Faculty+Voices

//**Secondary/Middle Faculty:**//
"When I was revising the Curriculum and Instruction Course portion of EDU 221 Secondary Methods and Practicum Block from a 3 credit to a 4 credit course, the challenge was to integrate technology into my course design. Modeling the technology for pre-service teachers in the process of learning to teach is so critical and essential. Incorporating and using Blogs, Bloglines, del.icio.us, Portaportal, Wikis, and WebQuests brings another dimension to the learning process in the classroom. In order to continue to expand the integration of technology by using multi-media applications in the classroom, students need to be fully immersed and become proficient in using laptops as an instructional tool. Practicum Block students develop the confidence of using laptops for teaching and learning, which enhances their learning experiences as they complete their required secondary/middle education courses. And finally, this prepares them to use laptops with their students during their practicum and student teaching experiences and place all their artifacts of learning in an electronic portfolio." **//- Dr. Grace J. Ward//**

"Though the current lab setup in the Computing Center is very nice and a step above what other colleges and universities have, it's actually quite confining when I'm trying to teach future middle and secondary teachers how to integrate technology into their class. I know that I can't teach the skills for the technology in the classroom of the future because we don't know what that will look like. But it would be nice to at least be able to teach them the skills for the technology that is in today's classrooms. With the equipment that they currently have access to (either their personal equipment or the lab's), they are not able to experience what middle school students in Maine have. There is more to a one-to-one laptop program than the hardware and the software, it includes access to the tool anywhere and anytime. Seymour Papert compares using a computer to using a pencil. 'We don't send our students down the hall to a pencil lab, why would we send them to a computer lab?' Our Secondary/Middle Education students need to be able to research a question in the middle of a conversation in their dorm room or create a digital movie of a service learning experience while out in the field. With all Secondary/Middle Education students having a laptop meeting our requirements, they will learn skills in the Practicum technology integration course that they will utilize those skills in their formal and informal learning, thus creating a generation of future teachers who will model lifelong learning with technology tools." //**- Dr. Theresa Overall**//

"Field supervisors in public school practicum placements observe the need for UMF pre-service teachers to have access to one-to-one laptops. Practicum placements in laptop schools are in both middle schools and high schools. Mentor teachers are inquiring whether practicum students are techno-ready and can work with Mac's in the classroom as well as classroom management responsibilities. Practicum students are required to understand and set up LCD projectors and Smart Boards which are used for slide shows, PowerPoint, I-Movie, interactive media, etc. They also prepare lesson materials using the internet, both for research and tools used by students using laptops. The majority of practicum students have laptops that they regularly use in their public school placement to communicate by E-mail to their practicum supervisor. As the Practicum field supervisor for Secondary/Middle Education, the integration of technology with the practicum students is critical at this time. Having the laptops with them allows for students to Blog respond to practicum experience(s) in a timely fashion and receive immediate feedback from instructor and peers. Lesson plan templates, observation tools, and final assessments would go paperless. Students could create electrionic portfolios to include unit, lesson plans, webquest, multimedia projects that reflect their evidence of learning." **//- Beth Evans//**

"If the middle/secondary science education students were required to have a laptop, this would enable me to demonstrate a variety of research based teaching strategies. For example, there are numerous award winning website tutorials that are excellent in teaching the nature of science and addressing a variety of science misconceptions. In addition, students would be able to learn how to use dataloggers that collect data out in the field. They would then be able to download information into excel and analyze the data that they have gathered. If our students are required to have laptops this will enable me to build on the work that they have learned in their introduction to education course, and their sophomore practicum block courses. It would provide a seamless transition to help students begin to build an electronic portfolio and allow me to assess student progress more efficiently." **//- Dr. Grace Eason//**

"In EDU 460 Student Teaching, our technological requirements at this point are student choice. Having said that, our students frequently use WebQuests and PowerPoint in their presentations to students, but it's on an individual basis. That's not to say that I wouldn't love to learn more about how I COULD use technology? Blogs? E-portfolios? virtual seminars? //**- Dr. Anita Campbell**//

"Pre-service teachers in EDU 361 Secondary Mathematics Education compare and contrast the learning standards of the National Council of Teachers of Math (NCTM) and Maine Learning Results (MLR), both online. They also search for online resources that address the NCTM standards and the MLR. The pre-service teachers prepare and present PowerPoint presentations of their learning. They prepare math lessons that are taught to Mt. Blue Middle School 8th grade Algebra students who come to campus weekly and often these lessons are enhanced by the use of Website activities and/or spreadsheets. Some of the Problem Solving/Reflective Practice Lab assignments are enhanced by the use of web-based resources. Each pre-service teacher tutors a youngster in need and using a laptop as an aid in the tutoring sessions would be a great advantage." **//- Dr. Margaret Wyckoff//**