Sr. Lynn Lester, B.V.M., Ed.D.
Assistant Professor
Director of : Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology
Graduate Education Department
Clarke College
llester@clarke.edu

Jan Taylor, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Education Department
Clarke College
jtaylor@clarke.edu

Presented by
Kathy Decker
Director of Information Services
Director of : Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology
Clarke College
1550 Clarke Drive
Dubuque, IA 52001
(319) 738-8151
kdecker@clarke.edu

Abstract

This paper presents program goals implemented through a Preparing Tomorrow's Teacher's to Use Technology PT3 implementation grant at Clarke College. One goal is to design a "school" environment in real and virtual spaces to transform learning throughout the liberal arts and education departments. These new "school environments" provide space where new knowledge is created together as a community of learners. A second goal is to build a web-based virtual space to facilitate communication between and among our learning communities: K-12 students and teachers, teacher preparation students, and liberal arts and education faculty. This virtual learning space provides tools for "digital" exchanges using email, the Internet, and the Iowa Communication Network (ICN). A third goal is to create an Alternative Licensure Teacher Preparation Program. This graduate licensure program offers technology learning opportunities to prepare re-entry teachers, mid-career changers, and out of field teachers for the 21st century workplace.

Part I. PT3 Program Goals

This paper is a presentation of program goals of Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) implementation grant. Clarke College, together with its partners, the Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Dubuque and the Iowa College Foundation, has created a program to improve instruction of our pre-service teachers through effective use of information technologies. Components of this program incorporate new teaching paradigms implemented through program goals and a technology-learning plan.

One component of our program is the creation of "school" environments in real and virtual spaces to transform learning and teaching. These new "school environments" are where students and teachers explore, discover, and create new knowledge together as a community of learners. This component includes a program for designing strategies for infusing information technologies throughout liberal arts and education coursework. Faculty development programs provide instructional training on techniques for creating "smart technology" environments.

A second component is the building of a web-based virtual space to facilitate communication between and among our learning communities: K-12 students and teachers participating in Clarke's education program, pre-service teachers, liberal arts and education faculty. This virtual learning space provides tools for "digital" exchange of information and resources through email, the Internet, and the Iowa Communication Network (ICN).

A third component is the establishment of an Alternative Licensure Teacher Preparation Program. This graduate licensure program provides learning opportunities to prepare re-entry teachers, mid-career changers, and out- of- field teachers for the 21st century workplace.
Grant goals form the framework for implementation of program objectives, activities, training, and support to transform learning environments throughout liberal arts core courses and the teacher preparation program. They are as follows:

Goal 1: To create innovative improvements in our existing liberal arts and teacher preparation program by enhancing coursework and student activities through transparent use of technology resources.

Goal 2: To create a learning exchange to facilitate digital connections between and among Clarke College faculty and K-12 teachers and students in our Archdiocesan Catholic Partner Schools.

Goal 3. To create a new graduate Alternative Licensure Teacher preparation program for preparation of re-entry teachers, mid-career adults and out-of field teachers.
Continuous achievement of performance objectives sustain a climate for college faculty, students, K-12 teachers and students to facilitate building collaborative models for exploring "learning how to learn" together through transparent use of information technologies.
Ongoing project activities exemplifying innovative improvements are:

1) offering one-to-many and one-to-one learning opportunities for training faculty,

2) developing techniques for strategizing support to liberal arts and education faculties for integrating new models of instruction into coursework,

3) providing student training in technology skills through the Student Technology Assistants Plus+ (STA+) Program to extend technical support to faculty,

4) creating an online structure for collaboration and community building where students and teachers connect, communicate, and share resources through a web-based digital exchange,

5) developing a telementoring program as a vehicle to sustain support for first-year teachers during their critical first year of teaching, and

6) creating an Alternative Licensure Teacher Preparation Program to meet the critical shortage of K-12 teachers in Iowa as well as to prepare new teachers with technology rich models for teaching and learning.

A Technology Education Center (TEC) on campus provides space for one-to-one and many-to-one training sessions for faculty. This center is equipped with hardware and software to provide opportunities for learning new technologies, such as, high-end computers for creating multimedia projects, scanners, digital video cameras, and content specific software appropriate to education and liberal arts courses.

Additional learning opportunities for faculty are provided through an "Anytime, Anyplace Technology Learning Space" (AATLS). This space consists of a wireless mobile unit containing 15 laptop computers for teacher training sessions. This AATLS provides a flexible, hands-on learning/training space using portable laptops and a multimedia projector. A technology resource specialist utilizes these spaces offering designing and planning opportunities for faculty. STA+ students are trained to assist the technology resource specialist in extending support across the liberal arts and education departments.

Our project creates innovative models to improve the current teacher preparation program. The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) aligned with the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) standards provide a framework for assessment of pre-service technology skills. These standards are incorporated into education department course syllabi to promote a seamless integration of technology into all education courses.
The following vignette is one example of a learning model for our teacher preparation students exemplifying one best learning practice using technology. Three secondary education/biology majors completed research on types of authentic prairie plants and animals native to Iowa prairies. Students used electronic data base programs as well as PowerPoint and digital imaging processes to produce their electronic product. They presented their research results to Clarke College Administrators and requested a piece of land on the Clarke campus to plant a prairie. This prairie will become a permanent authentic learning environment for Clarke students and K-12 students in Dubuque.

Learning with technology extends from the Clarke Campus to our two Archdiocesan Professional Development Schools where pre-service teachers are placed for field, student teaching, and clinical experiences. The Professional Development School was created in collaboration with St. Mary's/St. Patrick's and St. Anthony's Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Dubuque At the professional development site Clarke students attend college classes and collaborate with faculty and K-12 teachers "on-K-12-site" to practice a seamless integration of technology within the learning environment.

Pre-service elementary teachers bring laptop computers into the K-8 environment to implement strategies for incorporating technology into the curriculum. Students use programs, such as, Inspiration, HyperStudio, Microsoft Office Suite, and the Internet to produce new learnings through effective uses of technology.

New "digital" web based communication exchanges facilitate and maintain communication between and among members of our learning communities: Clarke faculty, K-12 teachers and students, pre-service and first year teachers, and teacher mentors. Examples of digital tools utilized are: email, the Internet, and the Iowa's Communication Network (ICN). New web applications support communication between and among our learning communities through the creation of discussion forums and chat rooms. This virtual space showcases technology rich learning processes and products created by Clarke education students, education and liberal arts faculty and K-12 teachers. Projects can be accessed at the following url: http://www.clarke.edu/pt3.

Another project is the creation of a new graduate Alternative Licensure Teacher Preparation Program. The goal is to recruit and prepare new teachers through a program enriched by technology instructional models. This program offers re-entry teachers, mid-career adults, and out of field teachers a technology rich program to prepare them for the 21st century workplace. The Iowa Communication Network (ICN) is one technology utilized for course delivery. This system provides a two-way audio/video course delivery utilizing ICN classrooms across the state of Iowa. This program description is explained in part II of this paper.

Part II. Alternative Licensure Program

Justification for Program

It is projected that 40% of Iowa's teaching force will retire within the coming decade. Our current teacher education programs are not graduating sufficient teacher candidates to make up this loss (Heldt, 2000). During the summer of 2000 the Iowa State Department of Education proposed rules for an alternative preparation license and urged colleges within the state to design programs that would meet these requirements and also attract a broader audience.

The development of alternative routes to teacher certification is a trend that has grown steadily since the 1980's in this country, particularly in states that faced fast-growing populations and teacher shortages earlier than Iowa. In 1999, forty states reported having alternatives to approved college teacher education programs for certifying teachers (Feistritzer & Chester, 2000).

Determination of Target Population

National statistics indicate that prospective teacher candidates are to be found among people who already have degrees in fields other than education, people older than the traditional 18-22 year old college student cohort, people who are changing careers, former military personnel, and among ethnic and racial groups that are currently underrepresented in our teaching force (Feistritzer & Chester, 2000). Of 63 non-traditional aged (over 24 years) daytime students at Clarke College (5% of the student body), 27 (22.5% of the non-traditional group) are currently enrolled in our teacher preparation programs, but a number of them have expressed the difficulties they face trying to maintain their other job and family responsibilities and also attend classes given in our usual daytime format. (Clarke does have 227 non-traditional students participating in evening classes in fields other than education.) We anticipate more adult students being interested in teacher preparation if the scheduling and course delivery methods meet their needs.

Investigation of Viable Models

Roth as quoted by Turley and Nakai (2000), noted that alternative routes to certification typically seek to fast track or circumvent traditional university-based teacher education. Some see alternative routes as a serious threat to university sponsored professional preparation. Still others maintain that the issue is not over professional preparation per se but over the timing and institutional context for teacher preparation. Programs are operated by the local school district, by state departments of education, and by colleges and universities. It is our contention that it is possible to develop programs that provide high quality professional preparation and provide that training through means and with schedules that are accessible to adults with family and job responsibilities.

As a college, we determined that the model that appeared most likely to gain approval by our institution and by the State Department of Education of Iowa would be grounded in the competencies that a beginning teacher needs in order to teach and manage a classroom environment effectively and that would meet the requirements of the state's proposed rules for alternative preparation. The core of knowledge provided to our current pre-service teachers had to be made available through delivery systems and on a schedule that would serve the new populations we were targeting.

Inclusion of Stakeholders

At this point, contact was made with stakeholders in this endeavor. Conversations were held with directors of personnel in the local public school district; the superintendent of the Archdiocese, a parochial school district of ten K-8 schools and one high school; the teacher representative of the local teacher's union, and a list of key personnel in schools within a nearby three-state region. An informational meeting was held with administrative and student services departments on our campus whose buy-in and support is crucial to the success of such a program. These stakeholders included the academic vice president, the vice president for adult and continuing education, the vice president for college advancement, the vice president for business and finance, the public relations department, the grant-writing department, and the library. The needs of this program for distance, online, and evening services such as admissions, registration, fee-paying, financial aid, academic and career advising, library and bookstore services were addressed. The stakeholders expressed support and appreciation for being brought into the program early in its development.

Design of Proposed Program

A first decision was to target adults who already have a bachelor's degree. Therefore, rather than develop another undergraduate program, ours would build on their prior education and provide both a master's degree and the competencies necessary for teacher licensure in Iowa. The education core courses were re-envisioned at a master's level.

Both elementary and secondary education candidates would take the six three-credit-hour courses that form the education core. The titles of these courses and the key topics for each reflect the mission of the college to develop personally and socially responsible individuals. They include: Introduction to Reflective Teaching, Active Learning: Constructing Knowledge, Teaching in a World of Diverse Learners, Balanced Assessment and Issues in Evaluation, Managing the Classroom Environment for Effective Instruction, and Teaching for Social Justice in a Multicultural World.

After completing the education core, the elementary and secondary tracks would diverge. Elementary majors would take two intensive three-credit hour curriculum and instructional methods courses. Secondary majors would take a general middle school/secondary school methods course followed by a discipline-specific methods course dealing with music, art, physical education, laboratory science, foreign language, English or history methods related to the student's content area.
The optimum timeline for students in this program would be eighteen months, completing the core and methods courses in fall, spring and summer semesters. One semester would remain in which the candidate would do a sixteen-week, all day internship or student teaching requirements for which twelve credit hours would be granted.

The delivery method(s) envisioned for the first twenty-four credit hours include heavy use of WebCT courses with strongly interactive elements including scheduled chat rooms and listserv, email, or forum exchanges of ideas, reflections and beliefs regarding course readings and online lectures. To simulate some of the classroom observation and participation that the best practices teacher preparation programs provide a collection of video clips of exemplary teaching practice in action will be utilized. Students will develop lesson plans to provide instruction similar to the best practices videos. In addition to web and video, a third technology, two-way audio-video classes will be used to allow students to participate in and view peer teaching in which students teach their classmates. Two-way audio-video class meetings using the Iowa Communication Network (ICN) may be used to introduce courses and to build community among the cohorts of students who will continue through this entire program as a group.

Partnerships with schools in communities where our students reside will aid us in providing opportunities for a minimum of forty hours of live classroom experience prior to the internship. Forty hours is the current Iowa state requirement. This program will of necessity have to be flexible in finding alternative ways to meet the requirements and develop the needed teaching skills.

Funding and permission to provide internships with a stipend to cover cost of living for the sixteen-week final semester are being sought. A strong mentorship with a teacher in the school where the internship takes place is a requirement. Clarke faculty or Clarke-hired adjunct faculty will serve the same role they currently fill in student teaching, including weekly observations of the student teacher or intern.

This proposal is being evaluated by the Clarke Education Department, the Clarke Educational Policy Committee, and will then be taken to the Iowa State Department of Education for program accreditation.

Literature References

Feistritzer, C. E. & Chester, D. T. (2000). Alternative teacher certification: A state-by-state analysis 2000. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Information.

Heldt, D. (2000, September 14). Educator: Iowa faces serious teacher shortage. Telegraph Herald, p. 3A.

Lindman, B.A. (1994). Consensus of educational administrators on admission requirements, professional instruction, internships features, and evaluation of candidate competency for alternative routes into teaching licensure: A Delphi survey. . (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1994). Dissertation Abstracts International, 56/02A, p. 0517.

Turley, S. and Nakai, K. (2000). Two routes to certification: What do student teachers think? Journal of Teacher Education, Mar/Apr 2000.