“In a side-by-side comparison, the Mac will usually win the favor of teachers because teachers value the kinds of transformative technologies the Mac affords students.”
Matthew Stuve, Assistant Professor of Educational Technology, Ball State University Teachers College
Ball State University Teachers College: Teacher Training Goes Mobile
Making Learning Meaningful
Many of Ball State’s teacher education courses have sparked unique uses of the Apple notebooks. For one study, Sandra Murray, a fifth grade teacher at Burris Laboratory School (located on Ball State’s campus), received an Apple MacBook Learning Lab for her classroom. While investigating the journey of Lewis and Clark, her students also explored the educational potential of the Apple notebooks.
“I think if students were allowed to use notebook computers full time, teachers would dramatically change the way they teach,” says Murray. “All you have to do is look at my students work with them! We could read out of textbooks and I could lecture about the expedition, but this way the students are learning so much more. Excerpts from journals, maps, videos — there’s no way I could have brought all of this together. My students will remember the Lewis and Clark project for a long time.”
Supporting Technology for Future Teachers
During the four-year teacher-training program, all students are required to produce a digital, web-based portfolio that represents their competencies in teaching and learning. The construction and assessment of these web-based portfolios are part of a programmatic integration of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for Teachers.
The size and structure of the MacBook ably support the physical rigors of university life, and ensures that students have a robust, reliable archive for their work, says Weaver. But if students do have problems, Ball State’s on-campus tech support group will be sure to find a quick solution.
“We’ve set up a desk on the first floor of the college that is a ‘first source’ of information for students needing help,” Weaver notes. “This desk is staffed by members of our computer services center, as well as graduate and undergraduate students who are very astute at using Apple technologies. We expect that a few of the computing services people will also go through Apple diagnostic training. This will enable us to provide the kind of direct support we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.”
Doing the Right Thing
Weaver is delighted to see his decade-long dream of pervasive learning come to fruition at Ball State. As he watches the teacher education students setting up conferences via iSight video conferencing cameras and iChat AV, and making compelling lesson-plan presentations using iMovie and Keynote, Weaver says the years of planning have been more than worthwhile.
“We feel that providing technology leaders for schools must be a priority for all teacher preparation institutions,” Weaver says. “We don’t look at technology as a separate tool that you train people to use; it’s now integrated into our curriculum in such a way that it’s a natural part of everything we do. With the Apple notebook requirement, we’ve made a vital commitment to our university and to our community leaders that we’re preparing our students to become great teachers. We’re convinced it’s the right thing to do.”
Adds Stuve, “Because I’m an educational technology professor, I want my students to be familiar with all of the leading computing platforms. But in a side-by-side comparison, the Mac will usually win the favor of teachers because teachers value the kinds of transformative technologies the Mac affords students.”
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