Developing TPACK in Higher Education Faculty: An eLearning Mentor Strategy
Abstract: This paper describes an initiative for teacher educators, where the goal was to build faculty knowledge about technology-enhanced teaching through a collaboration between teacher educators tasked with designing new courses and eLearning specialists/mentors tasked with supporting the technical needs of the design process. Data sources included an interview with eLearning specialists, individual interviews with teacher educators prior to and after implementing the newly-designed, technology-enhanced course. Preliminary findings indicated that the availability of eLearning specialists during the course design and initial implementation stages contributed to faculty capacity for teaching with technology in several ways: 1) building knowledge about how to teach with technology and design technology-enhanced learning activities, 2) promoting a comfort level with the tools during instruction, and 3) promoting adoption of change in some instructional practices.
Presider: Teresa Foulger, Arizona State University