Abstract

The stand-alone computer course is the earliest IT training model in teacher education. Designed in the early 1980s, the course responded to increasing demands from schools that teachers have adequate technology skills. The primary goal was to improve technology proficiency among preservice teachers. Research later determined that student teachers and recent graduates continued to have difficulty relating technology to instructional activities and lacked strategies to integrate computers in the curriculum. This result prompted severe criticism of the stand-alone computer course. Computers, it was argued, should not be taught in isolated technology courses but integrated into all education courses, especially methods courses, so that faculty could model the integration of computers in teaching content areas. Advocates of the integrated model assume that students today enter universities with adequate computer skills. With technologically savvy students, the reasoning goes, the stand-alone computer course is not necessary. So which is better for ensuring that preservice teachers learn how to use technology effectively in the classroom? The stand-alone computer course or technology training integrated into methods courses? The author believes the stand-alone computer course deserves a place in preservice teachers' IT training along with integrated methods courses, despite the drawbacks. The author offers several recommendations that can remedy or minimize the inherent problems of the stand-alone computer course. (Contains 8 endnotes.)

Citation

Wang, Y.M. (2006). Stand-Alone Computer Courses in Teachers' IT Training. Educause Quarterly, 29(3), 8-10. Retrieved August 7, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/103750/.

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Keywords

• computer literacy
• instructional design
• Instructional Effectiveness
• Methods Courses
• preservice teacher education
• teaching methods
• Technology Education
• technology integration
• Technology Uses in Education