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Newly minted teachers have consistentlycomplained that their teacher education pro-grams dont prepare them for the real world ofteaching. Courses in the history, philosophy,and psychology of education plus a few meth-ods courses culminating with a semester ormaybe a year of teaching under a mentor teacher this is essentially the standard teacher prepa-ration program. Then, they enter a classroom,and people wonder why theyre not preparedfor reality.

Reimagining how teacher education mightlook requires that we first imagine how learn-ing might look different and already doeslook different for some students in K-12. Imnot confident this is foremost in the minds ofthose thinking about how to provide a moreexperiential teacher preparation program.

Consider a few examples, some drawn fromreal schools and some from scenario planning.They depict the way that schools can adapt tothe different ways that children learn and wantto learn. Ask yourself if the teacher educationprograms you know are preparing teachers

who can create and provide this kind of instruc-tion for children.Ninth graders at Green Tech, which is part

of Eastside High School in Austin, Texas, a tra-ditionally low-performing school, complete 30minutes of silent reading twice a week and thenlog on to a web site to join a teacher-createdgroup thats essentially a Facebook for booklovers that includes a discussion board. Theteacher posts a discussion topic, and studentswrite about what theyve just read. On Friday,the teacher leads a face-to-face discussion in classwith students who are reading the same book.

After reading, these same students work to-gether in teams, writing and designing a chil-drens book. To do this, they have a choiceof either illustrating by hand or using ComicLife, which is a program that they have justlearned in another class on computer applica-tions (Handel and Heaps 2010). When thechildrens books are completed, the teacher

shares them with students at a nearby elemen-tary school. Green Tech is a school in the NewTech Network.

In a scenario depicting schools of the future,Christensen and Horn describe students learn-ing Mandarin Chinese grammar by using lap-tops and wearing noise-canceling headphones(www.edutopia.org/student-centric-education-technology). One student directs the work of abrick mason on his computer screen by havinghim assemble a sentence in the same way thathe would construct a wall block by block.Stacks of blocks with words on them are in thebackground of the screen; each is colored forits potential role in the sentence. The studentdirects the mason to pick blocks out of the ap-propriate stacks and put them in the correct or-der of a Mandarin sentence. When all the re-quired blocks have been assembled in theproper sequence, the Mandarin word replacesthe English on each block, and the student joinsthe brick mason in reading the sentence (whichis written phonetically in the Roman alphabet).Another student in the same classroom is learn-

ing the same material from the same softwareprogram by rote memorization listening toa native Mandarin speaker and then repeatingthe sentences, in a mode of learning familiar toher parents generation. Providing customizedand individualized learning is the outcome forthis school.

Quest to Learn School, a public school inNew York City, uses the video game as itsmodel for how to teach. Students use and de-sign video games as part of their classes. Forinstance, math students travel around theworld as a citizen of Creepytown an imag-

inary city where students learn math and Eng-lish. Students play travel agent, convert cur-rencies, keep blogs about their travel experi-ences, and budget trips. At one point in theschool year, Creepytown went broke becausean economic crisis is built into the game. Stu-dents had to figure out why Creepytownseconomy collapsed and how to bring in rev-enue to rebuild the economy. In response, stu-dents proposed designing a theme park as a wayto generate revenue.

Innovation

Teacher Education CantIgnore Technology

74 Kappan October 2010 kappanmagazine.org

MONICA MARTINEZ

Teacher

candidates must

learn differently if

theyre going to

create classrooms

that meet the needs

of a new generation

of learners.

MONICA MARTINEZ is president of New Tech Network,

Napa, Calif.

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Through Creepytown and other games,Katie Salen, a game designer who is executivedirector of Quest to Learn, believes studentslearn to adapt and improvise. More impor-tant, Salen believes that computer games pro- vide a complex dynamic system from whichstudents will develop systems thinking. Be-

cause of the complexity of problems, if yourenot able to look at them as a system, youre justgoing to look at a blur. You will just be over-whelmed by the complexity, Salen said.

We have to recognize that learning is mostoften taking place anywhere but in school.Being in a traditional school has become the

equivalent of a simulated experience from the20th or 19th century. In our current form ofschool, students are reduced to executing dis-creet tasks in isolation from other classes andpeers, and most often out of context of othercourses as well as their lives and experiences.But in the schools identified in this column,teachers are mentors and individual learningcoaches who enable students to become en-

gaged and motivated, partaking in interactivelearning with computers and other technologydevices across content areas.

Such schools and classrooms will not be-come widespread until incoming teachers andcurrent teachers learn technology skills and ap-plications along with new pedagogical methodsof incorporating that technology into class-rooms. They must have opportunities to havefieldwork in a teaching environment thats con-sistent with what they have learned in theirteacher preparation programs. For instance, theUniversity of Texas at Austin started UTeach in

1997 and certifies students to teach math, sci-ence, and computer science at the secondarylevel. UTEACH prepares teacher candidatesto use student-centered, rigorous, applied, andengaging pedagogy, but it also immediatelyimmerses students in the classroom throughinternships and fieldwork. UTEACH studentsdont wait for a single culminating experience,such as a practicum or student teaching. Theprogram works hard to place students inschools consistent with their preparation and

teaching methods. In the Austin area, and for-merly in the Denver metroplex, UTEACHstudents were automatically placed into a NewTech school for their long-term teaching ex-perience specifically so that they could prac-tice project-based teaching.

The most common immersion experience

is a clinical program or a teacher residency pro-gram, such as the Urban Residency Program.But many of these programs dont help candi-dates develop new pedagogical methods to in-corporate technology into the classroom.They may want to learn how to do this fromthe University of South Dakota, which trains

all secondary majors in project-based learningmethods. Funded by a Bush Grant, this workoccurs through a partnership with the Project-Based Learning High School in Sioux Falls,supported by the New Tech Network.

Increasingly, the onus is on teacher prepa-ration to reimagine how to most effectivelyprepare future teachers to teach students to besuccessful in the kinds of classroom described

here and how to create more classrooms thatcomprehend how todays young people learn,play, socialize, and participate in civic life.

Harvard University education professorChris Dede was talking about higher educa-tion faculty when he said this, but his com-ments are just as relevant to K-12 teachers: Ifyou were going to see a doctor and the doctorsaid, Ive been really busy since I got out ofmedical school, and so Im going to treat youwith the techniques I learned back then, youdbe rightly incensed. . . . Yet there are a lot offaculty who say with a straight face, I dont

need to change my teaching, as if nothing hasbeen learned about teaching since they hadbeen prepared to do it if theyve ever beenprepared to. K

REFERENCE

Handel, Stephen J., and Alan Heaps. Teachers Are the

Center of Education: Profiles of Eight Teachers. New

York: College Board and Phi Delta Kappa International,

2010.

Being in a traditional

school has becomethe equivalent of a

simulated experience

from the 20th or 19th

century.

kappanmagazine.org V92 N2 Kappan 75

In the digital age, the learning environment is turned on its head its no longer

just the dynamic of the student, the teacher and the curriculum. Today, kids learn

and interact with others even from around the world every time they go

online, or play a video game, or engage through a social networking site.

Connie Yowell, director of education, MacArthur Foundation (www.macfound.org)

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