Using technology to prepare teachers for the twenty-first century

Abstract

Teacher education plays a vital role in the development of a literate, globally informed citizenry. To adequately prepare our teachers, we must ensure that they are aware of global perspectives, are proficient with the information resources and tools of the day and can adapt to the tools of the future. This paper will propose how new technologies can be used to promote global understandings and information literacy as well as the professional development of new teachers.

Headnote

ABSTRACT Teacher education plays a vital role in the development of a literate, globally informed citizenry. To adequately prepare our teachers, we must ensure that they are aware of global perspectives, are proficient with the information resources and tools of the day and can adapt to the tools of the future. This paper will propose how new technologies can be used to promote global understandings and information literacy as well as the professional development of new teachers. It will conclude with a discussion of the implications for teacher-preparation institutions and with a caution that the critical element for promoting student learning is not technology access, but good teaching.

Introduction

We are living in a time of rapid progression from nationalistic, agrarian and industrialised societies to a global, information and communication-based society. Through computer, video and communication technologies we can be constantly, and often instantaneously, bombarded with information from around the world. With the amount of information increasing exponentially, the literacy skills of the last twenty centuries will take neither us nor our students successfully into the next century.

Today's definition of literacy must go beyond the ability to read and write to include thinking critically, reasoning logically, and being globally and technologically aware. A US group, the National Forum on Information Literacy, has identified literate students as those who can:

successfully complete a complex problem-solving process that requires them to define the need for information, determine a search strategy, locate the needed resources, assess and understand the information they find, interpret the information, communicate the information, and, finally, evaluate their conclusions in view of the original problem. (Cohen, 1995, p. 1)

Similarly, the dramatic political, social and economic changes we have seen in just the last decade highlight the need for a curriculum that offers a global perspective. Hanvey (cited by Wishnietsky, 1993, p. 9) has defined global education as:

...learning about those issues that cut across national boundaries and about the interconnectedness of systems, ecological, cultural, economic, political, and technological. Global education involves perspective taking, seeing things through the eyes, minds, and hearts of others; and it means the realisation that while individuals and groups may view life differently, they also have common needs and wants.

This article will propose how new technologies can be used to promote global understandings and information literacy, and it will discuss the implications for how we 1359-866X/97/030345-06 1997 Australian Teacher Education Association prepare our next generation of teachers. It will not address the equally important requirement that new teachers should learn to use the technology for the purpose of curriculum delivery.

The Potential for Using Technology in Teacher Education

Embedding the use of technology throughout teacher-education programmes can do much more than develop expertise in the use of the technology itself. It can also widen students' views of the world, strengthen their skills in using information (including information literacy, locating and assessing information, organising and analysing information, and presenting information), help them to hone their teaching skills, and it can minimise the isolation and anxiety that are often felt during initial field experiences. Each point will be discussed in turn below.

An important caveat to this argument, however, is the recognition that it is not access to the technology which is the critical element in promoting student learning. Good teaching remains the key. The ideas outlined below are dependent on the technological tools being placed in the hands of skilled teachers who know their subject and can create learning experiences personally meaningful for their students.

World-view

In the nineteenth century, many wealthy families would enhance their children's education by sending them abroad for a year or more to `tour the continent' (Europe). Even today, young adults in Australia and New Zealand work and save for their great 'OE' (overseas experience). While nothing can equal spending an extended time in another country to widen one's view of the world, technology does offer viable alternatives for broadening students' exposure to other cultures.

Telecommunication technologies offer many avenues for intercultural exchange. Through electronic mail (email) and bulletin boards, new teachers can 'meet' and communicate with their peers in other countries. Many established teachers have established on-line pen-pal exchanges for their students, and in the process found a colleague with whom they can share their ideas and concerns. Teachers are placing their curriculum materials-such as lesson plans, complete curriculum units, and regional photographs-on the Internet. Sample world-wide web (WWW) sites include:

The Global School House (http:www.gsh.org/),

Teachers Helping Teachers (http://www.pacificnet.net/ ~mandel/index.html), Whales: a thematic web unit (http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/Whales/ Contents.HTML), Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators (http://www.capecod.net/schrockguide.

The books and films that educators use to illustrate other cultures can be expanded to include more advanced electronic media. For example, laserdiscs can store 54,000 images or up to 60 minutes of motion video. `Regard for the Planet' is a laserdisc archive of photographs taken all over the world. These photographs can be seen on a television set or a multimedia-capable computer, and they can be instantly accessed in any order desired. Users can choose to look at all the pictures of Greece, at a single photograph of the Great Wall of China or at all the photographs of children. Images such as these, in the hands of a skilled lecturer, can do much to facilitate teachereducation students' understandings of the universalities of the human condition and to help them to appreciate the differences in how we cope with the demands placed upon us by our environment and culture.

Information Literacy

Information literacy includes the ability to identify the need for and access to information, to organise the information found for analysis, and to communicate one's understandings in a meaningful way. Niederhauser (1996) has noted how technology can be used to develop these skills.

Locating and assessing information. The availability of digital technologies in general, and the Internet in particular, has greatly increased access to information. As more information is available, selecting the most useful and reliable information becomes a much more complicated endeavour. Students must be taught which sources are the most relevant to their problem (hardbound reference books, CD-ROM encyclopedias or bibliographic databases, WWW sites, etc.), and how develop appropriate search strategies and methods of verifying information through cross referencing and the use of multiple sources.

Organising and analysing information. It is only through careful analysis that the information found becomes useful. Computer applications which facilitate the work of organising and analysing information include databases, spreadsheets and graphing software. The searching and sorting capabilities of database programs can help users to discover hidden relationships among data. The graphing capability of spreadsheet software gives users a pictorial representation of information, which helps them to better understand their data. Presenting information. Communicating what has been learned helps students to make their knowledge explicit and it forces them to organise their understandings in a meaningful way. Word processors greatly facilitate the writing of successive drafts; and the tools usually found in word-processing packages (such as outline templates and spelling and grammar checkers) can help the writer to focus on organising a coherent message without undue initial concern for the mechanics of writing.

Of course, paper-based composition is only one method of delivery. Technology also makes it possible to create multimedia presentations which incorporate text, graphics, video and audio elements. Producing multimedia presentations gives students an `insider's look at the processes behind the media that is so pervasive in their lives' (from Neiderhauser, 1996, pp. 417-418).

Honing Teaching Skills

Describing an idealised teacher-preparation environment, Strang et al. (1987) envisioned classrooms of pupils being available at any time of the day, pupils with specific learning and behavioural characteristics which can be manipulated by teacher educators, trainees being able to repeat lessons to master specific skills, feedback following each lesson, and a situation in which all experimentation can be done without fear of harm to pupils.

Computer and video-based simulations and case studies can give future teachers practice in solving teaching challenges in a non-threatening environment which bridges the gap between pedagogy presented in university classrooms and observation and practice in public school classrooms.

Video, whether recorded or from live broadcasts, can capture the reality of the classroom and `extend the range of student observation into classroom with the best teachers, wherever they are located ... [and] can provide teacher education students with models of effective teaching and the opportunity for reflection on what constitutes good teaching ... Technology can also support and enhance traditional approaches to teacher-developed curriculum materials and instructional practices' (Office of Technology Assessment, US Congress [OTA], 1995, pp. 166, 181).

Likewise, having student teachers simply videotape themselves in action offers a rich resource for self-reflection and collaborative planning with their school-based teachers and their supervisors in colleges of education. Minimise Isolation

Telecommunications technologies (video conferencing, electronic mail, on-line bulletin boards and databases) can strengthen the connections among student teachers, experienced classroom teachers and tertiary educators. Technology can facilitate access to additional resources, such as exchanges of ideas and lesson plans with peers or experts on professional bulletin boards and curriculum materials posted on the Internet or stored on CD-ROM. Technology can also facilitate the mentoring of new teachers, giving them a safety net which helps to mitigate the loneliness, frustrations and anxiety often experienced during their first teaching assignments (OTA, 1995, p. 166).

Jean Casey, of California State University, Long Beach, founded TeacherNet in 1990 specifically to facilitate communication between and among university supervisors, classroom teachers and student teachers. Casey (1996) has reported the following benefits of using telecommunications technology during the student-teaching experience:

evidence of increased reflection among the students;

increased rapport with university supervisor and peers;

increased knowledge, skill and use of computer-based and other instructional technologies; and

improved self-esteem due to mastering the technology and receiving positive support.

The value of Casey's project is being recognised throughout the USA and the world. Oz-TeacherNet, sponsored by a faculty within the Queensland University of Technology, is a similar Internet-based project which was created in 1995 and designed to `encourage and enable [Australian] teachers to share experiences, debate issues, and reflect on their practices' (Kendal & Ryan, 1996, paragraph four).

Implications for Teacher Education Institutions

Teachers tend to teach as they have been taught. The students entering teachereducation programmes today generally have not had global experiences nor seen advanced technologies in their primary and secondary education. We must ensure that we widen their world-view and model multiple uses of technology in their teacherpreparation programme. This means that global awareness and technology usage cannot be relegated to single, isolated courses.

Faculty throughout the teacher-education programme must incorporate multicultural concepts and use technology as a vehicle for delivering and organising their courses. Student teaching experiences should be located in schools with diverse student populations, access to technology resources and classroom teachers skilled in the effective use of those resources.

This new model will require access to print, video, software and hardware resources; faculty development; and continued staff and institutional support.

Resources

Obtaining adequate resources obviously requires money, but obtaining the right resources and using them in the most effective manner requires a great deal of planning. For example, allocating funds for the purchase of 20 computers with CD-ROM drives without a clear idea of how these computers will be used is putting the cart before the horse. Educators should first assess student needs, societal expectations and curriculum goals. Then it might be determined that creating a computer laboratory for the purpose of teaching word processing and accessing telecommunication services is a priority. These applications do not require CD-ROM capability, so the money which would have been spent on CD-ROM drives can be used to connect the computers to the Internet.

Faculty Development

Frequently, faculty members will recognise the importance of global awareness and technological expertise, but will believe that these topics should be covered in courses outside those that they teach. Often this `others, but not me' attitude comes from a lack of knowledge, and from feelings of anxiety about how to implement these topics in their instruction. `Since the majority of teacher education faculty completed graduate programs and taught in schools where [diversity issues and technology were] not a major part of the educational environment, it is not surprising that they tend to have limited experience with [including global awareness and] technologies for instruction' (OTA, 1995, p. 190).

Staff and Institutional Support

Technical-support personnel are critical for the success of technology use and innovation. Inoperable equipment, difficulties scheduling equipment access, and hardware and software compatibility errors have done much to discourage faculty members from trying new instructional methods and materials. Institutional support must involve hiring full-time technicians or long-term, dependable students with equivalent skills to alleviate these problems.

Institutional rewards which encourage faculty members to develop their knowledge and teaching skills are also important. At most universities, tenure, promotion and (in some cases) merit raises are based upon some combination of teaching, research and publication. No recognition is given to the time required to learn the concepts and skills required to restructure classes into a more global, technology-enhanced experience.

Conclusion

The technological developments of the past 100 years have far outpaced those of previous centuries. They have had a tremendous impact on the way we live, work and pursue leisure activities. Teachers must become knowledgable and skilled in the information resources and tools of the day and in how to use them to promote life-long learning, social harmony and global understanding.

Integration of information technologies throughout the teacher-preparation experience is an important element in preparing the next generation of teachers to meet the global challenges of the 21st century. `To use these tools well, teachers need visions of the technologies' potential, opportunities to apply them, training and just-in-time support, and time to experiment' (OTA, 1995, p. 1).

However, we must remember that access to technology and exposure to information are not equivalent to learning. No form of access can guarantee that students (and teachers) will learn. The fundamentals of the teaching-learning process will continue to be: sound pedagogy, active learning and adherence to the principles of sound curriculum design.

References

REFERENCES

References

CASEY, J. (1996) TeacherNet-student teachers travel the information highway (http://www. csulb.edu/~ jmcasey/history.html)

COHEN, P. (1995) Developing information literacy, Education Update, 37(2), pp. 1, 3, 8. KENDAL, P. & RYAN, M. (1996) Oz-TeacherNet: connecting Australian teachers, paper presented to the Australian Computers in Education Conference, Canberra, April (available on-line at: http:// www.spirit.com.au/ACEC96/papers/kendal.htm).

OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT, US CONGRESS (1995) Teachers and Technology: making the connection (OTA-EHR-616) (Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office). NIEDERHAUSER, D. (1996). Information age literacy: preparing educators for the 21st century, in: B. ROBIN, J.D. PRICE, J. WILLIS & D. WIT I IS (Eds) Technology and Teacher Education Annual, pp. 415418 (Charlottesville, VA Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education). STRANG, H.R., BADT, K.S. & KAUFFMAN, J.M. (1987) Microcomputer-based simulations for training fundamental teaching skills, Journal of Computer-Based Instruction, 4(4), pp. 20-26. WISHNIETSKY, D. (1993) Using Computer Technology to Create a Global Classroom (Bloomingdale, IN, Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation).