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Contact Information:
Dr. Sasha Barab |
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Contact Information:
Dr. Sasha Barab |
| Course Vision | The Problem | Guiding Framework | Class Schedule | Useful/Cool Web Sites |
| Course Assignments, Grades and Calender | Class Pictures | Class Theme / Mantra | A.C.T. | Your Grades |
The goals of this course center around the improvement of Professional Development of educators by means of new technologies. The vision is to create a learning community in which you (pre-service teachers) and practicing teachers collaborate in the conduct of real-world tasks (as opposed to textbook exercises) with the aid of new technologies. This will involve having you team with practicing teachers as they go about their day-to-day work of planning and using technology with K-12 students. This will provide you with access to actual "teaching with technology" problems that arise in the classroom and to authentic feedback on the quality of your efforts, while simultaneously benefiting practicing teachers who are expanding their knowledge on the use of technology within the context of their specified needs.
More specifically, this collaboration will provide you with an opportunity to engage in project-based learning that is authentic in that it addresses a real classroom need and draws on the expertise of practicing teachersí professional experiences. Further, it moves us towards our goal of making university courses realistic and eliminates the division between learning abstract concepts and decontextualized skills at the university and actually applying them in authentic settings. Key features of the course are:
- the use of technology to link pre-service and in-service teachers;
- the creation of a learning community that bridges both pre-service and in-service needs;
- a focus on tasks that are authentic to both pre-service and in-service teachers; and
- a focus on the effective use of technology in teaching.
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Research on staff development in schools has indicated that K-12 teachers are generally not receiving enough time, support, access, and encouragement to become competent and comfortable with technology (Schrum & Dehoney, 1998; Siegel, 1995; Zammit, 1992). We cannot expect that pre-service teachers will gain the necessary competence once they are on the job. As such, teacher preparation programs have the responsibility for preparing these teachers to use technology in the classroom. (Green & Gilbert, 1995, p. 13).
Although we have been teaching students about various technological tools (describing their potential for classroom use) and assigning tasks (assignments) that require the use of these tools within the isolation of the university setting, students have had little opportunity to use these technologies for addressing authentic classroom problems. It is these types of experiences that contribute to the gap between learning that occurs at a traditional university setting and learning that occurs within real-world settings. In one studentís words, "there is a gap between learning the computer skills here at the university and being able to incorporate them in the classrooms for real problems."
In an attempt to bridge this gap, pre-service teacher education programs are involving students in authentic activity with technology within K-12 classrooms prior to the student teaching experience. This is partly due to the findings that research on traditional field observations and student teaching experiences shows that students often fail to use and dismiss as irrelevant the techniques that they learn in teacher training courses (Richardson-Koehler, 1988). Nicaise and Barnes (1996) suggested that these findings should not be surprising, given that most teacher preparation occurs within the culturally impoverished setting of the college classroom, instead of authentic school contexts. This process creates a content-culture incongruity in which students are learning content implicitly framed in the culture of schools, but whose use and value is explicitly attributed to authentic communities of practice that are not directly in evidence (Barab & Duffy, in press; Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989).
While few educators would argue with the value of engaging learners in authentic communities of practice, many obstacles prevent pre-service teachers from participating in pre-college classroom communities. Isolated in college classrooms, most students lack the transportation, time, and resources necessary to becoming involved in classroom communities. Likewise, mentoring a cadre of students adds extra work to already burdened teachers. At the very least, coordinating the schedules of these busy populations for the planning, training, and evaluation needed in good teacher development can be daunting.
Emerging asynchronous communication technologies such as email and the World Wide Web afford opportunities for community members to meet and engage in discourse irrespective of time or place. ACT, a Web Based Asynchronous Conferencing Tool is one such tool that might afford greater opportunities for pushing the boundaries of classroom communities of practice by allowing teacher education students to collaborate and work with practicing classroom teachers (see, for example, Alavi, 1994; Davie & Wells, 1991).
TEXTS & SUPPLIES
"W310 Course Readings" to be purchased at T.I.S. At least two 3 1/2 high density diskettes (not double density--check the disk for "HD" printed somewhere). You might need more later for backups and submission assignments. Label these diskettes with your name and phone number so they can be returned if you forget or misplace them. Bring your disks to class each day!!