Teacher Educators Convene at National Innovation Summit

AACTE collaborated with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology last month to host a 2-day summit focused on advancing educational technology in teacher preparation. Participants were chosen based on their pledged commitment to the “Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation Challenge” announced last fall.

AACTE President and CEO Sharon Robinson welcomes attendees to the Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation Summit.

More than 30 AACTE members and partners attended the first day of meetings in the AACTE building, with workshops highlighting how to develop a culture for active use of technology in teacher preparation programs; promote standards, competencies, and credentials for higher education faculty and preservice teachers in educational technology; and build a sustainable system of professional learning.

On the second day, participants visited the White House for the Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation Innovation Summit. The event highlighted the forward-thinking work of providers advancing the four principles of educational technology in teacher preparation as outlined in the 2016 National Educational Technology Plan:

  • Focus on the active use of technology to enable learning and teaching through creation, production, and problem solving.
  • Build sustainable, program-wide systems of professional learning for higher education instructors to strengthen and continually refresh capacity to use technological tools to enable transformative learning and teaching.
  • Ensure preservice teacher experiences with educational technology are program-deep and program-wide rather than one-off courses separate from methods courses.
  • Align efforts with research-based standards, frameworks, and credentials recognized across the field.
Under Secretary Ted Mitchell addresses attendees at the December Innovators’ Briefing in the White House.

Attendees were given the opportunity to share ideas, progress, and stories of success. They also heard from Mario Cardona, senior policy adviser for education at the White House Domestic Policy Council; Ted Mitchell, undersecretary of education; and Joseph South, director of the Office of Educational Technology.

In conjunction with the summit, the Department issued a policy brief that identifies the key challenges and solutions and highlights numerous examples from participating institutions as well as the “TPACK” model of technological pedagogical content knowledge promoted by AACTE’s Committee on Innovation and Technology.


eMints and International Society for Technology in Education representatives discuss building sustainable systems of professional learning at the December Innovators’ Briefing with AACTE members.

From the wealth of ideas exchanged during the summit, attendees were motivated to engage their local, state, and national partners to advance educational technology practices for the benefit of PK-12 students.

It’s not too late to add your institution to the growing list of those supporting the principles! Visit https://tech.ed.gov/edtechtprep/ for details and to see who’s taken the pledge thus far.



Tags: , ,

Jerrica Thurman

Director of Marketing & Communications, AACTE