Bethany Smith

This show featured Clif Mims, a professor at Memphis State University, and Bethany Smith,
an Instructional Technologist at North Carolina State University. Both
of them work with pre-service teachers to help them learn about how to
effectively use technology in the classroom.

We started off with our backgrounds, and what we were required to do
vis-a-vis technology in our pre-service. Then we looked at these
essential questions:

• Are pre-service teachers being well prepared for entering k12 classrooms today.?
• Are pre-service teachers bored in college lectures? Does this affect entry into the field?
• What are your recommendations for best preparing pre-service teachers?

Bethany felt that teachers needed to have a PLN through Ning, or
another service, to go to. Clif thought they needed to see examples of
teacher who are using technology successfully. Alice felt that with the
advent of more scripted/prescribed curriculum, teachers needed to see
what project-based learning looked like. It was a great discussion, and
the text chat log below includes comments from teachers who are taking
a class on education technology.