Ellen Meier

Situating Technology Professional Development in Urban Schools

The Center for Technology and School Change (CTSC) is a research and development center specializing in professional development, evaluation and technology integration research. The goal of the qualitative research reported in this article was to identify factors that strengthen the integration of technology in classrooms in ways that are consistent with larger school improvement themes. The data collected from numerous sources, including the university facilitators and the 100 New York teacher participants with whom they worked in 2003–2004, were analyzed to determine patterns related to the design and delivery of technology professional development. Three concrete themes emerged: the need to understand and address specific teacher concerns in the process of designing technology-integrated curriculum; the value of demonstrating technologys role in assessing student understanding; and the significance of engaging content experts to help teachers address content and pedagogical issues in the technology integration process. These themes inform the larger theoretical framework that underpins the work of the Center.