Using the Internet: Are Prospective Elementary Teachers Prepared to Teach with Technology?

Abstract

The 1998 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) survey on technology use in teacher education reported that one computer exists for every five students in K–12 schools in the United States. To be ready to enter these technological classrooms, prospective teachers need course experiences that incorporate educational technology for classroom teaching in meaningful ways. In teacher education programs, however, the task of integrating the use of educational technology with reform-oriented learning theories and pedagogy is not trivial (Niederhauser, Salem, and Fields 1999; Willis 1998). Different uses of educational technology lead to multiple views of learning, which affect how topics are taught and learned. Transforming curricula and pedagogy to take advantage of technology is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA 1995) reported that only 3 percent of teacher education graduates indicated they were “very well prepared” to teach with technology. More recently, the ISTE (1999) survey on technology use in teacher education documented that taking separate information technology courses had no significant effect on prospective teachers' integration of technology in teaching or their technological skills.