Web Conferencing with Distant Alternate Certificate Student Teachers

Abstract Many alternative routes to certification in special education serving rural populations incorporate distance-learning technology. Participants in these programs may feel isolated because they do not regularly travel to campus to attend courses or meet with their instructors. This article describes a strategy in which regularly scheduled individual video conferences were held between the instructor and five distant student teachers enrolled in an alternate certificate program. Results of a questionnaire completed by the student teachers are presented, along with descriptive statistics of the conferences and a description of the benefits for the course instructor. Alternative routes to certification are becoming more common as means to special education certification across the nation (Wasburn-Moses & Rosenberg, 2008), and the use of technology has been crucial in efforts to make special education certification programs available to a wider audience, particularly in rural areas. For example, Collins, Baird, and Hager (2009) described two decades of evolution in the moderate and severe disabilities (MSD) distance education program at the University of Kentucky (UK). Approximately 100 students have earned certification in MSD through the alternate certificate program, and others have earned master's degrees or rank changes through UK's distance programs in special education, the majority teaching in rural districts in Kentucky (B. C. Collins, personal communication, January 24, 2010). Technology increasingly plays a role in supporting students in alternative routes to certification as universities incorporate technology as an integral component in teacher preparation programs. Technology often is relied upon for course delivery (e.g., Jung, Galyon-Keramidas, Collins, & Ludlow, 2006; Ludlow, Galyon-Keramidas, & Landers, 2007; Spooner, Knight, Lo, & Wood, 2007), but also is used for direct supervision (e.g., Falconer & Lignugaris/ Kraft, 2002). Rosenberg, Boyer, Sindelar, and Misra (2007) identified over 200 alternative routes to certification in 35 states. They obtained survey responses from 101 of these programs and reported that 68% use distance education formats for delivering instructional content. Even as alternative routes to certification continue to proliferate, Wasburn-Moses and Rosenberg (2008) acknowledged that currently there is not an adequate research base to guide the development of these programs. Based on the limited research available, however, they provided seven guidelines for the development of an alternative route to certification in special education. One guideline advocated the integration of technology into instruction. As noted above, it is common for alternative routes to certification to include the use of distance education, which, by its very nature, means incorporating some type of technology. Wasburn-Moses and Rosenberg indicated that the use of technology should be integrated into program activities so that the teacher candidates must actually use it. One example they provided was to use technology to support the development of relationships, such as those between teacher candidates and mentors. One example of integrating technology into preparation programs is using web-based conferencing to support interactions between instructors and students, as well as between students. Pattillo (2007) investigated the use of web-based voice conferencing (no video) for small group discussions in an on-line course in a nursing program. Students reported that the conferences significantly enhanced the course and that they were more likely to discuss course-related concepts with their classmates due to the small group conference format. Dudding (2009) described the use of video conferences in communication sciences and disorders training programs in which it has been successfully applied to supervision in off-campus clinical placements. Dudding suggested using video conferencing could allow supervision in rural areas where providing such services may not otherwise be possible. …