The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at the University of Minnesota was recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation Innovation Summit (December 13-14) for its public commitment to further the innovative use of technology to support the learning of pre-service teachers.

Cassie Scharber (Associate Professor of Learning Technologies), Susan Walker, and David Ernst represented CEHD at the event.

“America’s pre-service teachers must be prepared to use technology effectively in the classroom,” said Joseph South, Director of the Office of Educational Technology. “We are excited by the commitment of the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development to ensure their pre-service teachers have opportunities to actively use technology to support learning and teaching through creation, collaboration, and problem solving.”

The Summit brought together researchers, schools of education, support organizations and other stakeholders in the field to advance four goals for educational technology in teacher preparation programs outlined in the 2016 National Education Technology Plan. The Plan sets a vision for teacher preparation programs to move toward:

● Focusing on the active use of technology to support learning and teaching.

● Building sustainable, program-wide systems of professional learning for higher education instructors to strengthen their capacity to use technological tools to support learning and teaching.

● Ensuring pre-service teachers’ experiences with educational technology are program-deep and program-wide rather than one-off courses separate from their methods courses.

● Aligning the above efforts with research-supported standards, frameworks, and credentials recognized across the field.