AERA 2000 Symposium 47.47
Teaching teachers with advanced learning technologies:
The use of computer mediated communication for teacher development
Friday, April 28, 2000
12:25 PM - 1:55 PM
Marriott Mardi Gras B Room
New Orleans LA
Chair: Barbara Means, SRI International
Discussant: Margaret Honey, Center for Children & Technology, EDC
The call for inquiry-based approaches to teaching and the integration of technology into the K-12 classroom has created an increased need to provide professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers. In this panel, we report on various efforts to utilize the computer and Internet connections to create robust communities of reflective practice among K-12 teachers.
Professional organizations such as the National Council for the Teachers of English (NCTE) and the National Council for the Teaching of Mathematics (NCTM) have developed standards and methods for reforming teaching in K-12 classrooms. Common among these reform efforts are an emphasis on interdisciplinary work and inquiry based approaches to teaching and learning. Similarly, educators and policy makers have called for the integration of technology into the K-12 classroom to leverage curriculum reform efforts. These reforms will be successful only if large numbers of teachers develop new teaching practices along the lines suggested by these professional organizations. However, teacher change is a complex phenomenon that, among other things, requires ongoing support, time to reflect on current practices, and opportunities to learn and implement new practices. To foster the changes implied in these calls for reform, there is a need to expand the professional development and graduate education currently available for practicing K-12 teachers. To meet this increased need, we believe that computers and the Internet are a potentially powerful medium for teachers and teacher educators to foster educational reforms.
The panelists in this symposium all report on the use of online technologies to provide professional development and graduate education for K-12 teachers. Each panelist will discuss the process of developing and delivering online educational opportunities for K-12 teachers. In addition, all participants will discuss the ways in which computer mediated communication is capable of creating robust communities of reflective practice and the ways in which online technology has connected teachers locally, nationally, and internationally. This symposium will be of particular interest to teachers and teacher educators interested in using new technologies to facilitate ongoing teacher learning and development. In addition, this symposium will be of interest to all those interested in the use of advanced technologies to create contexts for distance learning.
Creating Space for Professional Conversations: Mentoring Master Teachers Online
Linda Polin & Sue Talley
Pepperdine University
One of the problems facing teacher education programs is the scarcity of seriously good master teacher classrooms in which to place student teachers. We may teach our pre-service students about constructionist perspectives, alternative assessment strategies, or problem-based learning methods, for instance, but we cannot always find teachers whose classrooms successfully model these concepts. Furthermore, in large teacher education programs, the teacher education institution is often desperate to find teachers who know how to meaningfully mentor new teachers -- how to provide useful feedback, or how to model and discuss classroom behavior. The professional development school model is intended to address this issue in part, by placing university folk, experienced teachers, and novice teachers in close proximity to encourage everyone's growth through discussion and sharing of ideas and experiences. Unfortunately, professional development schools do not come close to meeting the placement needs of most large teacher education programs, and not every public school is, in its entirety, the most responsive and compelling site for professional development. Furthermore, PD schools require a large investment of resources from the IHE and a strong commitment from the PD school.
At Pepperdine University, we have decided to take an alternative route to strengthening our master teacher community by making use of our extensive experience in teaching and learning in online graduate programs. Last year we surveyed our master teachers and found that approximately 85 % of them had access to the Internet at home or school or both. And so we
have decided to bring the master teacher development to the teachers through networked opportunities for them to earn salary credits and units for an online seminar on mentoring. Of course, we are as much interested in the further development of these teachers' own teaching repertoires and understandings as we are in their development as mentors.
Though much of the current focus on networked learning is on student collaboration, teacher development through online networks is not a new idea. From 1989 to 1992, TERC operated a teacher network designed to move teachers into a more meaningful, project-based approach to science instruction (Ruopp, Gal, Drayton, & Pfister, 1993). Using asynchronous means and annual face-to-face meetings, LabNet offered teachers an opportunity to talk to each other about their practice with science education experts. At the University of Illinois, pre-service teachers
interacted with "real" classroom teachers online (Levin and Waugh, 1998), to their mutual benefit. These networks are intentional collaborations, and in both cases cast their "net" widely to involve a range of players in education, not just classroom teachers. More common are the resource-based approaches to teacher networking, such as the Math Forum, which offers teachers a place to interact about math education and find curriculum and policy resources (http://www.forum.swarthmore.edu/).
We are proposing something different. Our experiences in online education tell us that we must support both asynchronous and synchronous interaction; have a face-to-face component; offer incentive to keep members involved, such as course credit; and provide mediators for collaboration and interaction. In this seminar we are prepared to share our "lessons learned" from teaching online and discuss how those insights are guiding our development of the online master teacher seminar, what special design issues are involved in online work in professionally sensitive areas such as the quality of teaching skills for teacher otherwise designated as "master" teachers.
Advanced technologies for teacher development: International Netcourse Teacher enhancement coalition
Ray Rose
The Concord Consortium
The Concord Consortium has been operating the NSF-funded International Netcourse Teacher Enhancement Coalition (INTEC) for the past 3 years. The project provided a two-semester, four credit, graduate-level online professional development course for secondary math and science teachers to increase the use of inquiry in instruction. INTEC was designed around the concept of a netseminar, where the participants would participate in activities both online and conducted face-to-face in local study groups, and then discuss their learning with peers. Discussions took place in an online asynchronous environment with a cohort of participants. The project developed an approach for scaling the delivery of the course to large numbers of participants while maintaining an environment where the participants would have a sense of community and be able to actively participant in online discussions. The majority of participants who completed the course, reported that they had a better understanding of inquiry-based instruction, and would be using more inquiry-based activities in their instruction. The project design incorporated many of the common precepts for teacher professional development, (e.g. involving teams rather than individuals, garnering administrative support, and focusing on a single theme for a long period of time) and found that some, like the concept of involvement in a single professional development focus for an extended time-frame, are not always as useful in light of the realities of the online environment.
TAPPED IN: Creating an online community to support K-12 teacher development
Judi Fusco & Mark Schlager
SRI International
TAPPED IN (TM) is an online community workplace that supports teachers' professional growth through both formal and informal professional development programs in all areas of K-12 professional practice. The community supports 5000+ teachers, teacher education faculty and students, and staff from many organizations (as of July, 1999).
The TAPPED IN concept is based on the view professional development is a life-long process in which teachers' needs change from year to year. Our goal is to begin supporting teachers during their pre-service education and continue to serve them as they become leaders in their professional community. Multiple organizations are tenants in the TAPPED IN environment, teachers gain access to a wide-range of expertise, ideas, and resources that no single organization could provide for its teachers.
An important component of professional development is the formal coursework at universities as teachers pursue graduate studies and degrees. The researchers in the community have had a unique opportunity to watch as many university professors and instructors have experimented with conducting both undergraduate and graduate level courses in the TAPPED IN environment. Two instructors who were new to teaching online, but not new to teaching, were followed in the fall of 1998 and the spring of 1999 as they taught their first course online. Though the two instructors were both new to online teaching, the two courses were at very different developmental phases." One course was taught in isolation, and the other in the context of a well-established program. We will discuss similarities and differences between the two courses as well as lessons learned.
Developing a community of practitioners via advanced learning technologies: The case of CTER Online
Greg Waddoups, Sandra Levin, James Levin
University of Illinois
The Curriculum, Technology, and Education Reform focus for an online master of education program (CTER Online) was created in 1998 at the College of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Conventional professional development for practicing teachers includes releasing them from their classroom to attend a workshop, institute, or professional conference. The goal of CTER Online is to provide practicing teachers with the opportunity to develop professionally through obtaining a Masters of Education degree at home or at their local school through their personal computers and Internet connections. In this way, they can receive professional training without being taken out of their regular classroom or traveling long distances to classes in the evenings, on the weekends or during the summers. We report on four case studies of students as they participated in the online classroom with a particular emphasis on what students have learned as a result of their participation. In particular, we identify the ways in which students in the CTER Online master of education have learned to use instructional technologies, learned concepts of curriculum reform, and have developed collaborative relations with teachers locally, nationally, and internationally. Stated differently, we report on the process of developing a robust community of reflective teachers through the use of online technologies.
References
Harasim, L., Hiltz, S., Teles, L., and Turoff, M. (1997). Learning networks: A field guide to teaching and learning online. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Levin, J., & Waugh, M. Teaching teleapprenticeships: Electronic network-based educational frameworks for improving teacher education. Available online at:
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/TTA/Papers/TTAS.html (accessed on 7/27/99).
Ruopp, R. (1993). Agenda for an uncertain future. In Ruopp, R., Gal, S., Drayton, B., and Pfister, M. (eds). LabNet: Toward a community of practice.Hillsdale, NJ: LEA.
Ruopp, R., Gal, S., Drayton, B., and Pfister, M. (eds). LabNet: Toward a community of practice. Hillsdale, NJ: LEA.