Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1. Number and percent correct of selected survey questions asked of freshmen
education majors, September 2001
Question Description
Total Number
Correct
Percent Correct
RAM
94
38
40.40%
Word Processing
94
89
92.71%
QWERTY Keyboard
94
32
34.00%
FTP
94
10
10.42%
Search Engines
94
51
53.10%
Apple Mouse
94
61
63.50%
Email
94
89
92.71%
increasingly global society” (Black, 1995, p. 14 from Boston, Chan, & Mukai, 1991). The
Leading Teacher Program goes beyond mere literacy issues. It helps to provide a nurturing
environment that allows preservice teachers to grow into the leaders of tomorrow.
The Leading Teacher Program at Duquesne University was created to provide general
counsel to assist preservice teachers in achieving success as educational leaders using
problem-solving and critical-thinking skills and specific counsel as instructional technology
leaders. The skills are not only to be literate in their field of education but also to infuse
technology into their practice so that a rich, meaningful, and lifelong learning experience is
shared by faculty and students. This process begins in the freshman year of college. The
newly matriculated freshmen are enrolled in Instructional Technology I and II. These courses
provide a solid foundation in information literacy and instructional technology theory and
practices. The students and faculty use a variety of computer labs in the School of Education,
in the library, in the living-learning centers, and in other open labs on campus. The students
and faculty are able to learn and to work in a comfortable environment. Johnson (1993) found
that providing a comfortable environment and many opportunities to use the technology also
increased the likelihood that the technology would be used.
Duquesne University's Leading Teacher program provides experiences for faculty and
students to be engaged in the process of constructing knowledge (Leading Teacher Program
Handbook, 2001, p. 5). Further, “success of society's quest for higher standards of learning
is likely to be dependent on…teacher learning” (Leading Teacher Program Handbook, 2001,
p. 5, from Darling-Hammonds, 1996). Program and practice are based on the three themes of
leadership, diversity, and technology (Leading Teacher Program Handbook, 2001, p. 7). The
program also addresses the five domains that define a leading teacher. A leading teacher must
be a learning theorist, a curriculum designer, an expert in school context, a master practitioner,
and an instructional leader. Students matriculating from this program experience 4 years of
leadership growth to enhance and expand the problem-solving and critical-thinking skills of
their own K-12 students. The operative idea is that the preservice teachers construct their
experiences in the problem-solving arena, using critical-thinking skills to guide them to
proficiently use technology tools to assist in the gathering, assimilation, accommodation,
and presentation of information. The expectation is set for the students to model these higher-
