Teacher Education
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School of Education, Health, and Society
Teaching through Technology
10/10/08
Senior Dana Schuster predicts her newly acquired knowledge about how to use technology effectively in the classroom will help her land a teaching position.
"I didn't feel completely confident with technology, but I learn by doing and I'm confident now," she says.
In fact, Schuster was one of several teacher education majors who presented class projects at a "Teaching Through Technology" mini-conference this fall that showcased the Digital Learning Initiative (DLI) and the new Digital Learning Lounge.
The purpose of DLI is to show teacher education candidates how technology can transform teaching and learning.
Schuster points out that most of her pupils will have been using computers since they were three and that to be effective she needs to be able to integrate cutting-edge technology into her future middle school classroom.
Her teacher education courses have given her the opportunity to try her hand at creating podcasts and producing video clips to customize lesson plans, but the prospective middle school teacher chose a photo essay presentation featuring her own photography to show at the miniconference. She created the project for Professor Bruce Perry's EDT 441 course (Middle Childhood Science) to show how science is revealed in our everyday lives.
"Students in that course at first struggled to master the technology and then to find a way for technology to advance the understanding of scientific concepts. Together we learned how powerful technology can be in reaching students," said Perry.
Other students at the technology conference demonstrated podcasting, digital storytelling and Keynote and Smartboard technology. After the demonstrations there were opportunities for attendees to experiment with the various technologies.