Technology In Education (TIE) Project
The Learning Technology Center and its partners, Austin Independent School District, Leander Independent School District, Region XIII Educational Service Center and a number of local private schools received a Texas Education Agency Technology In Education (TIE) grant in Fall 1997 for the creation of teacher training materials on the integration of technology into instruction
The project’s goal was to develop instructional modules to teach the Educator Technology Competencies, which Dr. Paul Resta, in collaboration with AISD , helped develop in 1996. These are competencies that both inservice and preservice teachers need to effectively integrate technology into their lessons. The CD-ROM-based modules would accommodate different learning styles and levels of technical competence and contain video vignettes of experienced teachers integrating technologies such as word processing and multimedia into all areas of the curriculum at all grade levels.
In September 1998, a module on word processing was completed. The CD-ROM, A Classroom View, helps teachers integrate word processing tools into their instruction. It features over 100 video vignettes of real teachers in their classrooms teaching lessons which incorporate word processing into the curricula.
The lessons cover all grade levels and are grouped into four different stages of technology integration, from simply creating, editing and printing documents, to creating progressively complex documents, collaboration and multimedia, and finally, the design of new teaching approaches. The units of practice include templates and other information to allow teachers to implement the lessons in their own classrooms. These resources are on the disk in separate files ready for printing. The program also features an elegant and easy-to-use navigation console.
Many contributed their talents to the CD-ROM. Marta Fabris at AISD was the overall project director. LTC project staff supported the technical development and evaluation of the CD-ROM and included Terry Zimmerman, Yu-Ping Hsaio, Temi Rose, and Chris LaBonte. Dr. Resta served as the UT project director. Dr. Jenny Burson, who has used the CD-ROM with the College’s preservice teachers in her Computing Tools for Educators course, was also a key member of the design team.
The success of this innovative CD-ROM represents only one of the many benefits of the AISD-UT collaboration in technology and is built upon earlier joint efforts to develop core teacher technology competencies for both inservice and preservice teacher training. A Classroom View was distributed to all school districts and regional service centers in the state and received accolades from across the state and nation.