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Volume 1, Issue 4 ISSN
1528-5804
Print
Version
Bull, G., Sprague, D., & Bell, L. (2001).
Establishing a Technology and Teacher Education Digital Scholarship
Portal. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher
Education [Online Serial] , 1 (4) .
Available:
http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss4/editorials/article1.htm
Establishing a Technology and Teacher
Education Digital Scholarship Portal
GLEN BULL
University of Virginia
DEBRA
SPRAGUE
George Mason University
LYNN
BELL
University of Virginia
The National Technology Leadership Initiative
(NTLI) is a partnership undertaken by five teacher educator
associations representing core content areas and educational
technology. The goal of NTLI is to establish cross-disciplinary
connections among these disciplines. Partners include the
Association for the Education of Teachers in Science (AETS), the
Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), the National
Council of English Teachers Conference on English Education (CEE),
the National Council for the Social Studies College and University
Faculty Assembly (CUFA), and the Society for Information Technology
and Teacher Education (SITE). These organizations have convened two
National Technology Leadership Retreats (NTLR I and II) that
examined best practices and developed draft guidelines for use of
technology in teacher education in each content area.
The leadership retreats brought together the
presidents, executive directors, and other leaders of more than a
dozen national education associations to consider how future
teachers might be best prepared to appropriately integrate
technology into their teaching. As one consequence of this
collaboration, the Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher
Education ( CITE ) Journal was established as a
joint venture of the five teacher educator associations.
Establishment of a joint educational journal representing these
five academic areas is unprecedented and has no parallel in either
print or online publications.
Journal Background
In 1990 Jerry Willis and Dee Anna Willis founded
SITE to provide an academic home for those working to integrate
educational technology into teacher education. The Association for
Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), publisher of
educational technology journals ( Journal of Computers in
Mathematics and Science Teaching , Journal of Interactive
Learning Research , WebNet Journal (Online ), Journal
of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia , Journal of
Technology and Teacher Education , Information Technology in
Childhood Education Annual , Educational Technology
Review (Online), and the International Journal of
Educational Telecommunications ) now serves as the
administrative arm of SITE.
Jerry Willis served as the founding editor of a
journal established to support SITE, the Journal of Technology
and Teacher Education . When he assumed editorship of this
journal, he expressed the hope that 'all of us will look back on
the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education as a
publication that helped define the field of information technology
and teacher education.'
PT3 Journal Initiatives
The U.S. Department of Education Preparing
Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) initiative offered
the opportunity to establish an online journal, Contemporary
Issues in Technology and Teacher Education ( CITE
Journal ), an electronic counterpart to JTATE . As
its name, 'Contemporary Issues,' suggests, information of immediate
interest to readers can be made available in a more timely fashion
than is possible with print media. In addition, CITE Journal
provides an opportunity to include multimedia materials such as
sound, video, and animation, and incorporates a commentary function
to allow readers to respond to published articles.
Debra Sprague has agreed to serve as Jerry's
successor as the next editor of JTATE . Debra is an
associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at George
Mason University. Debra has been active in the U.S. Department of
Education Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology
(PT3) program, and is principal investigator of a PT3 grant at
George Mason University. Most importantly, she will bring many of
the same qualities of innovation and professional curiosity to the
editorship to of JTATE that have made it successful under
Jerry Willis's stewardship.
Her interests in use of scholarly publications and
research to foster dialog within the academic community parallel
similar interests within the editorial board of the CITE
Journal . Consequently, this editorial transition seemed an
appropriate time to rethink the relationship among all of SITE's
print and electronic publications.
Building Community and Synergistic
Relationships
Jerry Willis and Dee Anna Willis established SITE
to foster a sense of community among academicians who were
exploring the new task of preparing teachers to incorporate
emerging technologies into teaching practice. At first it was
possible for every single member to know and interact with every
other member. As the educational technology society has grown, some
of this early sense of community has been less feasible through
direct personal contact and interactions at conferences and
meetings. If any group should have the capacity to build a virtual
community that extends direct personal interactions it should be a
professional association of educational technologists.
We envision a web site that serves as a 'portal'
for all of SITE's print and electronic publications, as well as
discussion and scholarly dialog associated with them. The portal
would become an access point for digital scholarship related to
technology and teacher education. Figure 1 is a prototype of the
interface.
Figure 1. Prototype of digital scholarship
portal
This portal will include a link to an integrated
submissions process for both JTATE and CITE
Journal . This common online submission screen will include
a brief overview and explanation of the print and online journals
and their functions, with options to submit an article to either of
the two. A third option of 'unsure' or 'doesn't matter' will allow
authors to request that the article be submitted to the most
appropriate venue, to be determined by the editors. This implies a
coordinated editorial board, which should benefit both authors and
association members.
Also available from this portal will be access to
newly established interactive journal discussion groups. The
primary purpose of these discussion groups will be to help
re-establish a sense of community and allow every author to be
directly connected with and have input into the common community.
Debra Sprague has agreed to take the lead on establishment of these
discussion groups.
The discussion groups would also serve to encourage
scholarly dialog initiated in these publications. Currently,
readers of CITE Journal have the opportunity to
respond to an article by submitting a commentary that is published
as an article in its own right. These commentaries undergo the same
process of peer review as the original articles. However, taking
advantage of an electronic medium, commentaries and responses are
posted immediately after acceptance. This feature will ideally
generate discussion strands similar to this example from the
inaugural issue:
The base article by Tom
Carroll generated a response in the form of a commentary by Gerald
Bracey. Bracey's commentary, in turn, generated further
commentaries by Bransford, et al., and by Willis. As a matter of
editorial policy, we have established a high scholarly standard for
commentaries about articles, as well as the articles themselves. As
a next phase of the online journal, we envision less formal
asynchronous discussion groups that will permit ongoing
conversation and discussion that does not undergo scholarly peer
review. One important academic implication of this approach is that
a commentary would be included in annual reports and curriculum
vitae, just as any other peer-reviewed publication would be, while
contributions to ongoing discussion groups would not. Thus, a base
article on a given topic might give rise to formal refereed
commentaries responding to it, as well as less formal discussion
strands. Ideally, this dialog might ultimately lead to future
articles derived from discussion with colleagues.
An integrated approach to the print and online
journals suggests a common set of discussion groups equally
applicable to both. Experience with online discussion groups
suggests that achieving a critical mass and generating substantive
interactions can be difficult. For that reason, discussion groups
will initially be led by moderators who will have the task of
encouraging and facilitating dialogue. Moderators will ideally have
academic credentials related to the topic under discussion and will
be able to identify and contact others with expertise who may be
able to contribute and advance the discussion.
If the interactive discussion groups prove
successful, other features of a virtual scholarly community might
be added, such as the opportunity to interact with authors through
videoconferencing at this site. In addition, other publications and
scholarship, such as the published proceedings of the annual SITE
conference, will be made available through this portal. If the
portal is successful, it will begin to reestablish the sense of
scholarly community and academic connections that constituted the
original rationale for founding SITE and extend it in ways that
would not be possible without interactive communication
technologies.
The Technology and Teacher Education Digital
Scholarship Portal (DSP) also provides a mechanism for
publishing the ideas and best practices emerging from the numerous
PT3 initiatives. The appended diagram illustrates one way in which
the linkage between PT3 scholarly output and the Digital
Scholarship Portal might be established (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Diagram of proposed link between the digital
scholarship portal and the PT3 web site
Cross-Disciplinary Connections
To be effective, the core of teacher educators who
prepare future teachers must be included in educational technology
initiatives. Many of these individuals participate in the
professional conferences in their home academic disciplines (e.g.,
science education, mathematics education, English education, and
social studies education) but do not typically attend conferences
that have educational technology as a primary focus.
Collaboration associated with the National
Technology Leadership Initiative has led to the establishment of
educational technology committees in two of the four teacher
educator associations. The leaders of existing educational
technology committees of the other two associations have now begun
collaborating with their counterparts in other associations. In
addition, the annual meetings of all four associations representing
the core content areas have incorporated educational technology
strands. It will be important to build upon and extend the ties
among the teacher educator associations in these areas, as well as
other content areas.
We are considering several strategies for advancing
cross-disciplinary discussion about technology in teacher
preparation. One concept is a cross-publishing strategy, in which
authors publishing in their content area journals could refer to a
sister article published in CITE Journal or
JTATE . For instance, a bibliography of technology and
science education articles could be published in CITE
Journal , while a literature review based on this
bibliography could be submitted to a science education journal,
such as the Journal of Science Teacher Education .
We are also proposing a new initiative that will
build upon our cross-disciplinary efforts. NTLI is proposing to
sponsor an annual award to recognize an exemplary paper presented
in the technology strand at the annual meetings of AETS, AMTE, CEE,
and CUFA. If approved by the associations, recipients of the award
will receive a plaque, an invitation to give an invited
presentation at the SITE conference, a complimentary SITE
conference registration and $1,000 to partially defray travel
expenses, and a review of the exemplary paper for publication in
the CITE Journal , if the author desires. (The respective
professional societies for science, mathematics, English and social
studies education have sole responsibility for editorial review of
articles published in their discipline in CITE Journal.)
Summary
The success of the PT3 initiative and other
ventures designed to prepare teachers to appropriately incorporate
technology in their teaching will ultimately depend upon the
university faculty who prepare these teachers. One way of reaching
this audience is through their professional associations and the
associated conferences they regularly attend.
The National Technology Leadership Initiative has
brought together the leaders of the teacher educator associations
in the core content areas. Educational technology committees have
been established in each organization, and educational technology
strands have been incorporated into their annual conferences. The
organizations have jointly sponsored an online journal.
The Technology and Teacher Education Digital
Scholarship Portal (DSP) is the next step in this
cross-disciplinary collaboration. It will facilitate and encourage
dialog related to print and online publications, and provide
another mechanism for disseminating research and findings stemming
from the PT3 initiatives. The success of this venture will
ultimately depend not upon electronic webs, but upon social and
professional networks.
The technology, as always, should be a means to an
end rather than an end in itself.
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