Journal of Computing in Teacher Education (JCTE)

Editors: Ann Thompson and Denise A. Schmidt
Iowa State University
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching
N031 Lagomarcino Hall
Ames, IA 50011-3192
E-mail: eat@iastate.edu or dschmidt@iastate.edu

Columns

Editor's Remarks
TPCK: A New Direction for Technology in Teacher Education Programs (PDF, 594 MB, PDF Instructions)
Ann Thompson
In February, The American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education announced the publication of a new book, The Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching and Teacher Educators, published by Lawrence Erlbaum (Mahwah, NJ), 2007. The book, edited by the members of the AACTE Technology and Innovation Committee, defines specific parameters of the concept of TPCK for teacher educators. It includes chapters on the implications of TPCK for teacher education in general, specific descriptions and definitions of TPCK within each major content area, implications of TPCK for multicultural, inservice and preservice teacher education, and national/international structures that support the development of knowledge and practice in this area. The book concludes with a chapter entitled "It's About Time" that identifies specific suggested action steps for teacher education programs wishing to help teachers and teacher educators to better develop TPCK.

President's Message
Expanding Our Evaluation Practices (PDF, 518 KB, PDF Instructions)
Arlene Borthwick
Like many SIGTE members, my professional life has thrived on collaboration. That's why I was in for a rude awakening when it came time to complete the grant proposals and IRRB forms for a sabbatical research project that I would undertake essentially by myself. Since I usually reach out to others for support, I solicited feedback on my ideas from colleagues, including a research faculty member at my institution who gave me pointers on a tool that I had developed in collaboration with Art Willer (of Bytes of Learning) to assess students' work with information, people, and technology during multimedia authoring activities. Perhaps my experience resonates with many of you who have worked on your own to develop research questions, plan appropriate data collection methods, and identify and/or create appropriate evaluation tools for projects you undertake or evaluations you are asked to design related to teaching and learning with technology.

Articles

Strategies for Creating Community in a Graduate Education Online Program (PDF, 144 KB, PDF Instructions)
Penny Silvers and Jody O'Connell, and Martha Fewell
This article describes the practical application of social learning theory to build and sustain community in an asynchronous online learning environment. It presents ways that community-building can occur in a graduate online education program through the shared meaning-making processes occurring among students within and across interdisciplinary online courses as communities of practice emerge. Three professors share their experiences and strategies for developing, teaching, reflecting, and learning about creating communities of practice. Strategies include using interactive learning experiences, flexible grouping, extended online discussions, e-mail and journaling, video, digital storytelling, and power point presentations. Examples of online discussions show how student learning is situated in the group interactions revealing shared values, beliefs and practices generated within the online community.

Shaping Teacher Candidates' Digital Portfolios: What Administrators Want for Hiring (PDF, 700 KB, PDF Instructions)
By Rick Snoeyink and Joy Meyer
Abstract
This qualitative study investigated P-12 school administrators' perceptions of teacher education candidates' online digital portfolios for hiring purposes. Over the course of three semesters, focus group interviews and an online questionnaire gauged administrators' perceptions of selected candidates' portfolios and how they might be used to help select teachers to hire. Based on preliminary feedback from administrators, candidates had opportunity to modify their portfolios each semester. Findings give evidence that administrators will use digital portfolios as a tool in the hiring process if they can easily access them, navigation is clear, and items they have traditionally used are still available. Administrators also viewed online video clips of candidates as a potentially powerful tool to help in selecting teachers to hire.

An Academic Technology Initiative for Teacher Preparation Candidates: Implications for Preservice Teacher Programs (PDF, 637 KB, PDF Instructions)
Jennifer Vermillion, Michael Young, and Robert Hannafin
Schools of education (SOEs) are experiencing increased pressure to prepare teacher candidates for the effective and innovative integration of technologies. Lack of both ubiquitous on-campus access and effective modeling by SOE faculty are two often-cited barriers to reaching this goal. The Academic Technology Initiative (ATI) at a large Northeastern university provided laptops and support for all preservice teachers and faculty in an attempt to address these barriers. Using a grounded theory, ethnographic approach, this study examines how the removal of access and infrastructure barriers affects technology integration and faculty technology modeling. Our findings may help inform new technology strategies at both this and other universities designing such programs. We expect to identify new barriers and limitations that hold important implications for the future of the ATI and teacher preparation programs in general.

Filling the Gap with Technology Innovations: Standards, Curriculum, Collaboration, Success! (PDF, 790 KB, 73 seconds, PDF Instructions)
Mia Kim Williams and Teresa S. Foulger
Filling the Gap with Innovations is a study of a higher education professional development model used to infuse a teacher education program with technology innovations in order to address curriculum gaps. Professional educators at the university level are not traditionally collaborative. Yet, when an assessment of program alignment to state professional teacher standards identified six areas inadequately addressed by program content, instructors participated in a collaborative process to eliminate the deficiencies using innovative technology solutions. The three processes from the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) helped instructors better collaborate during the change process as well as provided summative data. The results indicate collaborative practices had the most impact on the level to which the innovation was used and adopted by participants