Address Challenges of Integrating Technology in Teacher Preparation at #AACTE18 Preconference Symposium
Is it time to upgrade your candidates’ tech competency? Please join us for a free half-day symposium before AACTE’s Annual Meeting, organized by the AACTE Committee on Innovation and Technology (I&T), to share leadership strategies for better integrating technology in teacher preparation.
The preconference symposium, to be held Wednesday, February 28, 1–5 p.m., at the Marriott Baltimore Inner Harbor, will assist educator preparation administrators and faculty in addressing the four principles outlined in the 2016 policy brief Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation:
- 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 their capacity to use technological tools to enable transformative learning and teaching.
- Ensure preservice teachers’ experiences with educational technology are program-deep and program-wide, rather than one-off courses separate from their methods courses.
- Align efforts with research-based standards, frameworks, and credentials recognized across the field.
The symposium grows out of this context and the increasing demand for improvement in the educational technology preparation of teacher candidates, including the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) requirement for programs to “ensure that candidates model and apply technology standards as they design, implement, and assess learning experiences to engage students and improve learning and enrich professional practice” (CAEP Standard 1.5).
The afternoon will engage participants in a variety of sessions:
Opening Panel
PK-12 and college-level educators will reflect on the problem of preparing teachers who can design learning environments to engage and empower students to take responsibility for their own learning, foster digital citizenship, and ensure digital equity. Panelists will discuss how leaders can support technology infusion in the curriculum and create sustainable interest and progress when technology is ever changing.
Panelists: Elizabeth Burquist, Baltimore County (MD) Public Schools; Todd H. Gazda, Ludlow (MA) Public Schools; Diana Rogers-Adkinson, Southeast Missouri State University; Jo Hoffman, Bridgewater State University (MA)
Breakout Sessions
The panel will be followed by an introduction by Liz Kolb (University of Michigan) to several frameworks for technology infusion in teaching and learning and an overview of sessions led by participants in four working groups. The working groups were organized following a December 2016 summit in Washington, DC, that was sponsored by the federal Office of Educational Technology.
- Instructor, Candidate, and PK-12 Students’ Active Use of Technology. “Active use” of technology calls for a shift from the teacher using technology to students using technology for learning. Participants in this session will consider a case study of how active use was implemented in a course at Limestone College and brainstorm a plan for their own programs.
Facilitators: Shelly Meyers, Limestone College (SC); Jo Hoffman, Bridgewater State University (MA)
- Program-Deep and System-Wide Experiences for Teacher Candidates. Although many of today’s teacher candidates are digital natives, they still need to learn about and engage in technology learning experiences throughout their preservice program. This session will share examples of programs’ efforts to prepare their teacher candidates for transformative digital learning experiences in their curriculum, field experiences and clinical practice, support for teacher candidates, and support for school-based and university-based faculty.
Facilitators: Laila Richman, Towson University (MD); Elizabeth Wilson, The University of Alabama
- Research-Based Competencies and Credentials for Faculty. The U.S. National Educational Technology Plan identified the need for a set of technology competencies specifically for teacher educators who prepare candidates to teach with technology. Through a research initiative led by Teresa Foulger (Arizona State University), the field identified 12 Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs) that define the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to support candidates in becoming technology-using teachers. Participants in this session will explore the newly developed TETCs and consider implications for course design, faculty development, and policy.
Facilitators: David Slykhuis, University of Northern Colorado; Denise Schmidt-Crawford, Iowa State University
- Sustainable Systems of Professional Development for Higher Education Faculty. While some programs have succeeded in integrating technology pedagogy across all faculty and courses, most professors are not modeling effective technology use in learning. Programs face numerous obstacles to creating a sustained systematic practice of technology use and training, from competing demands on time and financial challenges to a lack of research, inadequate training for teacher educators, and equity concerns. Bring your ideas and discuss solutions to these obstacles.
Facilitators: Liz Kolb, University of Michigan; Farah Kashef, University of Northern Iowa; Robert McLaughlin, Education Development Center (MA); Candace Roberts, Saint Leo University (FL)
AACTE’s Exploration of a Leadership Tool for Technology Integration
Members from AACTE’s I&T committee will connect information from a presymposium survey of registrants to components outlined in the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) Leadership Diagnostic Tool, which the committee developed in 2014-2015. Committee members will discuss implications of three case studies conducted in 2015-2017 and explore with participants how we might work together to support leaders to effectively implement TPACK-driven initiatives.
Facilitators: Jon Clausen, Ball State University (IN); Elizabeth Finsness, Minnesota State University Mankato; Arlene Borthwick, National Louis University (IL)
Closing Panel
To wrap up the symposium, individuals providing leadership at the national level will discuss how attendees, professional associations, and government agencies can work together to create sustainable interest and progress in an area that is ever-changing.
Moderator: Arlene Borthwick, Chair, AACTE I&T Committee
Panelists: Jon Clausen, AACTE I&T Committee; Randy Hansen (University of Maryland University College), International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE); Lara Luetkehans (Indiana University of Pennsylvania), Association for Educational Communications and Technology; Denise Schmidt-Crawford, Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education; David Slykhuis, National Technology Leadership Council; Heather Whitaker, U.S. Office of Educational Technology
Following the symposium, attendees will be invited to continue the conversation during an evening AACTE reception, a mid-March Twitter session hosted by ISTE’s Teacher Education Network, and future collaborative efforts that grow out of the symposium.
Whether or not you are able to attend February 28, the committee also invites you to share your ideas around the four principles in the 2016 federal brief in the video-discussion platform Flipgrid. Thanks to Shelly Meyers for setting up this site for addressing the challenges of integrating technology! Visit https://flipgrid.com/ha76zj to share your video and view others.
Note: Although the preconference symposium is free of charge, we do need you to register in advance to assist us in planning – and space is limited! To add the event to your Annual Meeting registration, visit the Events Registration site.
Tags: Annual Meeting, technology
