Title: Building Bridges: Improving Teacher Education Through Cross-Institutional Collaboration
PIs: Susan Brown, New Mexico State University; Shirley Davis, New Mexico State University
Other collaborating institutions: Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network; University of California, Irvine
The overarching goal of this project has been to identify and share strategies for improving teacher preparation programs through cross-institution collaborations between teacher education faculty in higher education and K-12 educators. Specifically, we have focused on identifying and sharing models of collaboration that lead to professional development opportunities for both the teacher education faculty and the K-12 education community for the effective integration of technologies in teaching and learning. We have looked specifically at PT3 grantees (U.S. Department of Education's 'Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers for Technology' grant program) that are engaged in cross-institutional collaborations. Documented synthesis of information about these collaboration efforts is included. Collaborations between these communities are mutually beneficial and should be promulgated widely.
A product of our work will be a Web-based resource that identifies and elaborates the strategies employed by PT3 grantees to bridge teacher education and K-12 communities. It will highlight successes and challenges associated with different program strategies. The Web site will be a resource for sharing ideas between PT3 programs, as well as a resource for the educational community as they plan technology-related professional development opportunities. We are particularly interested in documenting the ways in which these cross-institutional collaborations have helped to address issues of equity.
The collaborators on this project bring to it experiences and resources that continue to be valuable in our work. All four participants are directly or indirectly linked to PT3 grant projects at different universities. Additionally, all participants have knowledge and experience related to issues of teacher preparation, K-12 teacher professional development, different kinds of cross-institutional collaborations in education, and issues of technology infusion in education. This has afforded easier access and contact with different PT3 grant programs, as well as a better understanding of the various strategies and issues that impact cross-collaboration efforts.
Title: SITE-CILT Collaborative Co-op
PI: Debra Sprague, George Mason University
Other collaborating institutions: Iowa State University
CILT is a distributed research center that excels in fostering community and gathering innovative research in technology for learning and instruction. SITE (Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education) is an international organization that brings together teacher educators charged with preparing future teachers in the use of innovative technologies for teaching, and fosters new practices for pre-service teachers. These two communities have historically been operating independently. The purpose of this project is to establish a new collaboration between the CILT and SITE memberships that will build a shared community of activities and space and inform each group of the needs and wants of other's members so that they will reinforce each other's aims and objectives within an educational philosophy. Through collaboration CILT-SITE will obtain a louder voice with policy-makers in government and multinationals by presenting a united front and achieve a better and more widely based graduate training in education and technology.
In order to achieve this goal, this project has conducted a needs analysis of the SITE membership (this also incorporated wants and potential contributions). A web-based survey (ASTUTE) was created and distributed to the SITE membership at the SITE Annual Conference in Florida.
The ASTUTE survey also serves as a database clearinghouse where members can find others who wish to collaborate on projects, identify others who can provide expertise in a given area, and others who they can assist. As work on this project continues we would like to invite CILT members to add to the ASTUTE database.
Our project resulted in an online database that can facilitate the ability to collaborate across different institutions and organizations. The ASTUTE survey has also enabled us to develop a better understanding of the strengths and needs of SITE members. We plan to continue to promote this database at future SITE conferences and in SITE journals. We also hope to connect this database with CILT's database in some capacity.
In addition, we organized a special interactive session at the SITE 2001 Conference in March 2001. The session focused on core issues of technology in teacher education, while ensuring that equity remained an integral aspect. The session introduced CILT, TEN, and the ASTUTE survey to the SITE community. Participants brainstormed ways to encourage collaboration among the various institutions and organizations represented.
Partnerships have begun to form as a result of this project. At least three grants have been written including one to the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) Program. People are using the database to connect with others in order to find information about courses offered on diversity issues and texts used. As the database grows and more people become aware of it we expect these types of collaborations to increase.
Project Web sites:
ASTUTE - http://129.186.223.79/ASTUTE/ default.htm
SITE - http://www.aace.org/site/default. htm
TEN - http://www.teacherednet.org/
Title: Fostering Reflection and Building Communities for Novice Teachers
PI: Jonathan Singer, University of South Carolina
Other collaborating institutions: Wake Forest University
Two separate novice teacher communities were established for this project, one at the University of South Carolina and a second at Wake Forrest University. Each community consisted of four pre-service science teachers. Each member of the community was asked to document the teaching of a lesson (preferably an inquiry lesson utilizing learning technologies) using digital video. The video clips were then reviewed by individual members of the community. During the individual review process, members selected a series of clips based upon a pre-determined framework. The framework was based upon technology standards developed by the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC). Once the clips were selected the community met and the video clips were shared with the other members. Each member would present their tape and provide commentary based upon the video-reflection framework, and other community members asked questions and provided feedback. Following the community meetings individual members were interviewed by members of the CILT project team to determine the affordances, limitations and additional supports needed of the video-reflection process.
Interview data is still being analyzed and a proposal for AETS has been accepted. Additional proposals for NARST or AERA will also be considered. The novice teacher focus is ideally suited for the science teacher education population affiliated with AETS. Activities which were initiated through funds provided by CILT are being continued through the USC-PT3 grant. The idea of providing pre-service teachers opportunities to document and reflect upon their practice is a key component of the USC-PT3 initiative. In addition to the tools and strategies presented by UNI and UC-I at our recent workshop, a second workshop with Johns-Hopkins University was scheduled for the middle of October. This workshop also focused upon the central idea of providing pre-service teachers opportunities to document and reflect upon their practice. Specific tools from JHU that are being considered for integration include an electronic portfolio tool and an electronic-learning community tool.
Title: The CILT Equity Lens Project
PIs: David Ramirez, California State University, Long Beach; Kim Williams, Northwestern University
Other collaborating institutions: New York Department of Education; George Lucas Foundation; University of Virginia; MIT Media Lab
This CILT seed grant was used to facilitate the development of 'equity lenses,' or guidance and criteria, through the use of which we may view, assess, recognize, and transform, as appropriate, CILT-type endeavors with regard to their contribution to addressing issues of diversity-responsiveness and equity, particularly with regard to the digital divide. To accomplish this, collaborators worked together to share their own frameworks and experiences and to develop outreach approaches to learn from others' ideas and experiences, including users and designers of advanced learning technologies both within and outside of CILT, who have long-term understanding of and commitment to addressing issues of diversity and equity and/or have salient direct experience as members of underserved communities.
The equity lens project was initiated with the overall goal of identifying exemplary research and development, educational and community-based activities, and other programs that consider issues of equity and diversity as integral to their work. Members of the equity lens group, though bringing different experiences to this project, all held a collective belief in the importance of developing helpful rubrics or guides for considering equity and diversity issues in the research design of CILT-type projects.
We have developed a nascent Web site that is still under construction but will host frameworks, rubrics, guidelines, papers and resources developed by members of this CILT Equity Lens group (some of these already exist but have not yet been added to the Web site).
The temporary address for the Web site, not yet for circulation, is: http://equity2.clmer.csulb. edu/jferia/cilt/
Another product of our work was the creation of an Equity Lens survey for users and designers of advanced learning technologies for Math and Science in K-12 education. We will be using this survey to gather feedback from the field to deepen our continuing work together. We are committed to continuing this rubrics/guidelines development process with resources from the Center for Language Minority Education and Research (CLMER).
Further, participants in this project are already engaged in specific outreach to and involvement in other like-minded digital equity groups such as the PT3 Digital Equity Task Force and the ISTE Minority Leadership Symposium. We are seeking ways to highlight and contribute to the growing ecology of equity groups and equity considerations in the use of advanced technologies for math and science education in K-12.