Preparing Teachers to Teach Online: The Role of Faculties of Education

Abstract

Technology and teacher education has been an important topic both among Faculties of Education and in the research literature. This topic has focused on teaching computer skills and the integration of computers into the classroom. There has been little discussion, however, on preparing preservice and inservice teachers to teach in an online environment. This session will describe the role of universities in preparing online teachers and will discuss issues and implications within the context of current literature and experiences in developing and offering an online undergraduate course on developing and teaching lessons online. A 'e-survey' is being developed to examine the perceptions of preservice and inservice teachers towards online education and their feelings of preparedness to teach online. Demographic and computer-related variables will be examined as possible moderators of responses. Results of this survey will be presented at the conference.