COMMUNITIES
OF DESIGNERS
The PT3 project intends to institutionalize an innovative approach to preparing tomorrow's teachers to use technology at Michigan State University. Our approach strives to develop a Design Community -- an environment where pre-service teachers, current and future teacher educators, in-service teachers, educational technology experts, and content area experts work together to explore the affordances and constraints of modern technologies for supporting powerful teaching. The strength of this approach is that it directly addresses two major hurdles that confront programs that seek to help teachers use technology. We see these hurdles as being that of (a) scalability i.e. developing an approach that can grow to reach large numbers of teachers; and (b) developing generative technological proficiency i.e. going beyond simple procedural skills in using hardware and software towards developing flexible and content driven creative and flexible uses of technology. Our vision of the design community consists of three interrelated components: project-based design teams; distributed on-demand resources and support; and technology-rich teacher enculturation process.
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