Integrating Technology into Teacher Candidates’ Field Experiences

AbstractThis paper reports on a “two-pronged” approach to restructuring teacher candidates'field experiences to support the integration of technology. It describes challenges in bringing about change to the entire field placement system, while also focusing on concentrated efforts to work with a subset of student teachers placed with technology-using cooperating teachers at designated partner school. Several ongoing initiatives are described that address systemic changes in the process. Included is information on efforts to create request options for teacher candidates, revise student handbooks, address the development of field supervisors, and provide alternative models for student’s field experiences. The article concludes with a discussion of outcomes obtained thus far and future directions that we envision for our program.