Preservice english teachers acquiring literacy practices through technology tools

This study analyzes the uses of various technologies to enhance literacy practices within a multigenre writing project involving pre-service teachers and middle school students.Twenty-seven English pre-service teachers, simultaneously enrolled in a methods and a technology course, collaborated with middle school students using asynchronous Web discussion to develop hypermedia projects that fostered and promoted the use of technology as a tool.These tools mediated the uses of various literacy practices within the larger activity system of teacher education, whose object is to assist teachers to acquire those practices involved in working effectively with students.Qualitative data were collected through analyzing preservice teachers' development of Storyspace TM hypermedia projects, the use of asynchronous discussion with their middle school students, and participation on a WebCT TM bulletin-board discussion.The hypermedia productions with middle school students helped the preservice teachers learn how to model the literacy practices of making intertextual or hypertextual links.The Web-based communication with students helped preservice teachers develop relationships with students in the absence of face-to-face interaction.And, through participation in the WebCT TM bulletin board, preservice teachers employed different literacy practices ranging from the display of spontaneous thinking to engaging in word/role play. LITERACY PRACTICES AND TECHNOLOGY TOOLSA preservice teacher and a middle-school student are exchanging messages on a Web-based bulletin board about a biography project they are working on together on the topic of Princess Diana.The student posts the following message:Last night I went on the Internet and found alot of stuff like her will, and her divorce papers and some poems some people wrote about her.I also found some pictures of when she was younger. The preservice teacher responds:Last night I bought a couple of books about Princess Diana that were on sale at the bookstore.One contains a bunch of short little memories of her written by all sorts of people that knew her in her lifetime.I will also print at least 2 articles from the Internet that will be helpful (not too long) for us to think about what we want to write about.See you Wednesday.This on-line exchange was part of a project involving preservice English teachers working in a semesterlong practicum experience with a group of middle-school students, a project that involved extensive uses of technology.Their on-line exchange entails uses of literacy practices such as sharing information and planning activities, practices central to a co-inquiry writing project.This project represents the increasing use of technology as a tool for linking adults with students in schools, an approach that is highly relevant to teacher education.In many teacher education programs, in addition to their student teaching, preservice teachers are required to complete practicum experiences that involve minimal face-to-face interaction with students.