A Technology Infrastructure for Teacher Education

This paper describes an innovative technology infrastructure for teacher preparation in a land grant university that is committed to a vision of technology-using educators--the new Undergraduate Teacher Development Center (UTDC) at the University of Missouri College of Education, designed through a collaborative process with school districts and members of the government and business communities. Described in detail, key pieces of the technology infrastructure for the UTDC include: (1) a set of technology markers (i.e., milestones or achievements expected of students) for teacher education majors; (2) provision of laptop computers for teacher education students and faculty, in order to achieve the high expectations for student outcomes as represented by the markers; (3) support for using technology; (4) the Interactive Shared Journal System, an Internet-based tool for enabling students to create journals about field experiences and share these journals with other educators; and (5) a partnership with 19 school districts, including a telecommunications system to connects with these schools. Three short case reports are used to describe how the technology infrastructure is influencing teaching and learning in the College of Education. Lessons learned in the first year are discussed in terms of technical challenges, access/usage, and curriculum integration. (AEF) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ********************************************************************************