Developing a New Technology Infusion Program for Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers.

Many schools, colleges, and departments of education across America are currently rethinking the manner in which they are preparing tomorrow's teachers to use technology. Responding to new standards established by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), higher education faculty and administrators are searching for new models to support technology integration. This new or renewed focus is significant as institutions of higher education have an important responsibility to provide leadership for the infusion of technology into U.S. schools and to model appropriate use of technology in their own teaching (Jolly, Davis, Strader, & Denton, 1999). In the area of preservice teacher education, it appears logical, as Wheatly (2003) pointed out, that the increased use of technology-enhanced learning practices in PK-12 teaching is more likely when prospective teachers experience and practice a variety of computer uses in the majority of their undergraduate courses. This observation is supported by the research of Thomas, Larson, Clift, and Levin (1996) who argued that training in technology use must coincide with course goals and be seen as an integral course component. While there is no single program plan or model for accomplishing such a goal, there clearly are many obstacles to overcome. ********** PURPOSE The purpose of this article is to report on a technology infusion program being developed in the School of Education and Allied Professions at the University of Dayton (UD). Specifically, it describes how the program was developed with funding from a Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (P[T.sup.3]) grant and implemented in collaboration with the Public Broadcasting Corporation's (PBS) TeacherLine Program. In addition to describing the planning and implementation stages of the project, the writers describe the philosophical foundations and design parameters for the initiative, emergent model building, project results to date, and implications for other preservice teacher education programs. BACKGROUND AND SETTING The University of Dayton is a comprehensive, Catholic university annually enrolling approximately 7,000 undergraduate students and 3,000 graduate students. UD's School of Education and Allied Professions' Department of Teacher Education is one of the largest in the state of Ohio enrolling over 800 students in four teacher licensure programs including Early Childhood, Middle Childhood, Adolescent-Young Adult, and Intervention Specialist. The department employs 21 full-time, tenure track professors and five clinical faculty members. UD's School of Education and Allied Professions supports The Institute for Technology-Enhanced Learning (ITEL), which provides leadership for the school's technology initiatives, including graduate and undergraduate academic programming, information technology planning and management, and faculty development. In the fall of 2001, ITEL leadership, using the CEO Forum's School Technology and Readiness (STaR, 2001) teacher preparation framework, completed an institutional needs assessment to support the writing of a P[T.sup.3] Implementation Grant. The STaR process provides an interactive self-assessment tool designed to help school personnel evaluate their current technology integration efforts and plan for meaningful change. This assessment tool can be accessed at www.iste.org/starchart/index.cfm. The institutional profile generated by the assessment revealed the greatest needs to be in the areas of faculty development and curriculum integration. SETTING THE DESIGN PARAMETERS Using the results of the STaR needs assessment, ITEL identified five design parameters to guide its efforts to plan a technology infusion program for UD's Department of Teacher Education. Those parameters were: 1. The program must be anchored to the International Society for Technology in Education's (ISTE's) National Educational Technology Standards (NETS, 2000) for teachers. …