Technology Grant to Give Boost to CLU’s Teachers in Training

Cal Lutheran University will receive more than $1 million as part of a national effort on improving teacher training to help educators learn how to effectively use technology in their classrooms.

Cal Lutheran students will be among the 400,000 nationwide expected to benefit from the $135 million in grants awarded this week by the U.S. Department of Education.

“I’m still riding on cloud nine,” said Carol Bartell, dean of Cal Lutheran’s School of Education,

The funding, which will be doled out during the next three years, will give Cal Lutheran’s teachers in training access to three county magnet schools that have already incorporated technology into their instruction.

Administrators are working out details on how the Magnetic Connections program will work. Future teachers, those less than a year away from earning their credentials, will learn from instructors in Port Hueneme, Moorpark and Simi Valley about how to use technology as a learning tool.

“We have to teach teachers how to use technology wisely, not just use it to use it,” Bartell said.

Cal Lutheran students will observe lessons being delivered over the Internet, spend time in classrooms during multimedia instruction and talk to teachers on how they use technological advances to bolster learning.

In recent years, teachers in training at Cal Lutheran have briefly visited Charles S. Blackstock School in Port Hueneme, a school nationally recognized for its use of computers. But now they will have the opportunity to spend more time in the classroom and with teachers, learning the ins and outs of what is available with a wired learning environment.

Armed with such knowledge, future teachers will be able to go into a new school and ask for the hardware and software to enhance their lesson plans.

At Walnut Canyon School in Moorpark, where every classroom has three computers, Cal Lutheran education students will be able to peek in on classes from their desks in Thousand Oaks using the Internet.

“The connections will be made between theory and practice of what [technology] looks like in the classroom,” said Teri Williams, principal at Walnut Canyon.

The Cal Lutheran program will also work with Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley.

Along with increased interaction with schools, the grant money will allow teachers to set up an online portfolio of their work. These portfolios will log progress and accomplishments as students move through the teacher-training program. Other students and potential employers will also use it.

Showing new teachers how to incorporate ephemeral technological advances is among the most challenging lessons education professors face today, said Paul Gathercoal, director of the educational technology master’s degree program at Cal Lutheran.

“Technology is probably one of the most dynamic areas in education today. We are not using it the best we can. That’s often due to not knowing how to use it well,” Gathercoal said. “With this grant, we’re going to prepare everyone . . . to use technology well and wisely. That doesn’t mean we are going to use it all the time.”

Cal Lutheran and the three local schools are just a handful of the 1,350 schools, nonprofit organizations and high-tech companies nationwide working under the federal program to help train teachers to be comfortable with computers.

The grants, awarded as part of a program called the Administrator’s Education Technology Initiative, has four goals: increasing the number of computers in classrooms, encouraging development of high-quality educational software, training teachers to use technology effectively, and connecting every U.S. classroom to the Internet by 2000.

Research shows classroom technology has a minimal impact on student achievement unless teachers are technologically proficient, according to a statement from Vice President Al Gore’s office.

“We’re making real progress in connecting our children to the future with computers and Internet access,” Gore said in the statement. “Now we’re acting to ensure that new teachers entering the work force are ready to use these powerful Information Age tools for teaching and learning.”