Contact: Monty Jones, (512) 499-4363

Date: May 5, 1999

UT System News Release

Teaching Education Technology - Online from the University of Texas System

AUSTIN -- Tech stress is what some call it -- the overwhelming feeling of failure as you stare at a blank computer screen, trying to ascertain the next step in using it as an effective communication tool. Imagine the feeling when you find yourself staring at a classroom full of students returning a similar glance. For teachers, administrators, and technology coordinators trying to integrate new technologies into the classroom, help is at hand.

The University of Texas System is offering an M.Ed. in Educational Technology to prepare this group of educators to make effective use of available technologies. The entire degree is being offered online via the UT TeleCampus, a support and service center for distance education.

Students will earn this collaborative master's degree from U.T. Brownsville, but will also receive courses from U.T. Austin and U.T. El Paso, even though students are not required to have any on-campus visits. All three universities have been extensively involved in distance education initiatives and student-centered approaches to learning for years, but never via a collaborative effort such as this one.

"Ten years ago, educational technology concerns involved using the overhead projector," says Dr. Mike Sullivan of U.T. Brownsville. "Ten years from now we may place students in the Holodeck to interview Socrates. But today, we have to master the tools available to ensure we are effectively getting the message across to the student."

U.T. Austin faculty member Dr. Paul Resta concurs. "In this program, the media is the message," he says. "Students will learn how technology can be applied to support the entire learning process." He says students will be taken through the thought process from visualizing programs, to actual design, implementation, needs assessment, and change processing. "They will use authentic tools, in an authentic context for authentic activities," Resta says.

Resta and his colleagues have created a virtual school district as a learning platform for students in the program. Actual data pulled from various school districts have been compiled to create the mythical one students will work with. As projects and course work progresses, they will move from the virtual classroom to the real thing.

The collaboration of universities strengthens the program in participants' eyes. "When you have a collaboration involving different constituents, different faculty and vastly different institutions," Resta says, "you provide for a richer, more diverse environment. The true strength of the program is that we are drawing on the strongest faculty at not just one, but at least three institutions to create a very powerful, innovative learning model."

Dr. Henry Ingle of U.T. El Paso adds, "This should give the students a level of understanding that most educators don't initially get when working to integrate technology into the instructional process.

"There is still a great divide between the 'information technology haves' and the 'have nots' and I think it is going to become more intense given the changing demographic profile of U. S. society," says Ingle. "There are issues that schools are going to have to come to grips with as the minority population becomes the majority. For this reason, we need to train educators to better understand how to work with new technologies that can reach out to under-served communities."

"Technology has evolved from being an item of curiosity and interest for educators, to one of being a requirement if schools truly are going to prepare kids for the information age," Ingle says.

The 36-hour degree plan offers a thesis or non-thesis track and allows for 12 hours of approved electives, so teachers may weave the technology into their specific area of expertise.

The program’s intensive case study approach to learning will address many of the current issues facing teaching and technology. "Teachers graduating with this M.Ed. will be able to write more effectively, create better lesson plans, identify the technologies they should be using -- and equally as important, the ones they shouldn't -- and they will become better at evaluating how their students learn," says Sullivan.

They'll also find the support services they need to be successful. Courses delivered via the TeleCampus are complemented by other online student services including admissions links to various campuses, extensive digital libraries, bookstores, financial aid resources and more.

Access to the TeleCampus is free and open to the public (excluding courses). Simply log on to www.telecampus.utsystem.edu. First time visitors will complete a brief registration form and select a password for easy access on future visits. Applications for the M.Ed. program are being taken now for fall 1999.

Dr. Mike Sullivan is the Interim Program Director for Educational Technology at the University of Texas at Brownsville. Dr. Paul Resta holds the Ruth Knight Millikan Centennial Professorship in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Henry Ingle is the Associate Vice President for Technology Planning and Distance Learning at the University of Texas at El Paso. Please call Jennifer Rees at 512-499-4409 to arrange local story interviews.