Fellow Teacher Education Division Members-
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation to fund an educational technology initiative. However, the U.S. Senate looks to be undecided on whether they will support funding. You can be involved. Go to the Ed Tech Action Network and put your zip code in the box at the top of the page. It will generate a letter to your U.S. Senators that you can modify as you see fit. In the next month, there is a chance that we will see more funding for educational technology- and perhaps even a large funding program similar to the PT3 initiative.

Please take some time and voice your opinion,
Drew Polly
TED President-Elect

It is time to think about recognizing outstanding work in the field of Educational Technology and Teacher Education. Each year TED accepts nominations for the:

1. Outstanding Book in Educational Technology and Teacher Education
2. Exceptional Service Award for an individual who has a record of service to the Teacher Education Division of AECT.

Recent Service Award recipients include Rodney Earle and Clif Mims for their outstanding work advancing the field and representing the interests of the TED membership.

In 2006, the outstanding book award went to: Vrasidas, Charalambos, & Glass, Gene V. (Eds.). 2005). Preparing teachers to teach with technology. A volume in Current Perspectives on Applied Information Technologies. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Please take a few moments to consider nominating a book or individual so that we can recognize the outstanding work of our colleagues. The deadline for nominations is May 31, 2008. Please see The Playground (http://aectnow.org/ted/wordpress/?page_id=123) for eligibility information. Nominations should be sent to:

Paige Worrell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Educational Technology
Department of Curriculum & Instruction
317-B E.J. Howell Education Bldg.
Box T-0290
Tarleton State University
Stephenville, TX 76402
254-968-0702
Worrell@tarleton.edu

Today (21 April) we had a communications team mtg. to discuss new and old ideas for getting folks to talk to each other in our division.  The WAGs have been fairly well attended and we’d like to continue the tradition.  If you were unable to attend, but would like to know what we talked about, we recorded the meeting in Macromedia Breeze.  Here’s the link to the screencast:

http://eddy.byu.edu/p86233848/

And here are the minutes.

AGENDA–
1. Kudos
Tonya Amankwatia — has received 2 job offers and will [successfully] defend dissertation on Tues. 29 April.
Craig Shepherd — recently accepted Assistant Professorship at the University of Wyoming (Laramie) and will soon [successfully] defend his dissertation.

2. WAGs

a. update/report
– 2 WAGs (A. Leftwhich, J. Curry).  Fairly good attendance
b. ideas for future speakers
– Lynn Nolan (with ISTE)
– Tech-using teachers (Tonya will find). Classrooms of the future
c. ideas for blog traffic
– tips for generating traffic (from Mike Barbour)
– Google Analytics  (Peter looks into)

3. Mid-year newsletter
– WAGs started
– Conference Updates (Blurb on our division.  X # of proposals; can’t wait to see you in Florida; show what we’re preparing as a division)
– Invite others to suggest ways that we can get together during AECT conference (e.g., dinner, flyers, etc.)
– ECT-wise?
– ECT Leadership in June– items for auction
– Election results
– check previous newsletter for ideas (talk to Fethi)
– Administrative news
– Spotlight on research/practice?
– book/article of the year?
– Tips & Tricks?
– Getting involved (who to contact)

NCATE AECT Specialty Program Approval (SPA) Training will be a Full-Day Workshop session at the 2008 AECT convention in Orlando this coming November (4th or 5th…specific date to be determined soon).

If you are about to prepare a program review report OR if you are interested in becoming a program reviewer for AECT, PLEASE plan to attend! There is no better method for understanding the program review system for NCATE accreditation.

Tom Blevins
AECT Accreditation Committee Chair

Kay Persichitte
AECT Standards Committee Chair

Today, Dr. John Curry spoke to us about his efforts to move the preservice Introduction to Technology course online.  Some key findings from their experience are:

1. The need for a friendly online CMS (that the instructor is familiar with)
2. The need for a book that coordinates well with online materials (they use MyLabSchools, from Perhson)
3. Podcasts–helped increase quality of assignments
   1. Have been personalized by including students’ choice of intro music (within copyright limits)
   2. Include a quiz password to encourage students to listen to podcasts.
4. f2f students heard about podcasts, and now they’ve listen to them, too.  It’s made the f2f more hybrid.  Has also introduced a base knowledge requirement.

And there’s a lot more. The recording did not work out this time (my apologies).

When: Friday, March 21, 12:00 noon

Where: http://eddy.byu.edu/tedwag (log in as a guest)

Why: To learn about cutting edge research in preservice technology training

Most educational technology departments offer a pre-service teacher technology course. However, with an increased demand for online courses, constantly-changing technologies, and increasing enrollments, is the pre-service teacher technology course a viable course for online delivery? This presentation will chronicle the efforts of one university to migrate the pre-service teacher technology course to the online environment.
Join us Friday, March 21, 12:00 noon Central Time, as we listen to Dr. John Curry, Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at Okalahoma State tell us about their efforts to move the course many of us have had a hand in administering to an online environment. Dr. Curry was assisted in this work by Dr. Angel Kymes, Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Northeastern State University.

Please RSVP by clicking on the “register” button at http://tedwag2.eventbrite.com.

———————

We recently received word of this from our AACTE membership and felt it was something pertinent to all of us who do teacher quality research.  Please read and please act.  Thanks.

Background:

* Last year funding for the Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant
program (authorized in Title II of the Higher Education Act) was
cut almost in half – from $60 million to $33.5 million.
* The President has requested the elimination of all funding for
this program.
* At AACTE’s request, Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) and Rep. Ric Keller
(R-FL) have just issued a “Dear Colleague” letter urging that this
year’s appropriation be $60 million.
* Below is a copy of the Dear Colleague.

ACTION NEEDED:

1. Call YOUR Representative(s) in the House and urge them to
sign on to this important Dear Colleague. Numbers are
available at www.house.gov <http://www.house.gov/>.
2. Tell them to contact either Lillian Pace in Rep. Yarmuth’s
office or Kim Southard in Rep. Keller’s office to sign on to
the letter.
3. *DO THIS TODAY.  THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION TO THE
APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE IS MARCH 19 AND THE CONGRESS GOES
INTO RECESS THIS FRIDAY MARCH 14. *
4. *Let’s get over 100 members of the House signed on to this
letter!!  This letter will make a significant impact on the
appropriations committee.  CALL NOW!!*

For questions, contact Mary T. Harrill-McClellan at mharrill@aacte.org or Jane West at jwest@aacte.org

Today, Dr. Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich discussed Indiana University (Bloomington)’s initiative to discover how teachers are prepared to integrate technology and how they actually do it. She described a 3-phase study in which researchers will first solicit follow-up information from tech integration programs that participated in the NCES study, “Teacher Preparation and Professional Development: 2000.” Then, they will seek and and find teachers that successfully use technology to find trends and conditions that may lead to successful technology integration. Finally, in phase 3, researchers will make site visits to create in-depth case studies of the different populations.

Believe it or not, the entire 3-phase, grounded study will be completed (including dissemination) by May of 2009!

A dozen people attended our first WAG (woohoo!). If you were unable to attend, you can access a recording of the WAG, by following this link: http://breeze.iu.edu/p13887606 (the actual presentation starts at about 10 minutes, so skip ahead).

———————

When: February 22
Time: 12:00 PM Central Time
Location: http://eddy.byu.edu/tedwag

The Teacher Education Division of AECT is hosting a monthly Web-based brown bag (WAG) to highlight continued research from the annual convention and to extend communication and collaboration. Dr. Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich of Indiana University will be our first presenter. At the annual convention in Anaheim CA, Dr. Ottenbreit-Leftwich presented the visions, strategies, and development of eight expert technology-using teachers using interviews and portfolio documents. During this WAG, she will briefly review those findings and then discuss current and future research within Indiana University’s $3.1 million US DOE grant that examines how current and emerging technologies are used in classrooms and how to prepare teachers to use these tools.

This WAG will last about one hour with continuing discussion on The Playground.

Please RSVP at http://rsvpit.com by entering the code: tedwag02222008

Spread the word.

Proposals are due for the 2008 Convention on Feb. 16. Attached is the detailed call for the TED Division, along with the rubric that will be used to evaluate presentations.

2008 TED Proposal Description

2008 TED Proposal Rubric

The 2008 AECT Conference will be in Orlando, FL. Within the broad conference theme “On the Horizon…Rays of Change” the Teacher Education division welcomes proposals that fit one of the following categories:

· Research in Teacher Education: Presentations in this category will be facilitated by a discussant at the conference. Accepted proposals will present findings from original research studies related to the use of technology in teacher education programs, K-12 schools or professional development settings. Proposals in this category must be completed research studies at the time of proposal submission, and the proposal must be a completed research paper (up to 10 pages in length not including references and tables). If accepted, the authors will be expected to submit their papers to the Conference Proceedings.

· Best Practices: Presentations in this category will provide information related to effective instructional practices that have been used in teacher education programs or professional development settings.

· Technological Innovations: Presentations in this category will include information about cutting-edge technologies as it relates to teacher education programs, K-12 schools or professional development settings. Cutting-edge technologies include but are not limited to Web 2.0 tools, social networking software, podcasts, blogs, and wikis.

For questions or more information, please contact Drew Polly at abpolly@uncc.edu.

Do you know of any good educational tecnology podcasts? Where do you go to get your daily dose? Susan Farber, a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati, has suggested that we share our resources with each other as a teacher education community. To get us started she shares, insidelearning.net ,which has several types of podcasts
(e.g., http://www.inside-learning-technology.xml).

What about you? What good educational technology podcasts do you listen to and would like to share?

———————

Click here to download the TED board meeting notes.

The ELVEN institute is conducting a series of workshops known as the ELVEN Prek-12 Educator Workshop Series.

The first is November 17, 2007 from 8 am to 10 am SLT (second life time, that is pacific time). You are welcome to attend.

Just like our students, we rushed into Second Life without reading the homework, and now we’re here without knowing the basics. ELVEN is here to help! Educators and Librarians in a Virtual Environment hosts a series of workshops designed for the Pre-K through 12 teacher to equip you with the basics of Second Life, including communication, clothing, shopping, using your mouseview to explore, editing your appearance, and how to find useful freebies.

You’ll receive personal guidance in a small group setting with other educators to help you find your way around SL, and learn about the educators community in SL as well.

The first workshop is Saturday morning, November 17, from 8 to 10 am SLT at this location:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City%20II/197/196/22/.

Go to http://elveninstitute.org/workshops.html to register for this event.

———————

This paper is a follow-up to a continued line of research on the U.S. Department of Education’s Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Teach with Technology (PT3) initiatives. While previous papers and presentations have focused on various methods to transform teacher education courses, this presentation focuses solely on programmatic efforts that were designed to align technology integration efforts in both universities and K-12 schools.

Download presentation file.