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Mark Guy observes as teacher
Jessie Erickson (standing) and teaching assistant
Moriah Loos (center) work with fifth grade students
in Century Elementary School in Grand Forks. A
UND education major, Loos is a senior from West
Fargo.
(Photo:
Chuck Kimmerle/University Relations) |
Training a
new generation of teachers to employ technology for
enhanced learning
“Our goal is to bring in a new generation of
teachers who use technology,” says Mark Guy,
associate professor of teaching and learning. “The
kids are ready for it.”
As he assesses the findings of a $600,000, three-year
study funded by the U.S. Department of Education,
he explains the focus was on using technology for
the sake of learning. It was not using technology
for technology’s sake. As he points out, most
institutions have courses on technology.
The study just completed a collaboration between the
University of North Dakota and school districts of
Grand Forks, Thompson, Manvel, Warwick, and Four Winds
School at Fort Totten.
Some 1,230 UND students enrolled in the College of
Education and Human Development and the College of
Arts and Sciences, along with 36 of their professors,
were involved in the research, which came to be known
on campus as TSALTs — “technology-supported
authentic learning tasks.” These future teachers
worked on projects with students in the five cooperating
school districts. More than 100 teachers at those
schools implemented the TSALT models in their classrooms.
Professor Guy and his colleagues observed the process
systematically and now are preparing to share what
they learned about educating future teachers to better
use technology.
One of their conclusions is that it increased faculty
members’ awareness of opportunities to relate
course content to the future practices of teaching
candidates. At the same time, the approach expanded
faculty members’ knowledge of and skills with
technology. It also required students to engage in
individual work using technology. It introduced students
to unfamiliar technology.
Guy was the principal investigator for the grant,
working in a leadership team with Mark Grabe, chairman
of UND’s Department of Psychology, and Cindy
Grabe, a technology facilitator for Grand Forks Public
Schools, who was hired half time by the University.
Cindy and Mark Grabe are the authors of Integrating
Technology for Meaningful Learning, first published
in 1996 and now in its fourth edition.
As they reflect on the three-year project, Guy says
all learning depends on teaching. If teachers don’t
bring in technology, it doesn’t appear.
“This project helped us prepare savvy teachers
who are willing to look at new tools and how they
enhance the classroom,” Cindy Grabe said. “It’s
fun to see what students can do in activities such
as the one where seventh graders went to Turtle River
State Park on an ecology study and created their own
video as a follow-up.”
Guy says the whole process is dynamic. “It becomes
a collective venture over time as other faculty members
get interested. The grant has provided a way to get
started and create an effective way to teach in regular
classes, not special classes. It goes back to partnership.”
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