Master Technology Teacher: A Partnership Between Preservice and Inservice Teachers and Teacher Educators

Abstract

Technology has permeated our educational experiences from electronic mail to virtual field trips by way of the Internet. As educators seek viable ways to use technology to enhance teaching and learning experiences, colleges must also prepare future teachers to plan for effective technology use. Teacher preparation programs should not only integrate technology throughout the curriculum, but should also provide opportunities for the students to manage problems within the actual school setting as they integrate various tools of technology. During the last two decades, researchers have asserted the importance of addressing technology in the training of preservice teachers. As colleges of education attempted to ensure that preservice teachers could master certain technology skills, it became apparent that the successful use of technology in pedagogy involved more than skill mastery; equally important were the perceptions and beliefs about technology that preservice teachers take from their teacher preparation programs (Byrum & Cashman, 1993). Consequently, for computers to make a difference in how students experience schooling will require teachers and administrators to modify their concepts of appropriate and inappropriate teaching behaviors, to reprioritize the value of different types of instructional content, and to change habits and assumptions that guide their classroom and school management strategies (Becker, 1991, p. 8).