Towards Successful Integration of ICTs in Classrooms: Teacher Professional Development at the Burleigh Heads LDC-ICT.

Abstract

Among the five research priority areas for 2003-06 identified in the Research Strategy Learning in an Online World (MCEETYA, 2003a) was teacher development. Stories of successful teacher development supported by research forms the basis of this account meant to stimulate conversations about effective preservice teacher education and the continuing professional development (CPD) of teachers. This presentation, in building upon the assumption that there is a nexus between the professional development of teachers focused on improving teaching and learning using ICTs and student use of ICTs, portrays the metaphor of teacher professional development as an ICTs journey. A case study of the design and implementation of a preservice teacher education course called Learning with ICTs highlights an effective e-Portfolio approach whereby future teachers develop personal stories of learning. Subsequently, effective features of a continuing professional development model implemented at the Burleigh Heads Learning and Development Centre - ICT (LDC-ICT) are summarised. Finally, specific reference is made to Education Queensland's recently released Smart Classrooms initiatives (Department of Education and the Arts, 2005) as they relate to teacher professional development, including the ICT Continua, ICT Curriculum Integration Short Course, and the ICT Pedagogical Drivers' Licence.