Home PublicationsJRTEPast IssuesVolume 31 Number 1

Edited by Diane McGrath, Kansas State University

formerly Journal of Research on Computing in Education

Regional Educational Technology Assistance Initiative--Phase II: Evaluating a Model for Statewide Professional Development

Priscilla Norton
George Mason University

Carmen Gonzales
New Mexico State University

Abstract

The Regional Educational Technology Assistance (RETA) Initiative began as a way to establish a network of educators throughout New Mexico to assist school districts with technology planning and implementation. The RETA program emphasized statewide professional-development peer workshops that focused on curriculum integration rather than technological mechanics and mastery of software. The RETA Initiative met and, in many cases, exceeded expectations. Teacher participants reported increased use of e-mail, a shift from teaching about computers to using computers as an integral part of learning, more collaboration with peers, adaptation of workshop models for use in their own classrooms, and sharing of the workshop ideas. Pre- and postinitiative surveys were conducted, and a set of open-ended questions were used for supportive qualitative data.

Contributors

Dr. Priscilla Norton is an associate professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where she is in charge of secondary education programs. She had been at the University of New Mexico where she developed the highly successful integrating technology into the schools master's degree cohort program. Dr. Carmen Gonzales is an assistant professor at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. She works in the learning technologies program. In addition, she serves as chair of the New Mexico Council of Technology in Education and is a board member of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (Address: Dr. Priscilla Norton, Graduate School of Education MS4B3, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030; pnorton@osf1.gmu.edu.)

A PDF file of the full article is available. Contact: jrte@iste.org. Please specifiy Volume and Issue number and article name.