Alma P. Row, Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit 12; Stephanie Edel-Malzia, Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit 9; Lori Rodgers, Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit 28; Nita Maitzen, SERVE
Designed for use by:
- In-service professional developers
- University pre-service courses
- K-12 teachers and administrators
- Policymakers interested in technology applications in the classroom
Improving the quality of teaching is a priority all across the nation; an important component is improving teachers’ abilities to integrate technology effectively into standards-based curricula and instruction. In 2005, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) completed a survey of teachers’ technology integration skills. On a scale of four proficiency levels—beginner, intermediate, advanced, and innovator—approximately 26 percent of teachers were reported at the “beginner” level. By common definition, beginners know the basics, are aware of the technology tools available, and may explore how technology can supplement instruction, but use technology for teaching and/or instructional planning less than once a week. These findings demonstrated a need for enhancing teacher abilities and increasing the use of technology in classrooms.
Pennsylvania’s 29 intermediate units addressed this need by developing an intensive, high-quality professional development program for classroom teachers—Core Teaching Skills for an Information Age, a nine-module program. The program includes topics such as: planning lessons, identification and evaluation of resources, WebQuest, word processing, database management, and multimedia. Additional information about this course is available at www.coreteach.org.
This book describes in detail two implementations of the course with a large number of teachers, plus an evaluation of the results. The first section of the book deals with the Lincoln (#12) Intermediate Unit project, over 30 teacher trainers were prepared to provide technology professional development to 330 educators representing 11 school districts. In the second section, the Seneca Highlands (#9) and ARIN (#28) Intermediate Unit project is described; over 20 teacher trainers provided the technology training to 158 K-12 educators from 24 public school districts and four nonpublic schools. This section also includes an outline of the Core Teaching Skills curriculum. The first two sections cover the professional development process, the challenges encountered, and the results. The third section of the book focuses on the third-party evaluation. Finally, appendices provide sample teacher projects and journals.