"We're proud that CCSU is the first and the only university in the state to receive this federal grant," said Dr. Richard L. Judd, CCSU president. "The grant makes it possible for our faculty in the School of Education and Professional Studies to integrate technology in all aspects of teacher preparation. This will help make it possible for Connecticut school children to take advantage of the many forms of learning that educational technology offers, and we believe it will help to reduce the digital divide in some of the state's highest need public schools.
According to Dr. Ellen Whitford, dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies, "The PT3 project will help CCSU faculty to integrate technology into teacher preparation. Furthermore, it will benefit 100 percent of our 900 graduating pre-service teacher candidates over the grant period."
CCSU is a natural choice for the PT3 grant. The University's teacher preparation program is one of the largest in Connecticut, with 2,550 enrolled undergraduate and graduate students, according to Dean Whitford. CCSU has in place a range of cutting-edge educational technologies to support the PT3 project, including its new Center for Innovation in Teaching and Technology (CITT). CCSU also operates Professional Development Schools through which pre-service teachers are linked with the state's K-12 public schools, often serving high numbers of historically underserved and underrepresented students with limited access to computer technology. And to promote system-wide changes in teacher preparation, CCSU has put together a PT3 consortium providing collaboration between its six PDS, Northwestern Connecticut Community College (NCCC), Pratt and Whitney Aircraft, and the Connecticut State Department of Education.
Funded with an initial $375,815 award, the PT3 project started this summer and runs until April 2004. The cumulative grant over a three-year period is $1,112,102.
Technology will be integrated into the teacher education curriculum "through professional development, curriculum revision and faculty support," explained Whitford. "We will support the technology skills of faculty who are in turn preparing future teachers. One strategy is to offer school-year professional development experiences and follow-up mentoring for some 120 participants--40 CCSU and NCC faculty--and cooperating public school teachers each project year." Technology training will also be integrated into CCSU pre-service student field experiences, which will in effect reduce the digital divide in the Professional Development Schools. "When our students go out to the field they must be prepared for all situations, not only to use technology but also to bridge the gap between students who have great technology know-how and those who do not," said Whitford. "Not only will the professional development schools increase their technology expertise and resources, but also (and equally important), the PT3 project will assist CCSU in refreshing its field experience curriculum as a whole, integrating student use of technology for teaching in the classroom and for performance assessment." PDS sites in the current partnership project are Pulaski Middle School, Slade Middle School, and Homes Elementary all in New Britain; Naylor Elementary, Hartford; Silver Lane Elementary, East Hartford; and West District School, Farmington.
Technology training will also be integrated into students' performance-based assessments. "We need to help students use technology as a tool to self-assess, through videos, electronic portfolios and presentations, for example," said Whitford. Such assessments are in keeping with national accreditation standards and with state technology competencies for future and beginning teachers.
During the first year of the project, a series of hands-on presentations is being planned to assist CCSU and NCCC faculty during the school year to apply technology in meeting new standards for teacher preparation. There will be follow-up instruction by graduate students with technical proficiency and by staff mentors through Central's Instructional Media Center and the School of Education's CITT, the technology literacy laboratory. Also planned is a Summer Institute each project year beginning in the summer 2002 for 40 faculty and teachers to integrate effective practices with technology into teacher preparation curricula. "We're hoping to develop a website to be used for research, review of competency standards and of existing CCSU and NCCC curriculum," said Whitford.
Richard Quinn, principal of Silver Lane Elementary School in East Hartford, expressed his satisfaction with being involved in the PT3 project. "I'm looking forward to training prospective teachers to use technology as a means of creative, interactive and interdisciplinary instruction," he said. "I'm hoping it will help us in turn to train our teachers as well. And, looking to the future, I hope to hire teachers who bring knowledge of how to use computers into their classrooms."
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