LPSL Receives $1.068 Million Grant to Integrate Technology into Teaching

The Learning and Performance Support Laboratory (LPSL), a collaborative group of more than a dozen professors and research scientists based in UGA’s College of Education, has received a $1.068 million federal grant for a project that is part of an ongoing national effort to better prepare future teachers to use technology in their classrooms.

The grant will fund a three-year project titled, Evidence-based Technology Enhanced Alternative Curriculum in Higher Education or E-TEACH.  Faculty and students from nearly a dozen departments in the College of Education and five more in the College of Arts & Sciences will be involved in the project.

The project emphasizes a blend of technology integration in teacher education courses, in core A&S undergraduate courses, and specialized applications in “majors” courses in both colleges.  Michael Hannafin, LPSL director and professor of instructional technology, and Art Recesso, an LPSL research scientist, are co-principal investigators.

“This approach should help improve technology integration in UGA’s teacher education programs through a mix of faculty development, curriculum refinement, student use of technology appropriate to their teaching field, and ongoing support,” said Hannafin, the Charles H. Wheatley-Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Technology-Enhanced Learning.

The grant comes from a U.S. Department of Education program that was begun in 1999 called, Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3).  The program awarded 25 grants totaling $30 million in 2003.

“Technology is an important tool for enhancing teaching practices and improving the capacity to communicate, share and distribute resources and ideas,” said Recesso. “It is important for future generations of students to be more technologically-savvy and construct higher-order thinking skills.  Matching the state’s investment in technology to the learner-focused models of technology integration suggested by E-TEACH will engage students in ways that are meaningful and address their future workplace needs.”

The call for continued research in the area of technology integration stems from the need for future teachers to better understand the scope and nature of the digital divide between people and communities who use computers effectively and those who do not have the resources to do so, the scientists said.

Some common issues when addressing the digital divide are the ability of teachers to effectively use the technology, student and teacher access to computers inside and outside the school, lack of technical support and access to culturally relevant content.

In Georgia’s classrooms the digital divide is not the only technology problem teachers face.

“The greatest challenge,” said Recesso, “may be working with what you have in your classroom.  Implementation of technology varies greatly by room and school system. We need to prepare teachers for a variety of situations.”

The model UGA education experts are proposing does not focus on the technology.  They urge teachers to consider the resources with which they have to work, clarify the learners’ needs and develop an instructional plan integrating technology which will enhance instruction and learning.

To address issues raised by the digital divide and varying classroom technologies, the E-TEACH project will support curriculum refinement.  UGA faculty will revise some course content to allow more use of technology in teaching, learning and improving practice.

E-TEACH will also support faculty development by  supporting seminars and individualized professional learning opportunities focused on technology integration. UGA faculty from the department of instructional technology will provide hands-on work with E-TEACH faculty participants.

The development of ongoing support is another crucial aspect of the E-TEACH program.  Throughout initial preparation, during field experiences and beyond, future teachers and faculty will use continuous support systems keyed to content, methods and clinical experiences.

For example, the Georgia Systemic Teacher Education Program (GSTEP), a five-year, federally funded program based in the College of Education which aims to improve teacher education and ultimately impact K-12 student achievement, has developed an online support system for teachers called BRIDGE (Building Resources: An Introduction Design for Georgia Educators).

“Together, E-TEACH and BRIDGE online resources will be available to UGA students as they prepare to become teachers, and after they become teachers in the field they will be able to access the resources from their home or school,” said Recesso.

Hannafin and Recesso will work with College of Education faculty in the departments of science, mathematics, language, social science, elementary, reading and special education.  They will also work with College of Arts & Sciences faculty in the departments of English, mathematics, psychology, chemistry and biology.

Other E-TEACH partners include the Georgia Department of Education, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission and the Georgia Board of Regents.

Tuesday, April 20, 2004
WRITER: Kristen Heflin, 706/583-0811, heflin@uga.edu
CONTACT: Art Recesso, 706/542-4010, arecesso@coe.uga.edu