The School of Education at Sonoma State University was awarded a $148,000 U.S. Department of Education grant for the project, Building the Digital Bridge. The goal of the project is to improve the education of teacher candidates at SSU by integrating technology into the teacher education course curriculum. Burke Cochran, School of Education faculty member, maintains that the goal of the project is to "infuse" technology into the teaching and learning experience of teacher candidates.
"We hope to generate a university-wide design of technology integration for all our education students and increase the technology skills of our faculty." The funding for Building the Digital Bridge is for one year to "develop capacity for change" that includes the development of faculty technology skills, integrating technology standards into Education courses, and the training of 105 K-12 teachers in Vallejo and Ukiah who will mentor teacher candidates. As part of the project, The Institute of Computer Technology has designed three web-based courses for the Vallejo and Ukiah teachers: The Internet for Educators, Integrating Technology into the K-12 Classroom, and Using Computers as Instructional and Student Learning Tools. These courses will help to build a corps of exemplary teachers who are mastering the use of technology for classroom teaching.
On the SSU campus, two classrooms are being transformed into "smart classrooms" that will allow Education students to develop the technology-rich curriculum they will use in their future K-12 classrooms. In partnership with Apple Computer, the SSU School of Education has developed a web-based resource of curriculum units and lessons named EUREKA! that can be utilized by other educators and accessed from anywhere in the world.
The SSU School of Education has submitted a new three-year grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Education for $1.3 million to complete the revision of teacher education courses and train 1,000 K-12 teachers in Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Mendocino, and Lake Counties who will mentor education students in their classrooms. This latest proposal, if funded, would allow the School of Education to complete the process of integrating technology throughout all teacher education programs.
For more information, contact Burke Cochran at SSU: (707) 664-2042.
