How do Schools, Colleges, and/or Departments of Education (SCDEs) prepare teachers to meet the needs of students in rural, urban, and suburban areas through the use of online learning and teaching strategies?  What research is being conducted on accountability for online learning and teaching?  How might online learning and teaching be used to respond to the challenges posed by a changing political climate, the new school population, already diverse classrooms, racial and ethnic mismatch between teachers and students, and the education of non-English speaking students?  What is the role of Teacher Educators in bridging the digital divide and breaking down digital walls?

This presentation will reflect case studies of Teacher Educators, who have developed and implemented online pre-service and in-service courses in California, Connecticut, and other states.  Included will be a discussion on how Teacher Educators and their partners in PK-12 schools have begun to facilitate and assess online learning and teaching as a venue for increased accessibility to educational opportunity for all students and increased accountability for Teacher Education programs.

This roundtable discussion is designed to be a catalyst for a discussion of accountability issues for online teacher education in the areas of telecollaborations across societal divisions, accountability for online coursework, and the challenges of online learning and teaching in a changing political climate.  It will extend discussions first presented in a 1999 AACTE poster session, and further developed in both 2000 and 2001 AACTE Roundtable, on how the World Wide Web is used by SCDEs, and most particularly with regard to the implications of online teacher education coursework and programs on curriculum development and implementation.  It will also extend the research on the use of the Internet as a support in the teacher education process.

Telecollaborations across societal divisions Educators have often turned to Educational Technology to bridge geographic and cultural isolation.  These telecollaborations have included the use of audio, video, and Internet solutions.  For example, since KIDLINK’s start in 1990, over 175,000 kids from 147 countries on all continents have participated [http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/overview.html ].

Burniske and Monke (2000) in Breaking down the digital walls (SUNY Press) discuss learning to teach in a post-modem world.  They chronicle a history of the evolution of the Internet from email to websites in the mid-1990s and describe their students' international conversations, students in Iowa and in other states, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, and Romania on the nature of utopia, world literature, media assessment, and world events from elections to South Africa to the sale of USA TV network ABC to Disney.
Palloff & Pratt (1999, 2000) outline effective strategies for building learning communities in cyberspace.  These projects are designed to bridge cultural and geographic divisions and to be inclusive for all learners.

Accountability for Online Coursework

The US Department of Education [http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/] estimates that at least 1.6 million in all 50 states elementary and secondary students receive part of their instruction through distance education within the Star Schools program.  They also conclude that “distance learning is also emerging as an increasingly important component of higher education” with 2000 estimates also reaching 1.6 million students.

Accreditation agencies are beginning to explore strategies for evaluating online coursework and distance education programs.  Among these early attempts are the Distance Graduation Accrediting Association, the Distance Education and Training Council, and the US regional accrediting associations.  The New England Association of School and Colleges (NEASC) has examined its accreditation standards to determine their application for distance learning [http://www.neasc.org/cihe/disted2.htm].  A 1997 NEASC survey of New England institutions using distance learning expressed several concerns, including the need for quality control of the coursework and student achievement, cost and accessibility issues, faculty development and compensation, access to academic support, copyright issues, and pedagogical considerations.

The Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications, founded by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education in 1989, seems to be providing leadership in online accountability.  Their website at http://www.wiche.edu/telecom/Article1.htm links to two documents - the Statement of Commitment by the Regional Accrediting Commissions for the Evaluation of Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate Programs and to Best Practices for Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate Programs.  These documents were "developed by the eight regional accrediting commissions through its Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions. Both are currently being considered by each commission separately in keeping with their own policies and procedures. Questions or comments regarding these materials should be directed as  appropriate to one of the commissions, whose e-mail addresses can be found in a footnote in either document."

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education provides standards for the knowledge and use of technology within Teacher Education programs.  These standards include Content Studies for Initial Teacher Preparation, Professional and Pedagogical Studies, Professional Education Faculty Qualifications, Resources for Teaching and Scholarship, and Resources for Operating the Unit. They also recognize three other sets of technology standards for use in accredited institutions.  The standards of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) for the preparation of school computer literacy teachers and specialists, the standards of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) for the preparation of professionals to help teachers integrate technology into their work, and the standards of the International Technology Education Association/Council on Technology Teacher Education (ITEA/CTTE) for their work in preparing technology education teachers [http://www.ncate.org/accred/projects/tech/current.htm] .

[http://www.ncate.org/accred/projects/tech/caseintro.htm], the NCATE's Technology Use In Teacher Education websites,  provides "brief case illustrations demonstrate innovative technology use in teacher education programs."  As of February 15, 2002, these case studies included -

                     The Multimedia Academy: Technology Applications in a Professional
                     Development School
                     a joint partnership with Chula Vista Elementary School District and San
                     Diego State University

                     Aligning Technology Practices in the Schools and the University
                     efforts between the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia,
                     and local school divisions to support one another in technology
                     initiatives

                     State Policy: Texas’ School-Based Teacher Education Technology
                     Initiative
                     The Houston Consortium:University of Houston, Texas Southern
                     University, University of St. Thomas, and Houston Baptist University

                     Technology-Based Student Work: The Creation of "Billie’s Story"
                     an interdisciplinary course (at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College)
                     in molecular biology, science methods, and technology which produced a
                     CD-ROM about a fifth-grader with a genetic disorder

                     Technology as a Catalyst in the Reform of Teacher Education and Art
                     & Sciences
                     at the University of Hartford

                     A Day in the Life of a Current Teacher Education Student
                     at Valley City State University, North Dakota, where all the students are
                     required to use a notebook computer

                     Enhancing Teacher Education Through the Use of Interactive
                     Technology
                     using television-mediated observation of a P–12 laboratory school and
                     the teacher education program at the University of Northern Iowa

                     Transforming Learning: Technology Integration Across the Teacher
                     Education Curriculum
                     sequencing technology experiences across the teacher curriculum at
                     Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, to provide opportunities for
                     students to progress from being consumers to producers of
                     technology-based applications

                     Facilities Do Make a Difference: Wendell W. Wright Education
                     Building
                     at Indiana University

                     Applying Technology Practices in Schools and the University
                     technology fieldwork internships between rural schools and Boise State
                     University

                     Technology Training for Teacher Education Professors
                     at the University of Maryland, College Park

                     Performance-Based Technology Competencies for Teacher
                     Candidates
                     using technology modules in Western Illinois University’s teacher
                     education program

                     Studying Teaching Cases Nationwide via the Internet
                     at the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia

                     Changing the Way Teacher Education Students Learn
                     "Computers in the Classroom" at Arizona State University

                     Using Technology to Improve and Enhance Accreditation Visits
                     a visit to Eastern Michigan University’s web site

Challenges for Online Teacher Education

Accountability for online Teacher Education poses a major challenge for all teacher education programs. Other challenges include the competition for students across regional and state lines by accredited programs and the competition added by several entrepreneurial programs, which have been developed to provide online coursework and the promise of certification and/or graduate credit for prospective and veteran teachers.   Governmental and corporate institutions have also looked to online teacher education as a resolution to teaching shortages and have begun to develop their own programs for teacher recruitment and certification.
Resource allocations – time for faculty and course development, software and hardware, student and faculty preparation for online coursework - will also continue to be a challenge for online teacher educators.  Reliable energy resources may also prove problematic for online learning and teaching in some regions of the nation.
Intellectual property rights – whether the university, the faculty member, or a combination of both own and control online instruction – will also need to be resolved before faculty are comfortable teaching online.

C. Contribution
This roundtable will serve to continue an ongoing discussion on the use of the World Wide Web by Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education. Discussion at this roundtable will also include such topics as the participants’ own applications of online learning and teaching within their teacher education programs and within school-university partnership programs.  A forum on accountability for online teacher education and regional and national challenges should also result from this roundtable.  The presenters plan to expand this outline and notes from the roundtable into a website on online teacher education which will catalog the innovative uses of the World Wide Web by AACTE members to February 2002.

D. Conclusions
This study and roundtable will result in an overview of the state of accountability for online teacher education as of  February, 2002.  The resulting Web page for this study will catalog exemplary applications and suggest trends in accountability for the future. This study will also be submitted to ERIC and be expanded for submission to the Journal of Teacher Education and educational technology journals.

Section II: Outcomes and Methods

A. Learner/Participant Outcomes
During this roundtable, participants will compare applications and challenges within their online Teacher Education programs.  Participants will share their own experiences with the development and applications of online programs and suggest additional exemplary websites and practices in this area.  Other topics for discussion will include accreditation and accountability issues for teacher educators using online learning and teaching, models for implementing online pre-service and in-service teacher education coursework, and ways that technology-using teacher educators might more effectively network on this and other topics.

B. Methods
Paper copies of the study’s website, including links to many of the resources listed above, will be shared to initiate discussion on how participants have used Internet resources to develop telecollaborations, respond to calls for accountability, and to resolve challenges to online teaching and learning.  Names and e-mail addresses will be collected to initiate increased networking among colleagues interested in the potential of the WWW for enhancing accountability for online Teacher Education.
 

Bibliography

Burniske, R.W. and Monke, L.  (2000) Breaking down the digital walls:  Learning to teach in a
post-modem  world.  Albany, NY:  State University of New York Press.

Palloff, R.M. and Pratt, K. (2001)  Lessons from the cyberspace classroom:  The realities of online
teaching.  San Francisco, CA:  Jossey-Bass.