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The PT3 program has awarded more than 400 grants across the country. Many grantees have focused on introducing electronic portfolios into their curriculum or providing faculty development. Others have incorporated technology through online courses, or have taken on statewide initiatives that pull together many university campuses. All Implementation grantees are working towards a common goal: to ensure that their graduates enter the classroom fully capable of using educational technology seamlessly and appropriately in order to enhance teaching and learning.
A number of grantees are taking a systematic approach to redesigning their teacher preparation programs to incorporate educational technology. Some provide stipends and other incentives to individual faculty or teams of faculty to take the time to upgrade a course. Others focus on integrating technology requirements into one element of their program-field-based internships, for example, or all elementary education courses. Many are driven by new state or NCATE standards; others by departmental leadership and support.
There are as many approaches to the redesign of courses as there are schools, campuses, courses and classes. The grants profiled here represent some of the different "schools of thought" in course redesign, and are well on their way to institutionalizing educational technology changes in their teacher preparation courses.
- Sonoma State University is "Building the Digital Bridge." After a Capacity Building grant, Catalyst grant, and Implementation grant, and working with a competitive application process, more than three-quarters of education faculty have received the training they needed to revise their courses in ways that meet state requirements for incorporating technology.
- Brigham Young University choose a design team approach to upgrade its courses. One secret to success has been allowing faculty to form teams along natural alliances. BYU ensures that all faculty development is always project-focused: faculty are learning skills that are relevant, and leave workshops with tangible products they can use in their courses.
- St. Bonaventure University integrates technology into its Professional Development School (PDS) model. Having eliminated its stand-alone technology course, producing and demonstrating educational technology lessons is now a tiered requirement for its students- and faculty - in the field. Realizing that local supervising teachers need help and incentives to mentor its preservice teachers, St. Bonaventure created the Student Teaching Technology Sites (STTS)-schools that receive special technology training and support in exchange for facilitating intern technology integration.
- Texas Women's University students carry a passport with them as they travel from class to class, assignment to assignment. It's all part of TWU's "LINKS" project focus: make technology a transparent tool, and provide authentic learning environments in which to use it. The LINKS Technology passport lists the required technology assignments that students must master in order to meet state and national standards. As students complete specific requirements, faculty or mentor teachers must sign the passport before the student can move on. It's just one creative way that this team is engaging students and faculty.
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