Teaching Teleapprenticeships: An Innovative Model for Technology Integration in Teacher
Education
Catherine O. Thurston
Evangeline D. Secaras
James A. Levin
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Thurston, C. O., Secaras, E., & Levin, J. A. (1996). Teaching Teleapprenticeships:
An innovative model for technology integration in teacher education. Journal
of Research on Computing in Education, 28(5), [Online]. Also reprinted in Journal
of Research on Computing in Education, 29(4), 385-391.
Abstract
A critical need exists for teachers to be trained to
skillfully integrate technology into their instruction. An innovative
program at the College of Education, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, Teaching Teleapprenticeships, is in its fourth year of
integrating technology into the preservice experience of undergraduate
education
majors. One group targeted by the TTa researchers has been the
Year-Long Project,
YLP, involving elementary education majors. Data were collected on the
impact of
this program on the YLP through surveys, interviews, video, digital
images, and a number
of non-traditional measures. Results show that technology has become
more than an
add-on, more than just part of the curriculum they are studying. It is
an integral
part of the students' personal as well as professional lives. (Keywords:
technology, teacher education, integration, teleapprenticeships.)
Teaching Teleapprenticeships:
An Innovative Model for Technology Integration in Teacher Education
According to a recent report from the U.S.
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (1995), Technology and
Teachers: Making the Connection, in the rush to get technology into the
schools, teachers are often overlooked. "In the process of equipping new
students to learn with technology, a valuable - perhaps the most
valuable - part of the education equation has been virtually overlooked:
the teachers.... Despite
over a decade of investment in educational hardware and software,
relatively few
of the nation's 2.8 million teachers use technology in their teaching."
(OTA, 1995, foreword-iii)
Today, while many would agree that effective uses of
technology for new teachers is a critical component in their training,
it is not central to the teacher preparation
experience in many teacher preparation institutions nation-wide. "Most
new teachers
graduate from teacher preparation institutions with limited knowledge of
the ways
technology can be used in their professional practice" (OTA, 1995, p.
165). A powerful
impetus can be progressively built up in the nation's schools if the
newest teachers
to enter the work force can be trained to skillfully integrate
technology into their
teaching.
At the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, an
innovative model for technology integration in teacher training,
Teaching Teleapprenticeships (TTa), has evolved over the past four
years. TTa, funded by the National Science Foundation with additional
support from Apple Computer and the Microsoft Corporation, has involved
College of Education faculty, student teachers, supervisors, research
assistants and undergraduates
in a new approach to technology integration in the teacher education
curriculum. The TTa approach infuses technology throughout the teacher
preparation experience and
takes advantage of interdisciplinary faculty teaming. This article
explores the successes
of the TTa model as indicated by a three-year study of the students'
experiences
in the Year-Long Project (YLP), a program designed to facilitate the
transition from student
to elementary education teacher. For these students, technology has
become more
than an add-on, more than just part of the curriculum they are studying.
It has
become an integral part of their personal as well as their professional
lives as beginning
teachers.
Teaching Teleapprenticeships
Teaching Teleapprenticeships
(Levin, Waugh, Clift, and Brown, 1994) is a new teacher education model
that extends the traditional face-to-face apprenticeships currently
used in student teaching settings by using electronic networks to
provide a more powerful context for learning in preservice and inservice
education courses. Through network interactions and resource sharing,
this model brings together the university coordinators, student teacher
supervisors, school district master teachers, instructors, the
preservice teachers, and the students being taught by the student
teachers.
PowerBooks equipped with 14.4K bps internal modems,
communications software such as Eudora and Netscape, and Microsoft
Works have been loaned to groups of student teachers, faculty and
university supervisors as a means to communicate and exchange teaching
ideas and projects as part of the TTa research. The project staff,
including faculty from several departments in the College of Education
and a number of research assistants, have worked cooperatively with
college preservice faculty to integrate technology through a number of
the preservice courses. A number of sections of the undergraduate
classes have been involved in TTa, including the Introduction to Biology
class (Levin, Levin & Boehmer, 1994), the Year-Long Project (for
elementary education students), math methods, science methods, English
methods, and others. Rather than teach education majors one specific
undergraduate course in technology, the model has been to infuse
technology throughout a number of pre-service classes, using technology
both as a means of instruction and as a tool for teaching.
Year-Long Project (YLP)
The undergraduate elementary education students
participating in the Year-Long Project (YLP) have been involved in the
TTa project for the past three years. This year, 49 students in the YLP
share 25 PowerBooks in teams of two. The course instructor, a faculty
member in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, cooperatively
plans the technology strand with the TTa project staff. This team
provides instruction
on technology, conducts hands-on workshops , documents the class's work
with the technology, and staffs an office for full-time technical
assistance.
Much of the students' work is assigned and completed
electronically. The students and the faculty participate in a number of
mail reflector lists on the College of
Education's Learning Resource Server (LRS), a server designed to house
and support
instructional materials (http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/). All of the students
are expected to use technology throughout the YLP experience; they are
encouraged to use their PowerBooks in their assigned schools as well.
Technology instruction includes use of email using
Eudora,
use of the World Wide Web, integration of multimedia in the curriculum,
use of such teaching tools as a database and a spreadsheet, use of
"wizards" to create presentations
and newsletters, use of digitization tools such as scanners and digital
cameras,
use of presentation hardware such as an LCD panel and presenter box, and
creation
of personal homepages on the Web (http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/ylp95-96/ )or
http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/ylp94-95/).
Students are required to develop a mini unit for their
classes. They must use Internet resources in creating this unit. The
best units from the 1994-1995 YLP class are posted on the Web
(http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/YLP94-95/mini-units/), and the class of 1995-96
has been interested in following the number of "hits" the preceding
year's class
has been getting on the Web. For example, in the month of November,
1995, the mini
units received 1301 accesses from around the world as well as the United
States.
Seven countries outside of the United States were represented, at least
fifteen states within
the US, and interestingly, less than 10% came internally from the
University of
Illinois.
Students have been enthusiastic about this new
approach to technology. Most are reluctant to part with their
PowerBooks when they leave the program. Analysis of email exchanges and
of access to the LRS as well as interviews, video, digitized images,
biannual survey data, and some additional non-traditional measures have
helped TTa researchers document the success of their model by tracking
the integration of technology into
the professional and private lives of the YLP students.
Indicators of Integration
TTa researchers have been collecting responses to
student surveys at the end of each semester. The students have answered
questions concerning problems they've had, successes they've
experienced, and other concerns as well as the extent to which
they have used the Web and email. (http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/ylp95-96/) For
the 1995 fall semester, 47 of the 49 students in the YLP responded to
the survey. Of these 47, 85% indicated they found email either "helpful"
or "very helpful" in the completion of class work and assignments; and
54% reported finding the Web either "helpful" or "very helpful"
in completing course work.
At the end of the spring semester, May 1995, the 48
members of the YLP program for 1994-95 were surveyed as they were
preparing to graduate and look for their first teaching positions. One
question asked how many were planning to use technology
in their teaching the next year. Eighty-five percent responded
positively. Of all of the uses of technology listed, most indicated
that they were likely to use Internet tools; the
second preference was that they hoped to use multimedia applications.
Additionally,
they responded that they would like to use tools such as a grade book
and a database
to facilitate their teaching.
The TTa researchers use the semester survey data to
guide adaptations and variations in the course structure from one year
to the next. Based on the '94-'95 responses, for example, the TTa group
pre-assessed the '95-'96 YLP students as to their incoming technology
skills and made some attempt at grouping them according to computer
skill level. This was done so that students with computer expertise
could learn more advanced
network applications while novice users were introduced to the Internet
at a pace
comfortable for them. In addition, based on student surveys, more
hands-on opportunities
were incorporated into the course structure. The 1994 surveys queried
students about
their use of Gopher. By the 1995 surveys, the course had eliminated
instruction in Gopher and jumped to questions about the students' use of
the Web.
An interesting indicator of the extent to which
technology was assimilated into the thinking of the student teachers was
reflected in their sketches of the ideal classroom. Traditionally in
the student teaching curriculum, a standard assignment has been
for the students in elementary education to draw a floor plan of the
ideal classroom.
The YLP faculty made this assignment as usual in the fall of '94, with
no mention
of technology. Surprisingly, technology appeared to have permeated the
consciousness
of 37 out of the 45 students. With no prompting, these students
included classroom
computers in various configurations in their ideal classrooms. That is
compared
to 4 of the 45 students from the previous year, with the same
assignment, who had
included one or more computers in their classroom.
A more powerful measure of the impact of the
technology was the evidence that the student teachers used email and
their group mail reflector not only to complete course work, find
Internet resources for their mini units, and correspond with their
instructors, but also to plan TGIF parties, design a class T-shirt, and
put out requests for
extra graduation tickets.
An early draft of Standards for English Language Arts
published by the National Standards for English and the International
Reading Association states that "literacy is profoundly social.
Literacy develops in response to students' needs to participate in
larger and larger language communities, both at home and in the school.
From infancy
through adulthood, language and literacy are best learned in social
relationships
with others and through purposeful and challenging engagements in
meaningful activity." Technological literacy is also a profoundly social
experience, observable
in group interactions, in forging new connections beyond walls, and in
the cooperative learning that comes from sharing resources.
With the demand for PowerBooks outstripping the number
of available machines, necessity
forced sharing of PowerBooks in several of the larger sections of the
courses. Although
admittedly inconvenient, it may have had some hidden benefits, resulting
from forced sharing and teamwork. A recent report (West, 1995) based
on the research done
in ACOT classrooms (Apple Classroom of Tomorrow ) suggests that "less
may be more."
The study suggests that students working in clusters or small groups
with computers
may actually benefit from the group work, and that rather than being an
isolating experience,
the computer work is conducive to small group cooperative efforts.
Another non-traditional indicator of the level of
integration of technology into the social lives of the student teachers
came as they planned their end of the year party. The students devised a
skit, accompanied by a giant story book, "Adventures in YLP Land," in
which various students wrote adventure stories. In one, a character
became
trapped in an endless listserve, able to escape only when he learned to
click his
heels three times while chanting "unsubscribe! unsubscribe!
unsubscribe!"
A final graphic measure of the students' integration
of technology is documented with video from their actual student
teaching experiences. Students were not required to take PowerBooks to
schools with them, nor was there a technology requirement in
1994 or 1995 for their actual student teaching. Nevertheless, a number
of them chose to
integrate technology into their lessons. Video footage from some of
these classrooms
documents their use of the technology in their teaching experience.
The continuous infusion of technology as a strand in
the pre-service program has already provided some dramatic results. As
reported by the Office of Technology Assessment, "Telling students what
is possible is not enough, they must see technology used by their
instructors, observe the use of technological tools in their classrooms,
and practice teaching with technology themselves if they are to use
these tools effectively in their own teaching" (OTA, 1995, p. 184).
Lessons Learned
The Teaching Teleapprenticeships model is constantly
evolving as researchers and faculty learn from their efforts and refine
the program from one year to the next. As the project scales up to
include more students, it is important to keep in mind some
of the lessons learned thus far. Following are a few observations:
- Students benefit from sharing and working in small groups or in
teams of two as they
learn new technologies. A mathematics instructor commented "The 101/219
students merely see the potential and are 'going ape' over the
possibilities. It is the best thing we have tried. I see that if they
can learn about math and math teaching in a new and different way, they
are more apt to teach differently themselves."
- A key element in the success of this effort has been the
strong technical support
available to the student teachers. A walk-in office, staffed by
research assistants
all day, has been able to provide immediate help for most technical
problems. As
a result, when the student teachers in the YLP group were surveyed in
December, 1995, and asked "What were the biggest problems you had using
technology in the YLP this semester?" the response was revealing. A
majority wrote "none," did not answer, or wrote "n/a." Of the 22 who did
indicate problems, purely technical problems were reported
by about five students, such as "PowerBook problems," or "battery
problems." Many
complained of access-related problems such as having to share
PowerBooks, not having
enough live phone lines the classroom, or not having enough printers.
These could be
viewed as successes, as they indicate a desire on the part of the
students to increase
their use of the technology. A third group reported problems with
instruction-related items, such as wanting more detailed documentation.
- As reported in surveys and interviews, as much hands-on experience as possible with
technology, as opposed to lecture/demonstration, is critical. Every semester the
faculty has seen a need to increase the hands-on opportunities for the students.
Even with increased lab time in the fall semester of 1995, the evaluations still had a
number of responses to "What suggestions would you make for changes for next year?"
indicating a desire for more lab time. These responses included "more access to
computer room," "more on computer with modem hookups," or "more time hooked up."
- Real classroom teachers who use technology effectively are the
best role models as
instructional leaders. Whenever possible, it is important to involve
them in the technology strand of teacher education, bringing them in to
give demonstrations of their own technology uses or involving them
through network interactions with undergraduate education students.
- The contextualization of technology is critical. If student teachers use the Web
to find resources for units they are creating, or connect with classrooms across
the world for classroom curriculum projects, or learn to create digitized images
of themselves and their students for their own home pages, the technology becomes a means
to an end rather than an end unto itself, and thus, much more effective.
As the OTA report (1995) concludes, "There are
approximately 1300 institutions of higher education preparing future
teachers in this country. In the 1990-91 school year, nearly 100,000
student teachers graduated with a bachelors' degree in teacher
education in the United States. In the next decade, the nation's
schools will need to hire
about 2 million teachers." Ideally, these new teachers should be able to
use a range of technological tools to provide effective instruction and
help their student teachers become comfortable with and knowledgeable
about technology. The most direct and cost effective way to educate
teachers about technology is through the preservice education they
receive in colleges of education or other institutions.
As colleges of education move into this area of
technology training, it becomes increasingly important to document the
success and failures, publicize recommendations for future action, and
raise the general awareness of the critical need we face of providing
effective instruction for technology integration for these next two
million
teachers.
References
Conte, C., Communications Development Incorporated of Washington DC, & Kopp, K.,
(1995). The learning connection: Will the information highway transform schools and
prepare students for the twenty-first century? Benton Foundation Communications
Policy Project [On-line].
Levin, J. A., Riel, M., Miyake, N., & Cohen, M. (1987). Education on the electronic
frontier: Teleapprentices in globally distributed educational contexts. Educational
Psychology, 12, 254-260.
Levin, S., Levin, J., & Boehmer, R. (1994, April). Teaching Teleapprenticeships in
a freshman biology course. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American
Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
Levin, J., Waugh, M., Brown, D., & Clift, R. (1994). Teaching
Teleapprenticeships: A new organizational framework for improving teacher
education using electronic networks.Journal of Machine-Mediated Learning, 4 (2 & 3), 149-161.
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1995). Teachers and technology: Making the connection (OTA-EHR-616). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
West, P. (1995). With computers, Apple project finds less may be more. Education Week,
11, 6-8.
Acknowledgments
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under
Grant No. RED-9253423. The Government has certain rights in this material. Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in the material
are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
The authors would like to acknowledge their appreciation for the support from the
following:
National Science Foundation
Apple Computer
Microsoft Corporation
Karl Koenke
Michael Waugh
YLP staff and students
Contributors
Dr. Catherine Thurston is Project Director of the Teaching
Teleapprenticeships
Project, College of Education at the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign. She has been involved with a series of educational
technology initiatives at the university for the past 8 years. She is
particularly interested in issues of staff development and technology
use
in teacher training. (Address: Office of Teleapprenticeships, 32
Education Building, UIUC, 1310 S. Sixth St., Champaign IL 61820. Email:
cthursto@uiuc.edu)
Evangeline Secaras is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of
Illinois, College of Education in the Department of Educational
Psychology. Her specialization is in the use of multimedia in the K-12
classroom. Her research interests include how the use of multimedia
affects the way teachers teach and the way students learn and what
impact this would have on visual literacy in the 21st Century. (Address:
Office of Teleapprenticeships, 32 Education Building, UIUC, 1310 S.
Sixth St., Champaign IL 61820. Email: esecaras@uiuc.edu)
Dr. James Levin is a professor in the College of Education at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He says of himself, "For
many years I have been exploring ways in which technology can be used to
improve education. I am especially excited by the ways in which new
communication technologies fundamentally change the relationship between
education and the rest of society." (Address: Office of
Teleapprenticeships, 32 Education Building, UIUC, 1310 S. Sixth St.,
Champaign IL 61820. Email: j-levin@uiuc.edu)