Editorial: Academic Communities and the Nature of Academic Discourse

In 1990 Jerry and Dee Anna Willis founded the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) to provide an academic home for those working to integrate educational technology into teacher education. The Journal of Technology and Teacher Education (JTATE) was subsequently established to support SITE. Jerry Willis took on the editorship of the journal and expressed the hope that "all of us will look back on the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education as a publication that helped define the field of information technology and teacher education." A decade later as the new millennium began, Jerry Willis was instrumental in helping conceive Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal), an electronic counterpart to JTATE. An electronic journal was a natural step for an educational technology organization such as SITE for a number of reasons. As its name, "Contemporary Issues," suggests, information of immediate interest to readers can be made available in a more timely fashion than is possible with print media. In addition, CITE Journal provides an opportunity to include multimedia materials such as sound, video, and animation and incorporates a commentary function to allow readers to respond to published articles. After serving as founding father and nurturing the journal through its infancy and early childhood, Jerry Willis has determined that the time has come to step down as editor of JTATE, although he will continue to serve as co-editor for CITE Journal and senior advisor to JTATE. Debra Sprague has agreed to serve as Jerry's successor as the next editor of JTATE. Debra, a long-time active SITE member, is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University. She has published in JTATE, as well as other technology journals, such as the Journal of Computers in Teacher Education and Learning and Leading with Technology. She is the author, with Priscilla Norton, of a text titled Technology for Teaching, which addresses effective integration of technology into classroom learning. Debra has been active in the U.S. Department of Education Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) program, and is principle investigator of a PT3 grant at George Mason University. Her technological interests are varied. She has served as co-principle investigator for an Office of Naval Research grant titled "Developing Virtual Environments for Training," as well as a related U.S. Department of Education grant, "Designing Environments for Virtual Immersive Science Education (DEVISE)." Most importantly, Debra will bring many of the same qualities of innovation and curiosity to the editorship of JTATE that have made it successful under Jerry Willis's stewardship. Her interests in use of scholarly publications and research to foster dialog within the academic community parallel similar interests within the editorial board of the CITE Journal. Consequently, this time of transition for JTATE seemed an appropriate time to rethink the relationship among all of SITE's print and electronic publications. We see several opportunities to help build community among our members, capitalize on the potentially synergistic relationships among our publications, and expand our collaborations with our counterparts in other teacher educator associations. BUILDING COMMUNITY AND SYNERGISTIC RELATIONSHIPS Jerry and Dee Anna Willis established SITE in order to foster a sense of community among academicians who were exploring the new task of preparing teachers to incorporate emerging technologies into teaching practice. During the early days of SITE, it was possible for every single member to know and interact with every other member. As SITE has grown and achieved success, some of this early sense of community has been less feasible through direct personal contact and interactions at the SITE conferences and meetings. …