Assistant Dean, Technology and Communications
244 C Millett Hall
Dayton, Oh 45435
bmathies@desire.wright.edu
937-873-2509
AV Equipment:
OH Projector/Screen
Power PC Mac w CD- ROM
LCD Projector/Screen
8-16 megs/1.2 GB
28.8 modem {or PPP}
Phone Line/Netscape(Latest version)
Astound
Pagemill
Educational Technology and Preservice Teachers
It is an agreed-upon tenant that in the 21st century, most occupations will require that even at entry level, high school graduates possess highly trained technological skills. Technical school and college/university graduates will be expected to possess ever more sophisticated technological skills as they enter the work force at possibly higher than entry level. With the technological explosion continuing to expand daily, preparation for the "real" world in terms of technology cannot be completed in one course, one semester or even one year. Training, preparation and the opportunities to interact with technology must be on-going, beginning as soon as children have the interest, whether in the home or in school. Educational technology in the classroom must become as commonplace as chalkboards and textbooks. Educational technology involves more than just computers, hypermedia, multi-media and educational telecommunications. Educational technology, as defined by Awbrey (1996) is “a dynamic system -- employing a combination of human and non-human resources to create effective learning environments”.
As is readily admitted by many educators today, even young elementary students are more computer-savvy than some of their teachers. The popular technology explosion is relatively recent, in terms of when most of the teachers in the classroom today went through their initial preparation. In order to prepare students for the 21st century, all elementary and secondary teachers must exhibit a high level of expertise in educational applications of technology. As a result, professors in higher education must model attitudes and skills consistent with current trends in educational technology in their interactions with preservice and inservice teachers.
Many educators in the classroom today received pre-service training in educational technology in the 1970's consisting of instruction on using reel-to-reel tape recorders, record players, movie cameras, opaque and overhead projectors and 8 or 16 mm. manually loaded film projectors. Graduate school or in-service opportunities for teachers in the 1980's may have consisted of training in using self-loading film projectors, language masters, listening stations and cassette recorders, VCR cameras and projectors, VHS and BETA style videos, and electric typewriters. Continuing education in the 1990's may have introduced the use of CD players, laser disk players and some knowledge of computers. Updated educational technology was truly something that most potential teachers learned about on their own, possibly before, but most likely after they graduated. Recognizing the importance of technology now and for the future, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) requires pre-service programs at colleges and universities to include educational technology in all coursework in which early childhood, elementary and secondary level teachers are prepared.
At Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, pre-service teachers are learning to use computers for more than just word processing. During their first quarter as education students, they learn to do on-line searches for information for a term paper using electronic retrieval systems; to use inter-library loan to order books and articles through OHIO Link; and to locate and download articles from on-line journals. Students learn to add images and color to their term papers and to use graphics programs to make sociograms of the classrooms in which they observe. When students present their term papers, they must model "best practices" for learning styles and design and present multimedia presentations, using applications such as Hyperstudio, Power Point, Astound, Digital Chisel and others.
In addition to accessing the internet for on-line chatting and notifying their professor of an upcoming absence, education students at Wright State discuss topics presented by professors and others in their classes through e-mail, listserves and user groups. As a study in comparative education, education students who are in a special block program with one of Wright State University's partnership schools, Shilohview Elementary in Trotwood, OH, interact with undergraduate students in Ireland and in rural Southern Florida. In addition, elementary students at Shilohview interact with elementary student keypals in Ireland by using the Internet.
Some educational technology classes at Wright State are available on the internet allowing students to progress at their own rate of speed, as their individual schedule permits, according to their own learning style. Those taking the course update colleagues on their own discoveries, tutor those who request help, and encourage one another through interaction in a newsgroup.
At Wright State University, first quarter education students (sophomores or juniors) begin the construction of a professional portfolio that will be completed during the student teaching experience. These portfolios document the pre-service teacher's growth as "Teacher as problem-solver" which is the model on which Wright State's teacher education program is based. The portfolios are modified throughout the teacher education program and are then often used with potential employers. These portfolios may include, in addition to the students’ biographies and resumes, papers discussing their educational philosophy, a self-evaluation of their personal strengths as indicated on the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory and other measures of teaching and learning styles. The opportunity is also provided for students to reflect on specific areas in which improvement may be needed. Records of field experiences, pictures of classes and individuals with whom the pre-service teacher has worked are also retained. Documentation of expertise in major academic areas as well as congratulatory announcements and letters of recommendation is also housed there.
In addition to the "hard copy,” other electronic formats for the professional portfolio have been considered. Pages of a student's portfolio were scanned and pressed into a compact disk format. Although very portable, the CD format does not lend itself to frequent updates. In addition, paper copies, such as transcripts and letters, are not as readable in a CD format as they are in the original. Students could retain their portfolios on a disk, but the inclusion of photos and graphics makes high memory demands.
Pre-packaged portfolio programs are available to collect samples of student work for evaluation. With some of these assessment applications, it is also possible to insert photos, pictures and other art work that have been scanned.
Another format for the portfolio that offers easy updating, almost unlimited memory, flexibility, easy accessibility and opportunity to utilize other forms of educational technology within the portfolio is the web page portfolio. The authors were awarded a Wright State University alumni grant to work with 21 undergraduate students involved in field experience at a partner school, Shilohview Elementary in Trotwood, OH. Each of these undergraduate students was provided the opportunity to create a 8-10 page personal, professional web page that is located on the Wright State's College of Education server. Some students chose to utilize Adobe's Pagemill application as a model for web site construction, and a few others chose applications from on-line services with which they were familiar. These student web pages include much of the same information that the traditional hard copy portfolio contained, with the addition of Quicktime movies -- short video clips showing the pre-service teacher in action. Students designed their pages according to personal preferences and often reflected their area of concentration (social studies, language arts, etc.), levels of certification (elementary, secondary, etc.) and outside interests (hiking, biking, etc.) in their theme, backgrounds, and images.
Students’ web pages also included an area in which they posted the addresses of “favorite web sites.” These URLs provided quick access to locations of personal interest, as well as home pages of educational organization (ASCD, NEA, AFT, etc.), and resources for teaching in the students’ areas of concentration.
As the students’ level of comfort with and expertise in using educational technology grows, their portfolios will be modified and reflect this growth. Students will continue to update their traditional hard copy portfolio as they update their web pages. When students are seeking their first teaching positions, they will be able to present their hard copy portfolios to their potential employer as evidence of their skills or, if the employer has access to the Internet, be able to log into the Wright State University Homepage and demonstrate their skills.
References
Awbrey, S. (Winter, 1996). Successfully integrating new technologies
into the higher education curriculum. Educational Technology Review , 5,
7-9,17.