Established in 2000, Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal) is an open-access, peer-reviewed publication of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) and is co-sponsored by four other teacher education associations. It is an interactive electronic journal, capable of incorporating into its articles video, sound, animated images, and simulations, as well as ongoing dialog about issues that advance the field. Articles published in Current Issues are more conceptual and theoretical in nature — related either to general technology use or discipline-specific technology use. They may also address significant policy and practice issues. Articles may address any area of technology and teacher education. Articles regarding both preservice and in-service teacher education are welcome. A wide range of formats and approaches to scholarship are accepted, including qualitative research, quantitative studies, conceptual and theoretical pieces, case studies, and professional practice papers. Because the number of articles published in each section of CITE Journal is limited to one or two per quarter, editors are looking for well-written manuscripts describing truly innovative technology uses in teacher preparation.

News

The Globethics library contains articles of the Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education as of vol. 1(2000) to current.

Recent Submissions

  • “I love this insight, Mary Kate!”: Social annotation across two ELA methods classes

    Allred, Johnny; Hochstetler, Sarah; Goering, Christian (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-06)
    This paper foregrounds sociocultural learning theory and dialogic pedagogy to describe how instructors at two universities, one in the Midwest and one in the mid-South, used a web-based social annotation tool to spark conversations among ELA methods students that crossed geographic boundaries and invited all students to share their voices and respond thoughtfully and respectfully to others’ ideas. Outcomes of this exploratory exercise include: methods students’ inquiries into the potential for social annotation to expand learning beyond traditional classroom walls, instructors’ reflections on student interactions with peers in virtual spaces, and a call for educators to be intentional with the digital tools they choose to employ.
  • Facilitating Student Engagement in Higher Education Through Educational Technology: A Narrative Systematic Review in the Field of Education

    Bond, Melissa; Bedenlier, Svenja; Buntins, Katja; Kerres, Michael; Zawacki-Richter, Olaf (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-06)
    Developing, sustaining, and improving student engagement is of vital importance to higher education instructors. Educational technology has been linked to student engagement, and preservice and in-service teachers need to develop information communication and technology (ICT) skills and knowledge to apply them in the classroom as well as to develop ICT skills in students. Thus, further investigation of this link in the field of education is needed. This narrative systematic review is a synthesis of 42 peer-reviewed articles from across four international databases, published between 2007-2016 and is a subset of a larger systematic review. The results indicate that the majority of research has been undertaken within undergraduate preservice teacher education, predominantly in the US, Hong Kong, and the UK, with limited attention given to grounding research in theory. This review found educational technology supports student engagement, with behavioral and affective being the most prevalent dimensions. Social networking tools (SNT), knowledge organization and sharing tools, text-based tools, and website creation tools were the most effective at promoting engagement. However, caution is needed when employing SNT and assessment tools, as they were also more likely to lead to disengagement. Further research is needed on how educational technology affects disengagement, how tools are used in online teacher education programs, and how to effectively integrate SNT in education programs.
  • Casting New Light on Adolescent Literacies: Designing Digital Storytelling for Social Justice with Pre-Service Teachers in an English Language Arts Education Program

    Buckley-Marudas, Mary Frances; Martin, Marranda (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-06)
    This manuscript offers an inquiry into pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) experiences composing a digital story around the concept of adolescent literacy as part of an English Language Arts methods course built on critical literacy and critical inquiry traditions. Part of the assignment was to examine adolescent literacy “in these times,” paying attention to the literacy lives of current adolescents. This inquiry uses qualitative methods to gain insight into the ways digital storytelling about literacy might support PSTs to forge new connections with youth. The article shares three key findings about the role and value of including digital storytelling as a required part of an educator preparation program.
  • Preservice Teachers’ Design of Technology-Enhanced Statistical Tasks

    Casey, Stephanie; Hudson, Rick; Harrison, Taylor; Barker, Heather; Draper, Jordan (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-06)
    This study examined the characteristics of technology-enhanced statistical tasks written by 76 preservice mathematics teachers who used the ProjectX materials. In particular, it investigated the extent to which the tasks incorporated three key aspects related to best practices for teaching statistics: 1) analysis of large, multivariate, real datasets; 2) continual connection to context; and 3) engagement in the statistical investigation cycle. Regarding key aspect one, the results showed that the tasks involved analysis of large (usually between 30 and 200 cases) datasets with an average of 15 attributes provided per case. The vast majority of the datasets were also real, either from outside sources or collected by the students when the task would be implemented. Concerning key aspect two, most tasks called for students to connect their work to the context from which the data was generated numerous times including during their orientation to the task, their reading of graphs made to display the data, and their interpretation of their analysis. Engagement in multiple phases of the statistical investigation cycle (key aspect three) was asked for in the tasks as well. Hence, the ProjectX materials hold promise for supporting new teachers to plan meaningful technology-enhanced statistical tasks.
  • Electrifying: One Teacher’s Discursive and Instructional Changes through Engagement in E-textiles to Teach Science Content

    Tofel-Grehl, Colby; Jex, Eliza; Searle, Kristin; Ball, Douglas; Zhao, Xin; Burnell, Georgia (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-06)
    This paper shares findings from the first of its kind quasi-experimental mixed methods study exploring the potential impacts on teacher instruction through engagement with making and e-textiles. Because engagement in hands-on inquiry has demonstrated strong promise for increasing student interest and engagement in STEM careers (Gibson & Chase, 2002; Kong et al. 2014; Lazonder & Harmsen, 2016), finding curricular approaches that engage students in project-based learning remains important. As such, the Maker Movement and making has gained traction as a possible effort to improve such outcomes (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014). Our study shares outcomes from analyses of one teacher’s first engagement with teaching 8th grade science through e-textiles. Four of the classes he teaches were taught using his traditional science curriculum while four of the classes were taught with an equivalently designed e-textiles curriculum. Findings indicate that his instruction during e-textiles classes was different in terms of classroom discourse opportunities and engagement. Specifically, students taught in classes with e-textile were afforded more opportunities to engage their own questions with the teacher and engage on a more personal level with him.
  • Video Reflection Cycles: Providing the Tools Needed to Support Teacher Candidates Toward Understanding, Appreciating, and Enacting Critical Reflection

    Sydnor, Jackie; Daley, Sharon; Davis, Tammi (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-06)
    This qualitative research study examined how teacher candidates’ (TCs) participation in reflection cycles involving recording and viewing video of their teaching practice served to support their development as reflective practitioners. The reflection cycle included viewing and annotating one’s own teaching, receiving peer and instructor dialogic feedback, and synthesizing the feedback to identify strengths, evidence of student (dis)engagement and learning as well as areas for continued professional growth. Analysis of the TCs’ written reflections at the end of each reflection cycle underscored Larrivee’s (2008) assertion that reflection is a complex and interweaving developmental process that is not necessarily linear. The findings highlight the role of teacher educators in supporting TCs to become more critically reflective.
  • Integrating Media Literacy in Social Studies Teacher Education

    Manfra, Meghan; Holmes, Casey (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-03)
    Social studies teacher educators must confront the new realities of democratic citizenship education in an era dominated by misinformation and fake news. Using the Teacher Education Technology Competencies (TETCs) as a guide, the authors provide a five-part action plan for situating media literacy within social studies teacher education: connecting media literacy with the purposes of social studies education, exploring the history of fake news in United States history, tracing the history of the field of journalism and journalistic ethics, analyzing contemporary examples of fake news, and developing efficacy working with tools and heuristics for detecting fake news and misinformation. Research suggests that a comprehensive multifaceted approach to media literacy can help students develop civic online reasoning, navigate political bias, and participate in online civic activities. In order for preservice teachers to adopt media literacy as part of their teaching practice, social studies teacher educators must improve their own efficacy navigating social media, news media, and other sources of information, while integrating media literacy regularly into teacher education programs.
  • Fostering Preservice and In-service ELA Teachers’ Use of Digital Practices for Addressing Climate Change

    Beach, Richard; Boggs, George; Castek, Jill; Damico, James; Panos, Alexandra; Spellman, Renee; Wilson, Nance (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-03)
    This report presents research on PSTs and in-service teachers acquiring digital practices for addressing climate change related to knowing how to employ digital practices for studying visual representations of climate change and engaging students in critiquing online information about climate change. Study 1 examined PSTs understanding of climate change through participation in a visiting a laboratory involving scientific of ecological systems to interact with scientists, collect digital artifacts, and create a virtual field trip using these artifacts for instructional purposes. Study 2 involved PSTs and in-service teachers responding critically to the NASA Climate Change website, identifying digital literacies their 6th grade students would need to employ in responding to this website, and designing activities to foster critical response to the website, with some PSTs focusing on issues of bias and ideological assumptions, while other PSTs focused on comprehension strategy instruction. Study 3 examined PSTs critiques of the reliability of two web sources containing conflicting claims and evidence about climate change based on analysis of screenshot of each source, a digital literacy web-based tool for critical analysis of the sources, and whole group class discussion, finding PSTs assumed the need to consider both perspectives on the validity of climate change claims
  • Preservice Science Teachers’ Beliefs About Computational Thinking Following a Curricular Module Within an Elementary Science Methods Course

    McGinnis, J. Randy; Hestness, Emily; Mills, Kelly; Ketelhut, Diane; Cabrera, Lautaro; Jeong, Hannoori (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-03)
    The authors describe their study of a curricular module on computational thinking (CT) implemented within an elementary science methods course and reported insights on preservice science teachers’ (PSTs’) beliefs about CT integration. The research question was, “Following participation in a curricular module on CT, what is the nature of PSTs’ beliefs about CT integration in their elementary science classrooms?” The authors designed and implemented a three-class-session CT module within an undergraduate elementary science methods course. They observed and collected field notes on PSTs’ (N = 39) participation in the module, along with class artifacts. They examined the data to gain insight into PSTs’ perceptions of CT integration in elementary science education, its feasibility, and its value for their own teaching practice. They found that PSTs overwhelmingly supported the pedagogical innovation of integrating CT in their science teaching; they appreciated that CT modernized and made science education engaging for young learners; and, they generally believed that CT integration supported the implementation of what they understood as good science teaching practice. However, the PSTs believed they would face a variety of challenges in their efforts to integrate CT into their science teaching. Implications for CT teacher education are discussed.
  • Preparing English Teachers with Critical Media Literacy for the Digital Age

    Share, Jeff; Mamikonyan, Tatevik (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-03)
    This essay addresses the potential for English teachers to prepare their students for the literacy requirements of our digital age. We review the literature about media education and teacher preparation, focusing on the need for students to think critically about the information, technology, and media they interact with daily. Based on our experiences teaching a critical media literacy course in a university teacher education program, we designed a survey for former students to comment on their successes and struggles in bringing the ideas from the course to their K-12 students. Through this online survey, we questioned secondary English teachers and elementary teachers about the critical media literacy teaching they have been doing with their students. We also interviewed an exemplar secondary English teacher who regularly incorporates critical media literacy into her instruction. The data from the literature, surveys, and interview provide examples of the potential English teachers have to teach with and about media, and to analyze media critically.
  • Should We Ask Students to Tweet? Perceptions, Patterns, and Problems of Assigned Social Media Participation

    Krutka, Daniel G.; Damico, Nicole (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-03)
    Teacher educators have increasingly integrated social media into their education courses with aims including improving instruction and preparing students for a connected world. In this study, the authors sought to better understand the possibilities and challenges of scaffolding 60 pre- and in-service teachers across two universities into professional learning networks (PLNs) through a social media assignment. Participants analyzed educator practices, participated in, and envisioned future uses of teacher Twitter. Consistent with previous studies, education students were positive about the relational and relevant aspects of Twitter use. However, students’ participation did not mimic the participatory cultures of affinity spaces often reported by connected educators in the literature. Instead, participants tweeted around deadlines and quit using their accounts for professional education purposes once the class ended. In contrast to recent literature, this article argues that social media integration for education students should focus on relational and relevant engagements and content, as opposed to attempting to build social media augmented PLNs for unknown futures.
  • Why and How Secondary Mathematics Teachers Implement Virtual Manipulatives

    Reiten, Lindsay (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-03)
    Although teachers are expected to teach with technology, they often are not prepared or supported to do so (Albion, Tondeur, Forkosh-Baruch, & Peeraer, 2015), a critical issue in mathematics education (Wilson, 2008). The following study investigated why and how secondary mathematics teachers implemented virtual manipulative (VM) tasks during and after participating in a professional development (PD) opportunity aimed at teaching with VMs. Findings indicate that teachers used VM tasks due to instructional benefits, for example supporting students’ developing understanding and differentiation. Additionally, they used VMs and tasks due to the support they received from tools introduced during the PD. In this study, teachers primarily used VM tasks to support students’ developing understanding, provide in-the-moment feedback, and as a re-teaching tool. Mediating factors, such as student needs, curriculum, time, tool limitations and so forth influenced why and how teachers chose to use a particular technology tool.
  • The PICRAT Model for Technology Integration in Teacher Preparation

    Kimmons, Royce; Graham, Charles R.; West, Richard E. (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-03)
    Technology integration models are theoretical constructs that guide researchers, educators, and other stakeholders in conceptualizing the messy, complex, and unstructured phenomenon of technology integration. Building on critiques and theoretical work in this area, the authors report on their analysis of the needs, benefits, and limitations of technology integration models in teacher preparation and propose a new model: PICRAT. PIC (passive, interactive, creative) refers to the student’s relationship to a technology in a particular educational scenario. RAT (replacement, amplification, transformation) describes the impact of the technology on a teacher’s previous practice. PICRAT can be a useful model for teaching technology integration, because it (a) is clear, compatible, and fruitful, (b) emphasizes technology as a means to an end, (c) balances parsimony and comprehensiveness, and (d) focuses on students.
  • Editorial: Technology Won’t Save Us – A Call for Technoskepticism in Social Studies

    Krutka, Daniel G.; Heath, Marie K.; Mason, Lance E. (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-03)
    In schools and society, technology has often been viewed as a vehicle for social progress. However, the authors argue that technologies are not neutral and neither are the societies to which they are introduced. Social studies teacher educators should, therefore, prepare teachers and teacher candidates to inquire into technologies with an informed skepticism that can confront problems of democracy within and beyond schools. The editors of the journal call for theoretical and empirical scholarship and responses grounded in, or attending to, media ecology and critical theories so the field might consider impacts on schools, society, and democracy.
  • Microcredentialing of English Learner Teaching Skills: An Exploratory Study of Digital Badges as an Assessment Tool

    Purmensky, Kerry; Xiong, Ying; Nutta, Joyce; Mihai, Florin; Mendez, Leslie (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-03)
    Digital badges are a promising innovative tool to support teacher candidates’ instructional skill development. Although digital badges are increasingly utilized in online teaching and learning, their effectiveness is still under investigation. This exploratory study reports on 151 elementary level teacher candidates’ participation and success rate in a digital badge system named MELTS, which was specifically designed for cultivating, assessing, and recognizing 10 specific English learner teaching skills. To earn a digital badge, participants in the study were required to (a) pass online module assessments, (b) participate in coached skill practices, and (c) effectively demonstrate mastery of targeted teaching skills before an expert panel. Findings show that participants who completed the online modules and skills practices were successful in demonstrating the targeted teaching skills to receive MELTS badges. Although participants reported a positive experience in the skill practice sessions, the participation rate in the badging sessions was lower than expected. Implications and challenges are discussed.
  • Editorial: Developing Critical Media Literacy Skills in the Digital Age

    Mouza, Chrystalla (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2020-03)
    An important set of articles in this issue (CITE-English Education and CITE-Social Studies Education) address the need for students to “learn how to organize and process the vast amount of available information, think critically, and turn information into practical knowledge easily accessible for decision-making” by focusing on experiences that prepare preservice and in-service teachers to develop critical media literacy skills that help meet the demands and opportunities of the Information Age. Another set of articles, focuses on the skills required by educators to identify and utilize emerging technologies and frameworks to support teacher learning and ultimately student outcomes. These technologies include social media, badges, virtual manipulatives, and computational thinking tools.
  • Educate, Empower, Advocate: Amplifying Marginalized Voices in a Digital Society

    O'Byrne, W. Ian (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2019-02)
    The Internet and other communication technologies can provide a powerful toolfor social justice and civic action. These digital devices and social media haveshown enormous potential by activists to mobilize the public, document theiractivities and the injustices they witness, and spread information to a wideraudience. Individuals are often inspired to identify ways they can leverage digitaltechnologies to work toward positive social change. The challenge is that youth arewatching and learning from these events and texts as well. As youth utilize thesedigital, connected texts, educators need to know what makes their voices uniquelypowerful. Perhaps more importantly, English language arts (ELA) educators needto consider ways in which they can bring these skills, practices, and texts into theclassroom. This study examined how activists used digital, social technologies forthe purposes of amplifying marginalized voices and enacting social change.Furthermore, the study explored how acts of digital activism can be leveraged toinform ELA teachers as they support inquiry, empathy, and connection in theirclassrooms. The findings identify opportunities for teachers to educate, empower,and advocate for youth as digitally literate citizens.
  • Robotics Integration for Learning With Technology

    Yuan, Jiangmei; Kim, ChanMin; Hill, Rogers; Kim, Dongho (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2019-02)
    This qualitative study examined how preservice elementary teachers integrated robotics into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) lesson designs and why they designed their lessons in a particular way. Participants’ lesson designs were collected, and semistructured interviews were conducted. The authors analyzed lesson designs to examine how participants integrated robotics into their lesson designs and interviews to explore why they designed their lessons in a particular way. Our findings suggest that, in general, preservice elementary teachers designed lessons for student learning with technology. Only one lesson was for student learning from technology. The rest were for student learning with technology or applied a mixed approach that supported both student learning with and from technology. Preservice teachers’ lesson designs seemed to have been influenced by their pleasant struggles during robot design, collaboration experience, robotics integration knowledge, STEM content knowledge, and conception of STEM integration. Implications for teacher education are presented.
  • Preparing Elementary School Teachers to Teach Computing, Coding, and Computational Thinking

    Mason, Stacie L.; Rich, Peter J. (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2019-02)
    This literature review synthesized current research on preservice and in-service programs that improve K–6 teachers’ attitudes, self-efficacy, or knowledge to teach computing, coding, or computational thinking. A review of current computing training for elementary teachers revealed 21 studies: 12 involving preservice teachers and nine involving in-service teachers. The findings suggest that training that includes active participation can improve teachers’ computing self-efficacy, attitudes, and knowledge. Because most of these studies were fairly short-term and content-focused, research is especially needed about long-term outcomes; pedagogical knowledge and beliefs; and relationships among teacher training, contexts, and outcomes.
  • A Long Arc Bending Toward Equity: Tracing Almost 20 Years of ELA Teaching With Technology

    Rybakova, Katie; Rice, Mary; Moran, Clarice; Zucker, Lauren; McDermott, Maureen; McGrail, Ewa; Loomis, Stephanie; Piotrowski, Amy; Garcia, Merideth; R. Gerber, Hannah (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education, 2019-02)
    Almost 20 years ago, Pope and Golub (2000) published their seminal work on teaching with technology in English language arts (ELA) classrooms in Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education Journal (CITE Journal). The purpose of this systematic literature review was to learn how subsequent research about ELA teaching with technology has taken up (or not) Pope and Golub’s ideas in CITE Journal since their initial publication. In addition, the authors were concerned with how articles about teaching and technology use have incorporated thinking about issues of access and equity to digital and online literacies in relationship to Pope and Golub’s principles. Findings of the review are presented and implications are offered for supporting teachers and educational researchers as they enact and study ELA teaching with technology to promote socially just classrooms.

View more