Preparing Teachers to Teach with Technology: Examining the Effectiveness of a Course in Educational Technology

ABSTRACT

The reasons elementary teachers choose not to use technology are many and varied. One commonly cited reason is that preservice programs are struggling to adequately prepare future teachers (e.g., Brown & Warschauer, 2006). This article describes the efforts of one department of education to integrate more technology instruction. Although some aspects of these attempts were more successful than others, the overall conclusion was that teaching about technology in a one-time course within a preservice program is not enough: Collaboration with tech-savvy cooperating teachers and increased technology use in methods courses are also essential. Student surveys and interviews supported this conclusion.