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About
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For
the past five years, the eEducation Group (formerly
SCR*TEC-TX) at Texas A&M University has provided
extensive professional development opportunities to
classroom teachers and technology leaders in Texas.
Over the past two years, materials development, infrastructure
development and leadership development have been additional
thrusts undertaken by eEducation across four technology
and K-12 outreach programs: the Technology Mentor Fellowship
Program (TMFP), the National Space Biomedical Research
Institute (NSBRI), the Partnership for Environmental
Education and Rural Health (PEER), and the Ocean Drilling
Distance Learning Program (OD-DLP).The
eEducation Development4 Model has evolved from five
years of research and evaluation results, and anecdotal
evidence gleaned from the implementation of technology-rich
eEducation programs at Texas A&M. |
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research and evaluation efforts of these externally
funded programs focuses on three areas: the effectiveness
of onsite and online professional development experiences
for teachers and school district or regional leaders;
field-tests of web-based instructional materials (which
include student performance measures and teacher reviews);
and ongoing statewide technology infrastructure and
use studies in Texas. This model builds on the premise
that the integration of four key development components:
leadership development, professional development, infrastructure
development, and materials development, adds to the
overall success, implementation, and penetration of
technology-rich programs. The eEducation group found
that when implementing several of these programs effectively,
the following considerations were key: (1) classroom
teachers must play a key role in the instructional materials
development process, from needs-sensing to classroom
field-tests; (2) professional development experiences
should be focused and should directly support the utilization
of the instructional materials in the classroom, therefore
yielding favorable penetration results; and (3) having
administrator by in and the infrastructure in place
to use the materials are critical. Certainly, situational
contexts, needs assessments and funding, will shape
the extent to which each component is addressed. |
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Personnel
Jon J. Denton, Ed.D., is a professor in Teaching, Learning
and Culture in the College of Education at Texas A&M University.
He currently serves as the P.I. or co-P.I. on six federal
grants/contracts involving the integration of technology into
classrooms. Dr. Denton has published over one hundred forty
publications and technical reports on different instructional
design strategies and their effect on student achievement.
Cost-effectiveness of these instructional strategies, technology
applications in classrooms and evaluation of teacher preparation
programs have been his primary research and academic interests.
Email Jon.
Trina
Davis - M.S. and Ph.D. candidate, currently serves as
project director on three projects operated by the eEducation
group in the College of Education at Texas A&M University.
Ms. Davis has designed and established the e-Empowerment
ZONE, a comprehensive, web-based, e-learning and professional
development center. Ms. Davis currently serves as the co-chair
of the state department of education, Educational Technology
Advisory Committee (ETAC). In addition, Ms. Davis is the
co-chair of the International Society for Technology in
Education (ISTE) 2002 Minority Leadership Symposium. Her
primary research and development interests are web-based
instruction, elearning environments, and statewide educational
technology proficiencies and use studies.
Email
Trina
Ben
Smith - M.Ed., is the project coordinator for the Technology
Mentor Fellowship Program (TMFP) at Texas A&M, and the
PT3 Chatauqua catalyst grant led by the University of Kansas.
In addition, Mr. Smith has assisted with the coordination
and logistics of Technology Intensives (professional development
experiences) and several workshops for individual school
districts since joining the eEducation staff in July 1999.
Prior to that he was an Instructional Technologist in Katy
ISD responsible for helping teachers and administrators
with integrating technology resources into the traditional
curriculum to enable a superior education for the students
of Katy ISD.
Email Ben.
Francis
Clark - Ed.D., is a Professor in Teaching, Learning
and Culture in the College of Education at Texas A&M
University. Dr. Clark is the Project Director for the operating
PT3 Implementation grant at Texas A&M University, a
role that has enabled him to gain invaluable experience
in implementing a student mentoring program for technology
integration with teacher education faculty. Also, Dr. Clark
served as interim head of Educational Curriculum and Instruction
(renamed Teaching, Learning and Culture) where he led efforts
to gain formal approval of redesigned teacher education
programs. His scholarly interests are associated with instructional
design, especially the learner-teacher, teacher-curriculum,
learner-instruction and teacher-instruction junctures.
Clayton Vader - In December 2001, Clayton received his MEd in Educational Technology from Texas A&M University. While completing his masters he taught technology to pre-service teachers and worked directly with distance learning media for two years. This past October he returned from a five month international internship with British Telecom in London, England. His responsibilities included developing an online training needs analysis and applying applications for distance learning. Other experience includes working for five years with an international agricultural company, Barn Tours Inc., as an educational specialist, which allowed him to develop educational displays, a training video, and educate the general public about agriculture all across the US. His future plans are to work at the post-secondary level and receive a PhD in Educational Technology.
Email Clayton.
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