Date posted: 3-14-02

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Teachers take time for technology
Grant helps NIU professors bring new technology into the classroom.

By Tiffany Thomas
DeKalb News Service

DeKALB -- Technology: a means or an end for teachers? The answer may depend on the teachers.

"I'm about to set up a WebBoard discussion group for my students, something that I just learned in class," said Karen Carrier, assistant professor of literacy education at Northern Illinois University. "Like the majority of faculty here at NIU, I don't have time to get a manual and teach myself all this stuff."

Carrier is one of several professors from the college of education enrolled in PT3 -- the U.S. Department of Education's Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology Program.

"Incorporating technology into schools and university classes is difficult for teachers who have not had sufficient time, training, motivation and curriculum revision opportunities," said Rhonda Robinson, NIU educational technology professor.

Robinson was part of a team that helped create the grant proposal for PT3. Last fall, the effort netted a $1 million, three-year grant from the program to NIU's colleges of Education and Liberal Arts and Sciences (in conjunction with area school districts, community colleges and the Dukane Corporation).

The grant funds the "Partnership to Infuse Technology into the Teacher Education Curriculum" project, which will bring technology into education through demonstration, training, and support for educators.

While significant money has been spent providing computers and software to schools, the actual preparation of teachers to use the technology has been lacking.

"Once you get past thinking it's just a glorified blackboard, chalkboard, whiteboard - when you know integrating technology in instruction alters how students learn, you want to use it," said Corenna Cummings, associate professor of technology and PT3 project director, in an NIU press release.

Those who take part in the training are expected to pass on the skills to fellow faculty members and incorporate the technology into the classroom. NIU's second semester of training is under way. Thus far, the training has included only faculty members in the College of Education.

Chris Carger, one of three professors of literary education in the program, has found the training helpful.
"Especially in teaching me ways to give my students more access to course materials, resources, and me," she said.

Fran Falk-Ross, also in the program, agreed.

"The advantages are that we become proficient in using and then modeling new technology for preservice and practicing teachers so that they, in turn, will be prepared to integrate technology into their own lesson plans," she said. "It's very exciting."

Students today already are comfortable with technology, Falk-Ross said, and now educators need to become as comfortable using those tools to compliment the classroom material.

"We have faculty who are trying to integrate the use of eBooks into literature classes, Smart Board and Power Point into presentations and lectures, and computer assisted programs for struggling students," she said. "We really need to know about technology."

And it's important, Carrier said, that faculty learn not only about using and incorporating technology, but also when they shouldn't.

"Like our instructors tell us," she said, "just because it's there is not a valid reason to use it."

This point can become a pitfall in using technology in education, said Nina Dorsch, assistant chair in the Department of Teaching and Learning and member of the technology committee for the Kaneland school district.

"We become so dazzled by the capacity to do something that we do it just to do it, not to enhance instruction or student engagement," she said.

"It's not technology for technology's sake," Lisa Mehlig, co-principal investigator of the PT3 project said in the press release. "It's about these tools that may motivate and entice kids and foster their learning in ways a book or other traditional tools might not."

PT3 courses cover such topics as state and national technology standards, computer-based communication tools and course-delivery software. Faculty learn to house material online through Blackboard, WebBoard and WebCT, as well as how to incorporate streaming video and graphics into Power Point presentations.
And they do so through hands-on practice with an instructor.

"Our instructors are very dedicated to integrating technology into preservice teacher training, and offer us lots of ideas for how to do that," Mehlig said. "They are also great models of patient, well-prepared teachers."

Reports from Washington also indicate the program is progressing well, at least where the grant funds are concerned.

"Although we would like to see results from the project more quickly, innovative change in instruction and curriculum will take time," Cummings said.

The PT3 program has received more than 1,000 applications since 1999. NIU is one of 253 three-year grants awarded by the program for implementation. For more information about PT3, see the project's Web site at www.cedu.niu.edu/~robinson/pt3.

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Source list:
· Nina Dorsch, Assistant Chair - Department of Teaching and Learning, 815-753-8532
· Chris Carger, Associate Professor -- Literacy Education, ccarger@niu.edu
· Karen A. Carrier, Assistant Professor -- Literary Education, 815-753-0897
· Fran Falk-Ross, Assistant Professor -- Literacy Education, ffalkross@niu.edu
· Rhonda Robinson, Professor - Educational Technology, rrobinson@niu.edu