The Computer Endorsement Cohort (CEC) is designed to prepare teachers at all grade levels to use the knowledge and skills of pedagogy and technology to enhance teaching and learning.
It is grounded on the premise that in order to change the way teachers teach, they must experience innovative ways to learn as part of their professional preparation. The program is highly personalized, heavily field-based, and intended to provide a supportive community through which pre-service teachers can become skillful in integrating technology to support learning and teaching. Students achieve a computer endorsement not by accumulating credits and grades, but by collecting evidence that they, indeed, can teach in the 23 ways described in CECs Program Expectations.
The Computer Endorsement Cohort (CEC) is designed to prepare teachers at all grade levels to use the knowledge and skills of pedagogy and technology to enhance teaching and learning. It is grounded on the premise that in order to change the way teachers’ teach, they must experience innovative ways to learn as part of their professional preparation. The program is highly personalized, heavily field-based, and intended to provide a supportive community through which pre-service teachers can become skillful in integrating technology to support learning and teaching. Students achieve a computer endorsement not by accumulating credits and grades, but by collecting evidence that they, indeed, can teach in the 23 ways described in CEC’s Program Expectations.
The program establishes a base understanding of educational technology, emphasizes integration of technology as a tool to strengthen curriculum and instruction, develops a critical attitude toward hyperbole and unwarranted use of technology for its own sake, establishes the importance of valuing equity in the use of educational technology in schools, and strives to promote a sense of fearlessness in learning and using new concepts and skills. By the program’s completion, endorsement holders will have established a clear program of professional development and will posses the intellectual as well as t these teachers will have the knowledge and skills to successfully complete Indiana’s two-year teacher induction program requirements.
The program centers on an ongoing Seminar of 15 students who represent all stages of preparation from beginners to student teachers. The Seminar is led by one professor who guides students’ personalized programs and functions as the advisor and supervisor of student’s fieldwork until they achieve their computer endorsement.
- GUIDING PRINCIPLES –
CEC, currently the State of Indiana’s only performance-based computer endorsement program, has established a list of 23 Program Expectations that each student satisfies through her apprenticeship. The Expectations are closely related to the real work of teachers. The student amasses evidence of her teaching in a portfolio; it is the portfolio that supports the case that she must make to the faculty, to her mentor teacher, and ultimately to a hiring principal or superintendent, that she is, indeed, ready to enter the profession.
Any CEC member can propose a change in the program’s operation. CEC will develop a process for considering these proposals and subsequently voting on them. Every member of the community has a vote in determining how the program will evolve to meet new challenges.
Students complete the program, not by accumulating course credits, but by demonstrating, through the 23 Program Expectations, what they can do in a teaching capacity. Each student organizes this accumulating body of evidence in a Portfolio that serves two critical functions: it presents a convincing case to CEC faculty that the person is ready to teach, and it conveys to prospective employers the student’s potential as a teacher.
CEC will foster a sense of community and continuity by placing students in a small, ongoing seminar, led by a faculty member. Through participation in this community students develop personal relations with their School of Education colleagues and experience a very different way to learn.
The CEC standards are encapsulated in a set of 23 performance standards, what we term Program Expectations that span the gamut of teaching. These Expectations are more than competencies; they are the habits of mind of good teachers. Because good teaching is inextricably bound to an individual’s personality, each student creates his own path to becoming a good teacher.
Working alongside a master is a time-honored way to learn. The modeling that occurs in apprenticeships is a powerful tool. The CEC program empowers its students to select their own teacher mentors. Mentor Teachers, in turn, freely choose whether they will work with CEC students. Such mutual respect engenders commitment. CEC’s Mentor Teachers are critical elements of the communities we seek to build; they are always welcomed members of their Apprentices’ Seminars.
Throughout his preparation, a student spends approximately one day each week in his Mentor Teacher’s school. Students essentially agree to serve as volunteer, part-time assistants whose responsibilities and latitude for action grow as their Mentor Teachers’ trust in their abilities and good judgment does.
– COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAM –
The heart of the program is an ongoing seminar of 15 students that is continuously led by the same faculty member. This group contains many different majors and both beginners and student teachers. Each semester, the Seminar’s work takes on a topical focus, for example ways of individualizing learning of what makes a school “good.” Under the umbrella of the Seminar, each student organizes and then carries out her individualized program of preparation. The Seminar can replace four of the School of Education’s standard professional education courses: W210, W220, W310, W410, as well as all fieldwork courses associated with them. Completion of any of these courses still counts as progress toward the completion of CEC’s program.
While the CEC is a highly personalized program, membership implies a sense of belongingness that is larger than any one member. At one level this involves the entire CEC network, including CEC students and participating mentor teachers in the K-12 schools, at another level this involves small groups and critical friends. Learning circles will consist of 3-4 CEC students who support each other as they move along their trajectory from student to teacher. More specifically, participating in a circle will involve the student sharing his or her ideas, beliefs, and practices with respect to integrating technology in the classroom, and offering support and guidance to the other members in the circle. Learning circles will work collaboratively on readings, presentations, expectations, and other assignments, sharing what they find back with the CEC community more broadly.
Each CEC student spends one day a week in a school of his choice, working with a teacher whom he respects highly and who has consented to become the student’s mentor; the student becomes, in a sense, the teacher’s apprentice throughout his professional preparation. The relationship continues through student teaching. Over time, apprentices often become trusted and valued, albeit part-time, members of the staff. As trust grows, so does the level of responsibility that students can exercise as teachers in their schools.
Currently the State of Indiana’s only performance-based computer endorsement program, CEC has established a list of 23 Program Expectations that each student satisfies through her apprenticeship. The Expectations are closely related to the real work of teachers. The student amasses evidence of her teaching in a portfolio; it is the portfolio that supports the case that she must make to the faculty, to her mentor teacher, and ultimately to a hiring principal or superintendent, that she is, indeed, ready to enter the profession.
Evidence for completing a program Expectation includes compiled artifacts (lesson plans, teaching materials, video and audio tapes, Websites, student work), statements from others about their teaching (student evaluations, testimonials, recommendations from mentor teachers), and personal statements about various aspects of teaching (university papers, journal reflections, outside articles gathered). The quality of evidence is rated in terms of the: source of information (actual curricular materials or videotape of lesson versus reflective essay on the lesson), context of evidence (experience in actual K-12 classroom setting versus on-campus assignment for a class), quality of experience (made an important learning contribution or supported misunderstandings), and nature of reflection (reflecting on how experience relates to professional growth or simply a recap of what occurred).
The set of Program Expectations were created by the computer endorsement faculty to represent current thinking and practice. The faculty decided on a subset of ISTE standards that seemed relevant to this program, and incorporated them into the expectations as shown. The framework that follows is also informed by a parallel set of expectations created by the Community of Teachers cohort program, and follows the national INTASC standards as well. In addition to building the portfolio of 23 Program Expectations, each student will also be required to build a professional portfolio.
About Sasha A. Barab PhD
Sasha Barab is a Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University, where he co-founded and serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Games and Impact.
Dr. Barab is an internationally recognized Learning Scientist who holds the Pinnacle West Chair of Education, and who has researched, designed, and published extensively on the challenges and opportunities of using games for impact.