Home MembershipSpecial Interest GroupsSIGTE (Teacher Educators)JCTE—Journal of Computing in Teacher EducationPast IssuesVolume 25 Number 1: Fall 2008

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

Table of Contents
Volume 25, Number 1
Fall 2008

Columns

Editor's Remarks Big News Items from JCTE! Ann D. Thompson As the   Journal of Computing in Teacher Education finishes its 24th year as an academic journal, there is interesting news of current and future changes for our JCTE. Current changes include our new podcast feature and our upcoming special issues. In addition, we are considering the possibility of changing the name of the journal (after almost 25 years of JCTE). Read More     President's Message NECC 2008—Can Wise Crowds Transform Educational Policy? Mike Charles James Surowiecki began NECC 2008 by describing the wisdom of crowds, or why the many are smarter than the few. Surowiecki’s keynote included a number of examples of how large groups of people are smarter than what might be perceived as a more intelligent elite. Later in the conference 20 SIGTE members went out to dinner at the Tower of the Americas, overlooking San Antonio. While waiting for our food, we estimated the population of the city that spread out below. As determined on a handy spreadsheet, the arithmetic mean of the estimates was 1.2 million; the population of San Antonio (2000 Census) is 1.14 million (confirmed at the restaurant on a Web-enabled cell phone). Only one individual estimate (1.2 million) in this brilliant gathering of SIGTE members was as accurate as the group’s estimate. Read More

Articles

Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions of Instant Messaging in Two Educational Contexts Aaron Doering, Cynthia Lewis, George Veletsianos, and Kristen Nichols-Besel Using an activity theory framework, we investigate how preservice teachers and middle school students utilized instant messaging in educational contexts and the impact of instant messaging on the development of community among preservice teachers. Qualitative results from six focus groups and two personal interviews indicate that instant messaging enhanced the development of community among the preservice teachers and facilitated the breakdown of teacher-student social barriers while being predominantly exploited as a social rather than an academic medium. The instant messaging assignment consisted of three overlapping activity systems that complicated the assignment and created some degree of tension for the teachers. Even though preservice teachers felt uncomfortable being at a peer-to-peer level with students, instant messaging enabled them to build an activity system that can be characterized as a multifaceted learning and knowledge-based community. Read More        Student Perceptions of Using Instant Messaging Software to Facilitate Synchronous Online Class Interaction in a Graduate Teacher Education Course Lih-Ching Chen Wang and William R. Morgan This study investigated student perceptions of using instant messaging software for online interactive chapter discussions in a graduate teacher educational technology course. The criterion instrument was a 47-item scale that measured Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) first four principles for good practice in undergraduate education, yielding reliabilities ranging from .837 to .895. Students rated the course significantly higher than their regular classroom courses, with stronger effects on perceptions of student cooperation and active learning, and weaker effects on perceptions of instructor contact and feedback. These findings support the proposition that instant messaging may be used as a technique to increase dialogue and thereby reduce transactional distance, especially among students, in an online course environment. Read More     When Curriculum and Technology Meet: Technology Integration in Methods Courses Christy G. Keeler Reporting on the results of an action research study, this manuscript provides examples of strategies used to integrate technology into a content methods course. The study used reflective teaching of a social studies methods course at a major Southwestern university in 10 course sections over a four-semester period. In alignment with the research question, the original course design used technology-rich instructional approaches. Throughout the study period, elements of those strategies altered to better meet the needs of preservice teachers and take advantage of technological innovations. The result is a description of technology productivity and instructional strategies applicable in a variety of content-specific preservice teacher education courses. Read More     Examining Preservice Teacher Inquiry through Video-Based, Formative Assessment e-Portfolios Craig E. Shepherd and Michael J. Hannafin A capstone electronic portfolio, usually focused on summative assessment, was altered for preservice social studies teachers to include video-based formative e-portfolio assessment. Using a case-study design with three participants, we found that use of video artifacts facilitated reflection, supported inquiry into classroom success and failure, and influenced self-improvement plans. Additionally, the systematic examination of eportfolio artifacts provided different points of view into classroom practices and influenced preservice teachers’ perceptions of success. Yet, participants indicated that practicing teachers did not maintain portfolios, raising questions about the continued use of e-portfolios beyond graduation. Read More

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