MacBook Is the LIFE of
Preservice Teacher Training

Profiles in Success: University of Texas
at Austin College of Education

Austin, TX — Giving students a grade is one thing. Through careful observation and appropriate testing, faculty members can gauge their students’ progress fairly accurately. But when those students are themselves teachers — whose “classrooms” are out in the field — assessing their progress can be a challenge. Luckily for faculty and students in the College of Education (COE) at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, help with those assessments is just a mouse-click away. Since all of the preservice teachers are required to purchase a MacBook computer, faculty members can do remote observations using iChat AV. With technology tools such as these at their fingertips — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — COE students are preparing to manage the classrooms of the future.

In 2002, UT launched a required-purchase plan based on Apple notebooks for all preservice teachers (this later became known as the Laptop Initiative for Future Educators [LIFE]). As befits UT’s heritage of technology innovation, LIFE was one of the first such collegiate programs in the nation. Instructional Technology Professor Paul Resta — director of the university’s Learning Technology Center, which is engaged in national and international technology-based research, development, and leadership activities — has seen the LIFE program become the basis of learning in UT’s College of Education.

“Our Apple notebook initiative has become part of our culture,” Resta says. “The computers are no longer viewed as a novelty. Instead, the faculty has grown comfortable with the role that technology plays in the courses, and in the students’ field experiences. We’re moving to the place we were hoping to go to, in terms of infusing technology throughout our entire teacher preparation program.”

“We talked to other computer manufacturers and suppliers and Apple came up with the best package for us, so we went with their notebooks,” adds Dr. Lawrence Abraham, the COE’s department chair for curriculum and instruction. “Now it’s clear that we have lots of happy students who like the fact that they are empowered to do new and exciting things. With the MacBooks, our students have an environment where learning is continuous.”

MacBook Provides Access to Digital Realm

As a member of the Advisory Educational Council for the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills , Resta indicated the importance of providing COE’s preservice teachers with the information and technological proficiency necessary to create optimum learning environments for their students. “By coupling learning skills and technology together, we’re providing the core elements of 21st-century skills,” notes Resta. “With our required MacBook purchase program, our faculty and students can take advantage of the rapid changes that are taking place in technology in all sectors.”

To facilitate the acquisition and use of the Apple notebooks, UT has created a simplified purchasing plan. Also, the COE’s Laptop Help Desk has been recognized as an Apple Authorized Service Provider, with a “twist”: Tech-savvy students oversee many of the computer services and repairs themselves. “We have a student help desk, that is staffed by undergraduate student employees who are the best of the Mac experts we can find on campus,” explains Chad Fulton, coordinator of the LIFE program and overseer of the Laptop Help Desk. “These students live and breathe Mac technology, so they’re always finding new tricks they can show students to be more effective. This helps us provide really great peer-based support. Plus, the efficient process that Apple has set up has significantly reduced the turnaround time for repairs, and has helped us establish a good service relationship with the students.”

Next Page: Apple Notebooks Drive Technology Adoption