A TPACK Course for Developing Pre-Service Teachers’ Technology Integration Competencies

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is one of the technology integration models that focuses on effective technology integration related to teacher competencies. This model is based on the interaction and combination of teachers’ technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. A new course was created using a TPACK model of education. In this context, the trainer takes responsibility of being a role model and the use of new technology-based applications for educational purposes appropriately updated. Additionally, integrating the TPACK model of education could make important contributions to technology integration in teacher training if the information is concretized with concept maps, if students are made creative in their own fields with digital storytelling, and if all these are transferred into a course environment via the Web with the help of a learning management system.

Privacy and Identity Management in Social Media

Social networking media are becoming more widespread as educational learning sites. For this reason, it is important to investigate how concerns about identity management can interfere with or influence the planned learning processes. This chapter engages initially with current research that investigates the use of social media with a particular focus on issues of identity management. It then provides a close analysis of identity management among student users of dedicated Facebook pages in tertiary education settings, as part of a larger study into contextual language learning and the educational potential of mobile technologies and social media. The study concludes that issues around publically sharing information with classmates (whom you might or might not “befriend” on social media sites), and the exposure that comes with sharing one’s background and potentially contentious political views are probably experienced by students worldwide.

Using Social Media to Enhance Instruction in Higher Education

This chapter informs readers on ways to integrate social media into the college classroom. Preexisting and relevant research is reviewed including suggested practices, efficacy of use, and data supporting the teaching methods described. Data from an original study is also presented, which assessed students’ perspectives on integrating social media into the higher education classroom. The authors of this chapter also provide suggestions on how to transform research into actual classroom practices based on theory including informal and incidental theory, relational mentoring, and situation learning theory.

Librarians’ Roles in Informatics to Support Classroom Incorporation of Technology

Informatics, particularly as applied to K12 settings, has received little systematic attention worldwide, although the field itself is growing due to the impact of technology and information advances. Too often, informatics has been approached as a tool-based skill rather than an academic domain with theoretical underpinnings. Content knowledge, technological knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge are required for success. School librarians can serve as expert partners in these endeavors. They have more knowledge and experience with informatics than anyone else in the setting, they can select and incorporate informational and technological resources and learning activities that are developmentally appropriate and relevant for students, they know how to manage knowledge effectively, and they know how to collaborate effectively with the rest of the school community in order to optimize curriculum development, instructional design, and delivery.

Internet Technology Levels in a Higher Education Teaching and Learning Environment

The authors of this study utilized the discriminant function analysis using extreme student groups (top and bottom quartiles) defined by students’ internet technology scores to develop a model that best predicts group membership of the low and high internet technology levels among college students. The sample for the study was drawn from a Midwestern doctoral university and consisted of a random sample of senior year undergraduate students (n = 537). The instrument for the study used items from a 2000 College Student Survey (HERI, 2000). The response format for most instrument subscale items used in this study was of the Likert-type. Results of the discriminant analysis showed that students’ classification into low or high internet technology groups based on the institutional, behavioral, and personality variables can accurately be done. The lowest total percent correctly classified was at 72% while the highest total percent correctly classified was 74%. The variables that made significant differences included: student faculty interaction, student support services, quality of instruction and college experience, interpersonal relations and leadership, and student extra effort in learning.

Technology Expanding Horizons in Teacher Education

The purpose of this exploratory action research study was to examine how the modeling by instructors of technology integration would affect the quality of the lessons that elementary teacher-education students designed and taught in their field placements. The research was conducted across two consecutive semesters with two different cohorts of methods students placed at a local elementary school that had received new interactive whiteboards, SMART boards, in every classroom at the beginning of the previous school year. Based upon field-supervisor/instructor observations, reflections, and oral and written feedback from host-teachers and students, an analysis was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. Findings suggest that teacher education students’ level of engagement increased regarding the integration of technology, and children were more engaged and actively involved during the teaching of methods students’ mathematics and science lessons.

Integrating Technology in Teacher Education Programs

This chapter discusses technology integration in teacher education programs. Although opportunities for technology training have become more available to prospective teachers, it is evident that successful technology integration needs a paradigm shift in pedagogical approaches and reform in teacher education programs to better support teachers’ integration of technology into instruction. This chapter offers valuable theoretical grounding to help guide researchers and leaders in the field of Educational Technology. Data indicate that basic technology skills alone cannot lead to higher levels of technology use in the classroom. Suggestions are provided on best ways to integrate educational technology into pre-service teacher education programs and in-service teacher professional development programs to enhance effectively teaching and learning in K-12 classrooms.

A Case Study in Online Delivery

This case study explores the journey that allowed the music faculty at a small public university in North Dakota to create a groundbreaking undergraduate online music major. The narrative travels from resistance to acceptance and from tradition to innovation. The events are described from the perspective of two faculty members who approached the adaptation of technology into the music program from polar opposites, one highly in tune with the world of technology and the other highly resistant. This chapter presents the history of the online music degree, including its seminal beginnings, the technology innovations that drove the process, the evolution of essential team buy-in, the skills acquired by faculty, and the processes developed for delivery. Online teaching has energized the music department at Valley City State University and the story is one worth sharing.

Media and Technology Integration through Media Literacy Education

This chapter reports case study research that investigated teachers’ use of media and technology in a seventh grade media literacy class. The purpose of this study was to learn what media and technology were used in teaching practice and how they were used. Findings identify media literacy education as a subject of study and way of teaching that provides an entryway for information and communication technologies (ICTs) to be actively incorporated into school curricula and multimodal learning. Media and technology in this case were integrated through constructivist teaching of media literacy education that supported twenty-first century skills, including critical analysis and evaluation of texts in all forms and communication through project-based media production. However, the results also revealed challenges at both local and national levels that influenced the integration of media and technology into teaching and learning.

Increasing Student Engagement and Extending the Walls of the Classroom with Emerging Technologies

Some tend to view the use of technology as the panacea people have all been waiting for, and yet, if a piece of software or technology is not used properly, it can amount to little more than a high-tech pedagogical placebo. It is important to keep in mind that technology is a means to an end and not an end in itself. The goal is to impart knowledge, increase student understanding, and develop critical thinking skills. Further, if technology can be used to create learning experiences outside the classroom or enrich the educational experience inside the classroom, then it is a useful tool. This chapter reviews case studies of three emerging technologies: clickers (or audience response systems), Maple (computer algebra system), and screencasting (using a tablet PC) that have been implemented successfully on one campus to enhance student learning.