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Class Projects Illustrate PDS "Learning to Teach with Technology" Model
by Joe Savrock

University Park, Pa.— Few education majors are prepared to effectively use technology in their future classrooms, according to various studies. Penn State’s Elementary Professional Development School (PDS), in a collaborative program with the State College Area School District (SCASD), has been helping senior elementary education majors improve their confidence in and mastery of cutting-edge technology in their student teaching curricula.

With funding from Lucent Technologies Foundation, the PDS/SCASD collaboration provides Penn State elementary education majors with practical year-long internships at local elementary schools. The program encourages the interns to integrate technology in their curricula, a concept that is proving beneficial to all the program’s participants—interns, mentor teachers, and elementary students alike.

Carla Zembal-Saul, assistant professor of science education, said the aim of the PDS/SCASD program "has been to help prospective and practicing elementary teachers integrate technology seamlessly into classroom instruction by using the criteria of whether and how particular tools and their uses can enhance and extend student learning."

Zembal-Saul and Belinda Gimbert recently co-authored an article titled "Learning to Teach with Technology: From Integration to Actualization," in which they examine the successful implementation of technology by interns of five PDS/SCASD classrooms. That paper, published in the journal Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (vol. 2, issue 2), describes the Learning to Teach with Technology Model developed by faculty of the College to help design learning experiences for prospective teachers. The co-authors explain that the Model "is designed to raise the status of prospective teachers’ conceptions of supporting children’s learning using technology."

According to the Model, prospective teachers proceed through five phases. In the first phase, they learn subject matter in a technology-rich environment, and in the second phase they learn about the technology itself. During the third phase, the prospective teachers examine exemplary curriculum materials and infuse technology. In the fourth phase, they teach children using technology in a supported setting. Finally, in the fifth phase, the prospective teachers plan and teach a technology-enhanced lesson to the children.

Gimbert and Zembal-Saul’s article applied the Model to five recent PDS/SCASD classroom cases:

Grade 1—Mystery Dinosaurs: Demonstrating the Discovery Process using Kid Pix™

This case involved the most advanced stages of the Model. The interns acted independently—beyond the program’s requirements—to seek opportunities to support and demonstrate student learning. They worked with their mentor teachers to develop a plan for using technology, and then assigned the first-grade children to author slide shows using Kid Pix™, a popular art-and-photo-editing tool. Rather than focusing on what was learned, the interns emphasized the process by which the children were identifying dinosaurs species.

The interns introduced the software to the classroom students. Then each child designed one or two slides by selecting digital photos, identifying background colors and designs, writing captions, and scripting the associated narration. The slides were displayed in a presentation to the parents on the project’s last day. "The project required extensive planning, and the interns were well prepared and organized in terms of doing this," noted the co-authors. "Teachers, university faculty, parents, and other audience members were very impressed with the children’s explanations of how they had determined the identities of their mystery dinosaurs, as well as how they had designed their slide shows. Shared comments from the adults expressed surprise that first graders were capable of using technology to demonstrate their learning."

Grade 2—Exploring Seasons: Simulating an Ecosystem with Sammy’s Science House™

This case, which represents the fourth phase of the Model, emphasized the work of an intern with small groups of four to five children with the support of the mentor teacher. To help the second-grade children understand weather conditions and ecosystem changes associated with the four seasons, the intern used a software program named Sammy’s Science House™.

The intern demonstrated the software to each group, then instructed the children to "visit" a simulated ecosystem named Acorn Pond. As the children experienced the four seasons at Acorn Pond, they recorded temperatures and made other observations, sketched weather conditions, and documented their explanations for changes in the plants and wildlife.

"Assessment data indicated that students developed appropriate understandings of seasonal changes through this activity," wrote the co-authors. "In addition, children were enthusiastic about using the computers. They reported enjoying the interactivity provided by the program, and the freedom to work in small groups to make decisions about how and in what order to investigate various aspects of the ecosystem."

Grade 3—Where Do Insects Go in Winter? Using the Web to Support a Science Investigation

This case represents the highest level of implementation associated with the Model in that the intern, on her own initiative, integrated technology into her instruction after having experienced all phases of the model through program assignments and activities.

The intern presented the question "Where do insects go in winter?" to the class of third-graders. On a field trip to a nearby wooded area, the students were not able to find any insects, and then were asked to explain why in a follow-up class discussion. The intern then had the students observe a plant gall through microscopes and asked them to try to determine its species. Later, she divided the students into two groups. She showed one group various Web sites that contain information about insects, while the other group recorded their ideas and questions in science journals. The students used books about insects as resources in their work. The intern saw the importance of infusing technology with scientific inquiry to enhance children’s interest and generate further questions for investigation.

Grade 4—How Healthy Is the Food We Eat? Representing Nutritional Information using Graph Club™

In another case representing the fifth phase of the Model, the intern of a fourth-grade class asked students to create graphs to explore the nutritional value of foods based on protein content.

The intern introduced the students to Graph Club™, a graphing program designed particularly for elementary school students. Students then investigated the labels of foods, compared data, and built graphs using the software. The intern provided focus questions for the students and, after the graphs were generated, asked them to make predictions regarding the composition and nutritional value of new food samples. "Students generated insightful questions that fueled additional inquiries," wrote the co-authors.

Grade 5—Demonstrating Understandings of Convection Currents: Students as Web Page Authors

In this Web page development project, the intern introduced her fifth-grade students to the authoring software HomePage™. The lessons included manipulation of text and background colors; linking to pages and images; inserting and manipulating images/graphics and backgrounds; and general Web site management. "The intern reflected that students were enthusiastic about and engaged in the authoring task," wrote the co-authors. "Moreover, the web-based artifacts constructed by students served as valuable assessment data for teachers and parents."

"Integrating technology into teaching opportunities can be intimidating for novice teachers," concluded Zembal-Saul. "Providing rich experiences with tehnology as part of teacher education can ameliorate some of these anxieties and promote appropriate and meaningful technology use."

The full text of Gimbert and Zembal-Saul’s article is available at CITE’s Web site, http://www.citejournal.org/vol2/iss2/currentpractice/article1.cfm.
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American students’ lack of enthusiasm for science is a dilemma that co-authors Zembal-Saul and Milton W. Cole ponder in "Enhancing Science Instruction in the Elementary Schools," an Op/Ed article recently published in the American Journal of Physics. That article is available at http://lanl.arXiv.org/abs/physics/0207051.

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