Teacher Training For Effective Technology Integration

Teacher Training 1 Running Head: TEACHER TRAINING

Teacher Training for Effective Technology Integration Heather Dowd December 5, 2007 Northern Illinois University

Teacher Training 2 Teacher Training for Effective Technology Integration Even though schools spend more and more money on technology, many schools have technology that sits underused or not used at all. Teachers are not prepared to use technology for more than PowerPoint, spreadsheets, and word processing. What should be done to prepare teachers to use technology in a more meaningful way? The articles summarized here provide a possible answer to this question. Two articles proffer models of professional development that lead to a more authentic experience for preservice and current classroom teachers to learn integration of technology. The third article outlines some of the problems that school districts have with regards to technology education for teachers and gives solutions that can foster long lasting, more-than-word-processing technology integration skills for teachers. Perhaps the knowledge that these articles offer can help school districts create a successful faculty development program to encourage better integration of technology in classrooms. Summary of Articles Content Area Specific Technology Integration: A Model For Educating Teachers In this article, Dexter, Doering, and Riedel (2006) relate their experience facilitating a content area specific technology integration preparation program for preservice teachers at the University of Minnesota. Their project, called Ed-U-Tech, was designed to restructure faculty and curriculum development, create opportunities for and prepare preservice teachers to integrate technology into lessons, create resources for technology integration. To achieve these goals, researchers hired fourteen Minneapolis pubic school teachers to be mentors to teacher education faculty and also act as a liaison between methods and technology course instructors. The public school teachers worked with methods course and technology course instructors to create content specific learning activities for preservice teachers. The university also restructured the

Teacher Training 3 Technology for Teaching and Learning course so that each section was content specific. Ed-U-Tech principles were based on a study of “exemplary approaches to train teachers to use technology” and on the need to train teachers to “use technology in the context of their subject area” (p. 326). The study done by the Beryl Buck Institute for Education looked at four schools of education, where, because instructors modeled the use of technology and students were required to use technology in a meaningful way, students were better able to see how they could use technology in their future classrooms (as cited in Dexter, Doering, & Riedel, 2006). Researchers also cited studies on learning to teach that support a content area specific approach. The Ed-U-Teach project used these ideas to guide their work in creating a content area specific technology integration program. Researchers found three main things necessary to create a successful content area specific technology integration program: access to resources, faculty members’ willingness to learn, and successful communication and coordination. New hardware and software as well as access to technology facilities were important. The public school teachers were a tremendous help to faculty interested in learning better ways to integrate technology, but the most successful faculty members were the ones who were willing to learn and change their teaching. The public school teachers also facilitated better communication between the technology instructors and the methods course instructors. Some collaborated so well that they created activities that spanned both classes and allowed preservice teachers an even more authentic experience in creating and using technology infused lesson plans. A Situative Perspective on a Collaborative Model for Integrating Technology into Teaching Similar to the previous article, Franklin and Sessoms (2005) summarize a model of collaborative professional development designed to facilitate meaningful technology integration

Teacher Training 4 by classroom teachers, university faculty, and preservice teachers. The year-long project created design teams that included a university faculty member, a K-8 teacher with training in integrating technology, and two other K-8 teachers. The goals were to create curriculum rich in technology use, increase the use of technology by university faculty and K-8 classroom teachers, and give preservice teachers experience integrating technology in their coursework and student teaching. Throughout the year, the design teams created lesson plans for use by classroom and preservice teachers, and they redesigned coursework for the methods classes to better integrate technology. The authors note that there is much research on effective professional development models, but not on models that help change teachers’ beliefs about technology integration. This study is an attempt to add to the latter. The authors adopted a situated cognition view of learning in order to create a professional development model to help teachers integrate technology. This view states that context is important, knowledge is social, and knowledge is distributed across people and tools. This provided the rationale in creating design teams of individuals who could all contribute equally to the project goals. Participants in this study changed their view technology from a tool to do word processing to something that can be integrated into content. All participants gained better technology skills. Another benefit to the project was the development of relationships between university faculty and classroom teachers and hence between theory and practice. These relationships have facilitated more collaboration since this study ended. This project allowed for both the university faculty member and the classroom teacher to have equal roles and benefit from each other’s expertise. How Teachers Learn Technology Best McKenzie (2001) argues that many of the professional development models used in the

Teacher Training 5 past are not effective for training teachers to integrate technology into their classrooms. He identifies two main problems that schools districts have. First, some districts have focused on buying and installing technology without focusing on professional development to train teachers to use the technology. Second, when professional development is provided, it focuses too much on teaching software skills. “Because skills are often learned out of context, they seem remote from classroom practice and leave many teachers wondering about their utility and worth” (Weakness of Past Efforts and the Training Model section, para. 1). McKenzie also identifies some solutions. Most importantly, school districts need to focus on changing their professional development models. Teachers need to know more than just how to use software. Schools should promote technology “usage that is curriculum rich” (Defining the Challenges section, para. 1). Schools must show teachers how to use technology in ways that engage students in “problem-based or project based learning” (Evidence of Shortfalls section, para. 4). He advocates putting curriculum and literacy before software and technology and to also get away from training strategies of the past and use adult learning strategies that consider learning styles and needs of teachers. An example of a training model is a one-day technology session in which all teachers in a school participate. Training is out of context and happens infrequently. The main beliefs of the adult learning model are that the learner chooses the content and takes responsibility for his or her learning. Adult learning puts learning into context as opposed to training models that are separate from teacher practice. Some examples of adult learning models are professional development plans, study groups, curriculum development/invention teams, technology coaches/mentors, informal support groups, help lines/FAQs, excursions, and online learning. Discussion

Teacher Training 6 There are some common themes regarding training teachers to integrate technology that emerge from the previous three articles: collaboration is important, technology training should be ongoing, and technology training should be situated in context. There are connections among the three themes. Collaboration implies that training is ongoing since collaboration does not happen in a one-day training event. Unlike collaboration and the ongoing nature of training, which can be applied to all teachers, the type of training should be in context for each teacher. Therefore, although the ideas of collaboration and ongoing training can be applied across the curriculum, the training itself should be rooted in the content area of the teacher. These themes, as well as some ideas for future projects, will be discussed with the purpose to synthesize this information and find the best way to prepare teachers to integrate technology meaningfully. The first two articles both describe collaborative models for facilitating better technology integration in university methods courses and hence in future classrooms. In both situations, the collaboration between university faculty and classroom teachers led to an increased skill set for everyone involved as well as providing an opportunity for teachers and university faculty to reflect on best practices and how to better integrate technology. Technology faculty members learned about content, and content area instructors learned about technology. Faculty members provided theory based insights to classroom teachers, and classroom teachers provided knowledge of what actually works to faculty members. McKenzie (2001) offers a list of effective strategies and projects to help teachers integrate technology. Several of his strategies are also based on collaboration between teachers and between teachers and a technology coach. Through these partnerships, there can be a deeper level of communication and reflection on the issues of technology integration. Everyone involved gains another perspective as well as support for trying new ideas.

Teacher Training 7 In order for collaboration between people to be successful, the collaboration should be ongoing. In each of the first two studies, participants were involved in the projects for at least one year. Training did not come in the form of a one-day workshop. The one shot approach is not an effective model for training teachers (as cited in Franklin & Sessoms, 2005). Training happened all year in the form of collaboration meetings, reflections on strategies used in the classroom, and some content specific technology skills training. McKenzie (2001) notes that teachers “must be convinced of the value of the new activities and then given ample time to work on teams to invent effective lessons” (Professional Development as Organizational Development section, para. 3). Ongoing support means the professional development model must be designed in such a way to provide time to all participants continuously over a period of time. New learning is constantly reinforced and time is provided for reflection. A strong theme in all three articles is the importance of putting learning in context. Teaching technology skills (using software and hardware) alone does not lead to integration of technology in K-12 classrooms. All three articles show or argue that embedding the technology learning into the curriculum leads to not only integration of technology, but meaningful integration. Dexter, Doering, and Riedel (2006) describe a preservice teacher education program that requires students to take a technology for learning course that is no longer separate from their content areas. The study reported by Franklin and Sessoms (2005) had similar successes. Pairing methods course instructors with K-8 teachers provided an opportunity for university faculty and K-8 teachers to work on authentic technology-rich lesson plans for both K-8 students and preservice teachers. Using these models, technology education becomes content specific and tied to the corresponding methods course. Preservice teachers and classroom teachers are learning technology in the context in which they will use it in their classrooms. This change

Teacher Training 8 definitely poses a challenge. The curriculum for preparing teachers to integrate technology must be changed. Money is required to buy specialized software and hardware for the various content areas. However, the benefits are great. Preservice and classroom science teachers can now explore using data gathering probes and software. Preservice and classroom elementary school teachers can experience using software such as Kidspiration and design lesson plans that require their students to use it. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. McKenzie (2001) argues that when technology training is done in context, teachers are more likely to buy in to the idea that using the technology is worth their and their students’ time. The first two articles summarized give models of professional development that focus on both preservice methods courses and somewhat on public school classrooms. A useful addition to this research would be an action research study or a more comprehensive ethnographic study done at a K-12 public school that has tried to implement the main ideas of these articles: collaboration, continuous support, and learning in context. The impetus needs to come from within the school itself. In order for successful change in technology education to occur, there must be school-wide support. Administrators must provide time for teachers to learn continuously throughout the school year. Effort must be made to create collaborative groups that can work together on content specific technology integration ideas. A factor in both of the first studies as well as a topic argued by McKenzie (2001) is having a technology expert as part of the collaborative group. One collaborative group included the technology course instructor in the education program. Another included a technology mentor teacher who had training in using technology. One of the effective strategies listed by McKenzie was having technology coaches. This suggests that public schools need one or more technology experts to be a part of the collaborative teams. These experts could be technology-using teachers or certified technology

Teacher Training 9 specialists. Research on this kind of a professional development model aimed at improving technology integration in K-12 public schools is lacking. However, previous research has provided a base on which to design a model. Conclusion All three articles lead to the same conclusion: support is needed to train teachers to effectively integrate technology. This support means redesigning the model of professional development to include opportunities for ongoing collaboration that is embedded in the curriculum. With increasing demands to meet technology standards for students, schools cannot afford to ignore the conclusions that research has shown. Practice is beginning to change at the university level in preservice education programs, but K-12 school districts must also begin to adopt some of the same changes so that all teachers, not just the new ones, will be provided with the necessary skills to prepare students to meet the standards.

Teacher Training 10 References Dexter, S., Doering, A. H., & Riedel, E. (2006). Content area specific technology integration: A model for educating teachers. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 14(2), 325345. Franklin, C. A., & Sessoms, D. B. (2005). A situative perspective on a collaborative model for integrating technology into teaching. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 32(4), 315-328. McKenzie, J. (2001). How teachers learn technology best. From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal, 10(6). Retrieved October 21, 2007, from http://www.fno.org/mar01/howlearn.html.