Students in the teacher education program use the resources in the E. Desmond Lee Technology & Learning Center to create and present their final projects.
(December 2001)

The goal of the PT3 project at the University of Missouri-St. Louis is to increase technology integration in the College of Education (COE) teacher preparation program. Professional development enables COE faculty to model the use of technology and constructivist pedagogy in instruction, reinforced and extended by field experiences for future teachers in technology-rich classrooms. Beginning with foundation courses and continuing through three levels of a new curriculum being implemented, cadres of approximately 8-10 university faculty (half of whom are full-time, and half of whom are adjunct or part-time) participate in a professional development process. In this process, faculty will make initial plans for integration of communications, presentation, and Internet technologies into their course instruction in consultation with project staff, with an emphasis on active learning or constructivist approaches. Through the course of two semesters, each cadre of faculty will share experiences and ideas, receive support in their implementation, learn skills as necessary in workshops and one-on-one sessions, and discuss implementation possibilities with experienced technology-using K12 teachers. In this way, higher education faculty will model the sort of technology integration future teachers will be expected to demonstrate in their work. Concurrently and subsequently, future teachers will have the opportunity to first observe and later teach in technology-rich classrooms at partner school districts which have significant low-income populations, and experienced technology-using teachers supported by a statewide agency.