 |
Edited by
Dr. David J. Ayersman, Mary Washington College, and Dr. W.
Michael Reed,
New York University
Incoming editor: Dr. Lynne Schrum, University of Georgia
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| formerly Journal of Research on Computing in
Education |
Volume 35 Number 1
Fall 2002
The
Regional Educational Technology Assistance Program: Its Effects on
Teaching Practices
Carmen Gonzales and Linda Pickett
New Mexico State University
Naomi Hupert and Wendy Martin
EDC’s Center for Children and Technology
Abstract
This article discusses the effects of the Regional Technology
Assistance Program (RETA) on the teaching practices and collegial
behaviors
of its participants and instructors. We present findings that
suggest that, as a result of their involvement in RETA’s ongoing,
peer-directed,
constructivist-based professional development workshops, teacher
participants and teacher instructors have: (1) increased their use of
technology in the classroom, (2) increased their use of certain
constructivist practices in the classroom, (3) increased their
collaboration
with other teachers, and (4) assumed more leadership positions.
Successful reorientation of teachers from direct instruction to
constructivist
teaching methods must alter teachers’ epistemologies. Professional
development, then, must address the beliefs held by educators and the
methods
in which they incorporate those beliefs into their teaching as well
as deliver effective, new methods of integrating technology and
curricula.
Contributors
Dr. Carmen L. Gonzales is the project director of the Regional
Educational Technology Assistance grant program and a professor in the
Department of Curriculum and Instruction at New Mexico State
University. Linda M. Pickett is a doctoral student specializing in
educational
technologies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at
New Mexico State University. Naomi Hupert and Dr. Wendy Martin are RETA
program
evaluators from the Educational Development Center’s Center for
Children and Technology in New York.
Download
the full article (PDF, 73 KB, PDF Instructions)
Contact
Dr. Carmen L. Gonzalez
Department of Curriculum
and Instruction
New Mexico State University
PO Box 30001 MSC
3CUR
Las Cruces, NM 88003
carmen@nmsu.edu
Copyright © 2002, ISTE (International Society for Technology
in Education).
All rights reserved.
| change, collaboration, professional development, teachers, technology |
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