St. Joseph’s College: Smart Classrooms Build Tech Skills for Future Teachers
Keeping up with the technology that powers kids’ lives is a challenge.
In the classroom, it is no different. New technology tools are empowering schoolteachers
to present ideas and information in exciting new ways. To children, most of
these innovations are intuitive, but sometimes it takes a little longer for
the adults to catch up on the learning curve and begin using the tools for teaching.
So-called smart classrooms are only as smart as the people who use them. That’s
why St. Joseph’s College sought out, and won, grants that will allow them
to build an on-site smart classroom for pre-service teachers.
Founded in 1916, St. Joseph’s College has a long history of graduating
future teachers and administrators of New York’s children. The Long Island
campus serves about 3,000 students, one-third of whom are Child Study majors.
There is also a Brooklyn campus, home to the renowned Dillon Child Study Center
laboratory school for preschool and kindergarten children. Students in the Child
Study major work closely with children and make classroom presentations about
their observations and research. For now, they rely on a rolling technology
cart to back up their presentations. Next year, however, as part of the college-wide
implementation of smart classroom technology, there will be a dedicated smart
classroom for pre-service teachers. This classroom will contain the sorts of
technology tools the students are likely to encounter in their future K-12 classrooms.
The plan is for each smart classroom to support LCD projectors, VHS and DVD
players and recorders, a Polycom videoconferencing system, a satellite download
interface, and a teacher station equipped with a flat screen monitor, CD and
DVD burners, SmartBoard, and white boards that will replace the traditional
blackboards. College staff will train campus users on the various tools.
Says Clare Keh'e, associate director of institutional advancement, “We’ve
received a number of corporate, foundation, and alumni donations to fund the
smart classrooms, including grants from the Verizon Foundation and the George
I. Alden Trust which will support outfitting the classroom for pre-service teachers.”
She adds, “We’re planning to begin the process of renovating the first
of our 20-something classrooms in 2003. As we begin using them, we’ll fine-tune
the equipment lists based on our experiences implementing the technology in
the classroom.”
Reports from educational organizations such as the National Education Association
and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education point to a deficiency
in preparing future teachers to us technology in the classroom. The teach-the-teacher
classrooms at St. Joseph’s College will facilitate new approaches to introducing
and presenting concepts, using a range of multimedia and online tools. As a
result, students graduating from the St. Joseph’s program will be up to
date on the latest technology, with the skills and experience to handle everything
that’s available to their future charges in the public schools.
For more information, contact Amy Kerrigan at St. Joseph’s College: [email protected]
or (718) 636-6880.
